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REGULAR MEETING February 25, 2019
<br /> the trick is keeping your repair cost as low as you can. At the end of that meeting he laughed, and
<br /> I shook his hand, not knowing what was going to happen. I felt so disheartened because, for the
<br /> first (1st) time, I understood why all these properties were staying at this level of disrepair. The
<br /> only metaphor I can think of is the way a bad coal company might look at a coal mine or a mountain
<br /> full of coal. It is just resources to extract by someone, in this case, that didn't live there. There is
<br /> no sense of partnership. You know, there is a medical term for an organism that only withdraws
<br /> energy and resources from its host and doesn't return anything back. It's a parasite. In this
<br /> particular case,it was that kind of relationship. So, I really think this ordinance will help put some
<br /> teeth into the existing laws that I'm glad we do have and are stepping forward on. A final word
<br /> about just the spirit of the neighborhood, this is beyond politics and this is not what the laws are
<br /> intended to address. These particular landlords,there is no concern for the actual neighbors or even
<br /> the condition of the actual properties. I think this ordinance will help with that. We want good
<br /> landlords. We want a blend of landlords and home owners and, this ordinance, I believe, will be a
<br /> good step in the right direction. I thank you for voting in support of this ordinance.
<br /> Linda Wolfson, 809 Park Avenue, South Bend, IN, stated, I'm speaking as a representative of the
<br /> Community Forum for Economic Justice. The Community Forum supporting Bill No. 03-19 that
<br /> established the Rental Safety Verification Program. The need for safety and affordable housing is
<br /> a central concern of our organization. All residents of South Bend, home owners, tenants or
<br /> homeless deserve to live in safe and healthy conditions. Rental housing will always be needed for
<br /> residents who are not financially able or who do not choose to own a house. One (1) of the
<br /> responsibilities of local government is to oversee issues of health and safety. This bill is an attempt
<br /> to do so. We support this effort with the expectation that it will be implemented fairly and
<br /> monitored consistently to evaluate its success.
<br /> Jason Banicki, 3822 Ford Street, South Bend, IN, stated, I'm not going to hammer home a lot of
<br /> the points made earlier. I'm apt to say don't let the pursuit of perfection be the enemy of progress.
<br /> I think this bill is significant progress to, specifically, addressing some key issues and that is one
<br /> (1) of the things I like about it. It is very specific. It is very measurable, and we can see if it is
<br /> doing what it is intended to do, or not, rather easily. I know one (1) of the things that we heard in
<br /> the Committee today is that this could disincentivize future investment in our neighborhoods. I
<br /> would say with a forty percent (40%) rental rate already, and hearing that other cities didn't
<br /> experience increased vacancies, it might be a good thing if we disincentivize some rental property
<br /> ownership and incentivize affordable home ownership to bring more stability to our
<br /> neighborhoods. So, if that is an unintended consequence of this, I think that would be an added
<br /> bonus. Thank you.
<br /> Angie Kline, 701 West Sample Street, South Bend, IN, stated, I am a Sergeant for the South Bend
<br /> Police Department. I want to paint a picture of what is going on in some of these houses. I've been
<br /> a police officer for twenty (20) years. I've been in a lot of houses. We've dealt with a lot of
<br /> situations and, usually, depending upon what the situation is, we find out whether they rent, or
<br /> they own,so,that is how we are in people's houses. I want to paint a picture of some of the common
<br /> things that renters are dealing with that their landlords aren't taking care of. Overcrowding of
<br /> houses. You'll get a renter and they will rent rooms out to ten (10) other people. I went in a house
<br /> one (1) night, there were ten (10) people living in, probably, a nine hundred (900) square foot
<br /> house. They rent space. And this was the renter,not the actual owner of the property. He probably
<br /> didn't know that was going on. Secondly, this winter has just been brutal. The past couple of
<br /> winters have been brutal. What I see a lot of are people with no furnaces or lack of heat because
<br /> the appliance is so old. They are opening their ovens to heat their house. You can just feel it is just
<br /> cold. There are kids in this house and that is their only means of staying warm is to open that oven.
<br /> Also, overloading of circuits for space heaters because there is no furnace. Lack of plumbing. I've
<br /> been to several houses where there is no running water. Or, maybe there is running water in the
<br /> kitchen but there is none in the bathroom because of lack of attention to that. I've also been in
<br /> houses where they are using the bathtub as a toilet and it is overflowing with human excrement.
<br /> Boarded up windows. People are living in rental properties with boarded up windows that have
<br /> been like that for, obviously, years because the boarding is starting to rot away. There are a lot
<br /> renters that have over the limit of pets. We would go into a house for an wanted person, the person
<br /> isn't on the lease and you've got ten (10) dogs running around. What happens when they move?
<br /> Now, we have ten (10) more homeless pets. Another example of a rental property I went to one
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