08-02-17 Community Relations - Laserfiche WebLink

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announcement, If you are a property owner in South Bend and have received a notice stating your property will be sent to tax-sale,there may be help available to save your home. If your tax statement has special assessments related to penalties from Code Enforcement, you may be able to have those penalties dismissed. Please call the Community Forum for Economic Justice at 574-222-4966 to get help. She continued, When it comes to revitalization on the west side,we must demand development without displacement. A common refrain across the country is `Reclaim, Remain, Rebuild.' We must reclaim our tax dollars. We have to ask how the City is currently spending our tax dollars on housing. The City recently gave $5 million to a single developer for luxury apartments in Downtown South Bend. Those apartments start at one thousand and two hundred dollars ($1,200) a month. Most people in South Bend could never afford to live in these homes but our tax dollars are spent to support this high-end development. We understand there may be a need for market-rate housing but there is also a need for rehabilitation. We have to honestly ask ourselves if we are using our tax dollars most effectively. We next need to be sure we remain in these existing neighborhoods by providing residents help to rehabilitate their homes. We lastly need to rebuild. We do this by employing minority contractors and providing job training to residents to rebuild our own community. We want the City to use our tax dollars,to pay our people, to build our homes in our neighborhoods. There are various issues related to neighborhood development and we will have a few members of the community speaking to these issues. Stacy Odom, 212 S. Iowa Street, stated, I have had a few experiences with Code Enforcement. The first is when I was growing up and we had a neighbor that kept calling Code Enforcement on us claiming we were fixing other people's cars in our driveway. Because the neighbor complained so much, Code Enforcement called the mortgage company and they foreclosed on the home. There were ten (10) years left of payments left and my parents paid it off one (1) and a half years. Code Enforcement is not a joke. My second experience was when I bought a house that was on the demolition list. I didn't know what that was and when I went to Code Enforcement they gave me a list of things I needed to do to the house. I did what they told to me to do and a month later I got a call saying it was still on the demolition list, and I thought it was on the repair list. I called Code Enforcement and they told me I had to notify them about the repairs I was making. I talked with Randy, the Director of Code Enforcement, and things are straightened out. There are still things needed to be done on the house but my advice to you is to go right to Code Enforcement. You really have to establish a relationship with them. Jasmine Brown, 230 Sadie Street, stated, I live in one (1) of the most blighted areas in the City. I live in my grandmother's home. My home is very old, it is over one hundred(100) years old but to me, it is very important and it is part of my tradition. I feel it is very important to pass on tradition not only for me, but for my children. I am very heavy on youth advocacy. My house needed a roof and garage, and I saved and put a roof on myself. We aren't asking for anything for free, we are simply asking for what has been due for several years. I should not have to be asking for what my parents and grandparents were asking for. It should already be done. I used to live over by Notre Dame and I was displaced with the new development there. Luckily I had my grandparent's home to move to. This is a program that will help rehabilitate all of South Bend, not just some of it. There is a lot of rich African-American history that we need to keep. 4