02-25-19 Health and Public Safety

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•CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK my properties and my good clients are investors. One (1) investor bought fifty (50) homes from me and another bought sixteen (16). I go in and look at them when they're all finished, and they do a beautiful job. Guess what? These good investors are not investing in South Bend anymore due to the whole bunch of things they've been hit with that are time consuming like paying the tenants water bills and keeping it in their name. If they let the tenants pay them and two (2) are late in the year, every one (1) of their properties gets slapped with a one hundred dollar ($100) fine. That is just one(1)of the things that have made a lot of them upset. So,they are not investing in South Bend anymore. So, if they are moving out and selling out to homeowners, they pay one percent (1%), but remember, they can get the homestead exemption and the mortgage exemption, so, I'm concerned about the taxes coming into the community for all the things that we need. That money is going to drastically go down. I heard somebody listed several millions of dollars of properties for sale because they are done. That is a real concern to me. I want good investors to stay in South Bend and we might be left with only the bad ones. My other concern, as a Human Rights Commissioner, HUD will sue cities that pass laws that hurt poor people. Where are these people going to go when they're forced out of homes because it's not livable anymore? The only reason they are in homes like that is they got rejected by other landlords because of their bad credit or former problems. So, we are looking for people to pay their rent and keep up their property and I'm hoping we don't lose anymore of the good investors. Jasmine Brown, 230 Sadie Street, stated, Good afternoon, Council. I just have a few things to say. I support the changes that were made. I think those will be big improvements to the program. I just would ask we take it one(1)more step forward,maybe. I would like to point out in six-point-eight- two-O (6.8-2-0), the tenant files an APRA to get information. Do all tenants know how to file an APRA? Are there going to be educational pieces to teach people to do so. We are also talking about low-income individuals who often feel that they shouldn't take part because of the legal situation or things like that. So, we need the educational piece for our tenants on that piece there. Also, I'm looking at six-point-eight-two-H (6.8-2-H), the Code Enforcement's discretion. I apologize, in my district, I know there are some times where tenants and residents feel that Code Enforcement discretion is not always fair. I feel that we need to put something more succinct in place to make sure that is delineated, and we know that people aren't going to be discriminated or targeted against. My last piece here, is that at one (1) point in time, somebody mentioned that if they don't sign up within the thirty (30) days they have, another thirty (30) day extension. For individuals living in these homes, they don't have another thirty(30) days. We need to make that staunch, hard and fast. If we are forcing people to live in these deplorable conditions, it needs to happen quicker,and it needs to be one time. We do not have time for that. Again, I'm not targeting the landlords actually doing their job,we are targeting the ones that are not doing their job as small business owners or as landlords. So, we need to make sure we get those hard and fast, and they need to file and adhere to it. Those tenants don't get an extension of thirty (30) days, they'll be kicked out. I just want to make sure we're protecting the tenants all the way around. Thank you for your time today. Heidi Beidinger, 509333 Sharpstone Court, stated, I'm the Vice President for the St. Joseph County Health Department Board. I'm also an instructor and researcher at the University of Notre Dame. I wanted to just speak a moment and share a few thoughts about what we've been talking about at the Health Department. First (1St) of all, we are thrilled that you are embarking upon this and taking a leadership role in developing a policy such as this. I'm sure you are well aware there are not many of these policies that exist in the country because there is so much contention around it. From this discussion, you can see that you all have totally come together to figure out what EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building'227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 'I I D574 235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 14