Neighborhoods

The city of Cincinnati’s aggressive tactics in confronting two land contract companies it criticized for “predatory” practices could provide a road map as Youngstown attempts to rein in the problem.

Harbour Portfolio Advisors of Dallas, Texas, and Vision Property Management of Columbia, S.C., both settled lawsuits with Cincinnati this month that resulted in $213,679 in payments along with agreements from the companies to change the way they do business in that city.

The companies market land contracts, also known as rent-to-own or lease-to-own agreements, to prospective buyers who don’t qualify for home-mortgage loans. The contracts require the buyer to assume the responsibility for maintenance and staying in compliance with city housing codes.

The companies still hold the deeds, so if a buyer under a contract defaults on a payment, the companies keep all payments and the home.

Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., which helped lead a trip to Columbia, S.C., recently to confront Vision about its tactics, said Cincinnati is at the forefront of addressing the issue.

“Cincinnati is aggressively going after the most notorious companies, and they’re getting results,” Beniston said.

Cincinnati’s lawsuit against Harbour, filed last year in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, alleged that the company purchased thousands of homes from Fannie Mae after the housing crisis, failed to register or maintain its Cincinnati properties and sold or rented the properties without disclosing known defects.

It asked for payment of unpaid fees and fines and a court order that demanded Harbour comply with the city’s codes among other relief.

Harbour agreed to pay the city $125,000 and Vision agreed to pay $88,679. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here. 

Employees and nearly a dozen volunteers at the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. spent Wednesday evening preparing scores of postcards, but rather than a glossy depiction of a beach or a sunset behind a lighthouse, the cards bore the image of a crumbling house on Youngstown’s South Side.

The postcards are bound for Columbia, S.C., and are addressed to the neighbors of Vision Property Management CEO Alex Szkaradek and its chief business development officer, John Buerkert.

Vision Property Management is a realty company that deals in land contracts in poor neighborhoods, including throughout the city of Youngstown. YNDC says these land contracts are often predatory. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here. 

The city signed a contract to sell the former Bottom Dollar grocery store on Glenwood Avenue for $150,000 to ONE Health Ohio, which plans to open a medical facility there.

ONE Health will spend $3 million to $4 million to improve the 18,000-square-foot South Side site, which will be fully completed in about two years, said Ronald Dwinnells, the agency’s chief executive officer.

Within a year, services such as medical, dental and behavior health will be available, he said. The facility also will be a food distribution center with the assistance of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., and will look at providing urgent care and a pregnancy center.

ONE Health operates eight health care facilities in the area, including the Youngstown Community Health Center on Wick Avenue in the city. Of the 25,000 patients ONE Health serves, 25 percent are residents of Youngstown’s South Side, Dwinnells said.

“This will be a significant location,” he said. “We’re extremely excited about the South Side property. We’ve wanted to go there for decades.”

ONE Health has a focus on providing medical treatment to lower-income people.

Twenty to 30 people will be employed at the facility, Dwinnells said. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here. 

Friday, March 30, 2018

YNDC is proud to announce the publishing of its 1st quarterly performance report of 2018!

The performance report highlights the work of YNDC over the 1st quarter. An electronic copy can be downloaded below.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

On Wednesday, April 4, YNDC and Taft Promise Neighborhood AmeriCorps
VISTA & AmeriCorps NCCC Team Members were recognized for their service by
Mayor Jamael Tito Brown.

The Mayor's Proclamation event took place on National Service
Recognition Day at City Hall. AmeriCorps members took turns sharing what they
have been working on at YNDC and posed for a photo with the Mayor and city
officials. YNDC’s 3 AmeriCorps REVITALIZE Team Members, 2 AmeriCorps VISTAs,
and the 8 members of the AmeriCorps NCCC Cedar 4 team were present to receive
the Mayor’s proclamation.

Ian Beniston foresees several possibilities for the building on Glenwood Avenue that not so long ago served as the distribution center of Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley.

The front of the building could house a storefront to serve the neighborhood, such as retail, says the executive director of Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. The rear could be some type of maker space.

“It’s great flexible space,” Beniston says. “I believe we can have multiple businesses operating out of that location.”

Redevelopment of the building on the South Side is coming about through a collaboration between YNDC and the Western Reserve Port Authority. The port authority acquired the building by using one of the unique powers it has under Ohio law.

The port authority is buying the building, which it will hold for as long as 18 months while YNDC secures the grants it will use to buy the structure from the port authority. In the interim, it is leasing the property.

“Structurally, that thing is just rock solid,” says Anthony Trevena, director of economic development of the port authority and head of its Northeast Ohio Development and Finance Authority.

The Glenwood Avenue building, which has conveyor systems and docks, could host several microenterprises on the main floor and the basement could be subdivided. To read the full story from The Business Journal, click here.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown joined more than 5,000 mayors and other municipal officials who recognized the efforts of Americorps and Senior Corps members nationwide today.

Brown and a group of 16 Americorps and Senior Corps members met at city hall where the mayor presented the group a proclamation declaring April 3 as “National Service Recognition Day.”

“Today is about telling these volunteers ‘thank you’ for all they’ve done,” Brown said. “Their efforts have been necessary for the continuing work of revitalizing our community.”

The Americorps members work through the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and work on either the Revitalize team or as participants in the yearlong volunteer VISTA program. To read the full story from the Vindicator, click here.

Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown joined more than 5,000 mayors and other municipal officials who recognized the efforts of Americorps and Senior Corps members nationwide on Tuesday.

Brown and a group of 16 Americorps and Senior Corps members met at city hall where the mayor presented the group a proclamation declaring April 3 as “National Service Recognition Day.”

“Today is about telling these volunteers ‘thank you’ for all they’ve done,” Brown said. “Their efforts have been necessary for the continuing work of revitalizing our community.”

The Americorps members work through the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and work on either the Revitalize team or as participants in the yearlong volunteer VISTA program. VISTA volunteers are pooled from across the nation, while members of the Revitalize team are local, paid staff members who often work alongside construction and landscaping professionals in YNDC blight remediation and beautification endeavors. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here.

Just a few hours after being recognized by Youngstown Mayor Tito Brown, workers with the AmeriCorps Service Program were back to work cleaning up the south side.

Despite the wind and rain, the young people collected trash and cleaned sidewalks along Mercer Avenue on Tuesday.

Mayor Brown honored the program and the work volunteers are doing. The men and women in AmeriCorps say it's taught them important lessons.

“I like my coworkers, and I really do enjoy the work. I enjoy going to the houses and getting my hands dirty,” Steven Bunetta, an AmeriCorps team member. To read the full story from WKBN, click here.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

A citywide vacancy survey was completed in February 2018 that identified 2,686 vacant residential and commercial structures. This a 31 percent reduction in the number of vacant properties counted in 2016 and great news for the City of Youngstown!

The survey categorized vacant properties by condition.  A-rated properties are in good condition; C-rated properties are in fair condition; and F-rated properties are in poor condition and are in critical need of demolition.  The number of vacant properties is down significantly since 2016 when 3,910 structures were identified as vacant.  More than 1,000 properties were demolished by the City of Youngstown and the Mahoning County Land Bank and dozens of homes have seen significant repairs and investment in 2016 and 2017. A high resolution version of the results can be downloaded below.