Neighborhoods

To watch the full video from WFMJ, click here.

By Christa Lamendola, WFMJ Today Anchor/Multi Media Journalist.

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Renovations at the Glenwood Business Center at 2246 Glenwood Avenue are complete and two new tenants started moving in Wednesday, October 10, 2018.

Inspiring Minds Youngstown and The Ursuline Center will be occupying the building. Stephanie and Tanisha of Inspiring Minds Youngstown were at the Center to receive their keys this afternoon. The Glenwood Business Center, YNDC’s first commercial property developed for rent, was completed thanks to funding from US Conference of Mayors and Wells Fargo Foundation CommunityWINS Grant, Home Savings Charitable Foundation, and the Senator Maurice and Florence Lipscher Charitable Fund. Welcome Inspiring Minds Youngstown and the Ursuline Center to the Glenwood Corridor! 

Monday, October 15, 2018

On Saturday, October 13, the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation was awarded a $24,282 Comprehensive Housing Counseling grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The funds will benefit the HUD-approved Housing Counseling program at YNDC. The housing counseling program helps those with credit or financial problems address those issues, secure a bank loan, and become homeowners. So far in 2018, 277 new clients have signed up for housing counseling at YNDC and 120 clients have become homeowners.

The pressure being applied to a South Carolina real estate company to stop what's been called "predatory and corrupt" practices seems to be working.

Officials say Vision Property Management has stopped buying property and is selling what it has instead of using lease-to-own contracts.

Still, more pressure was applied on Monday in the form of a lawsuit filed by Community Legal Aid, who is representing five Youngstown clients.

The lawsuit claims that Vision Property Managment used predatory and corrupt contracts to lure people into buying uninhabitable houses. There are 18 total counts against Vision Management.

"They went after people knowing that they could never fulfill the terms of these contracts -- low-income people who were already living in dilapidated neighborhoods and sold them the dream of home ownership but with contracts that would really result in a nightmare for them," said Steve McGarrity, of Community Legal Aid.

The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) has also complained about the company in the past.

"I think it's criminal and it's great to see this type of lawsuit being filed here in Youngstown," said Ian Beniston, who runs YNDC.

Beniston has pictures showing how Vision Management marketed its properties by using painted signs to make them look like they were being sold by owners.

"They particularly prey on low-income people, people of color," Beniston said. To read the full story from WKBN, click here. 

Community Legal Aid, a nonprofit law firm serving low-income communities, filed a lawsuit against Vision Property Management today accusing the real-estate management company of fraud, breach of contract and predatory sales practices.

The lawsuit alleges 18 counts of illegal actions against Vision, it’s subsidiary companies and its leadership. Community Legal Aid also names several of the Vision Property shell companies as well as Vision Property CEO Alex Szkaradek and Chief Strategy Officer Steven Randall as defendants. The lawsuit alleges that Vision Property used predatory tactics to pressure individuals into signing rent-to-own contracts for uninhabitable houses. Community Legal Aid is demanding that Vision Property “immediately restore the properties to habitable condition in compliance with all State and local health and safety codes and ordinances” as well as an injunction prohibiting the company from transferring any of the properties mentioned in the lawsuit and removing their ability to evict the tenants involved in the case. The lawsuit is also seeking compensatory damages for the five plaintiffs named in the filing. The Alliance for Congregational Transformation influencing Our Neighborhoods and Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation took a group of activists to Columbia, S.C., last spring to confront the CEO of Vision Property at the company’s headquarters. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here. 

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas, represents five clients who have entered into what Legal Aid describes as “predatory rent-to-own contracts” with the South Carolina real estate company. 

The complaint alleges 18 counts of illegal activity against Vision and its various shell companies, including fraud and what the nonprofit calls a “pattern of corrupt activity.”

“They repeatedly targeted people who wouldn’t qualify for a traditional home loan,” said Steven McGarrity, Legal Aid executive director. “They knew our clients couldn’t afford all the financial obligations in their contracts.” Legal Aid is a nonprofit law firm serving low-income individuals and families in central northeast Ohio. According to the complaint, Vision purchased the properties, in foreclosure, in question for between $550 and $5,200. Often they sat vacant for a period of time, then were sold them to Legal Aid’s clients for much more than they were worth. “In some cases, they resold the properties for 35 times more than they were worth,” McGarrity explained. “This was the heart of their business model — to make quick money while making our community poorer.” The lawsuit claims that Vision pressured Legal Aid’s clients into signing rent-to-own contracts and paying down-payments to purchase properties quickly, sometimes without even getting to see them first. They were required to make monthly payments on the properties, and pay for taxes, insurance, and unpaid utility bills, which Legal Aid points out are requirements by law for landlords to pay. In addition, all of the properties in the suit were deemed uninhabitable – meaning they had significant damage that needed repaired before considered safe for habitation. Missing or damaged utility lines and infrastructure, unsafe foundations, sewage back-ups, and collapsed ceilings are among some of the damages listed in the complaint. To read the full story from The Business journal, click here.

Community Legal Aid, a nonprofit law firm serving low-income communities, filed a lawsuit against Vision Property Management accusing the real-estate management company of fraud, breach of contract and predatory sales practices. 

The lawsuit filed Monday alleges 18 counts of illegal actions against Vision, its subsidiary companies and its leadership. Under land contracts, prospective owners pay rent to a seller for a predetermined number of years before having the option to purchase the property. The contracts, however, often push the burden of maintaining, repairing and dealing with financial issues attached to the property onto the renters, offering them no protections that would otherwise be available to traditional renters or mortgage-holders. This leaves renters open to any number of pitfalls, including pouring thousands of dollars into repairs or agreeing to rent a property that is, unbeknownst to them, in foreclosure. Steve McGarrity, executive director of Community Legal Aid, said the legal responsibility to ensure the home is habitable is on the landlord, not the tenant. “State and federal law don’t agree on the idea of ‘buyer beware’ when it comes to these contracts. Landlords have special requirements to disclose issues with the property to prospective tenants and homeowners,” he said.

When tenants ran out of money attempting to make the homes habitable – or when they decided to stop paying their rents to Vision Property upon realizing they’d been misled – Vision Property has evicted them without providing compensation for the investment they’d made in the buildings. Community Legal Aid also names several of the Vision Property companies as well as Vision Property CEO Alex Szkaradek and Chief Strategy Officer Steven Randall as defendants. McGarrity said Vision Property’s tactics were intentionally misleading and predatory. “They told our clients that these homes were habitable. Their website is filled with false claims about their properties. In many cases, their clients weren’t allowed to even see the interiors of the homes before signing a contract,” McGarrity said. To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here. 

The pressure being applied to a South Carolina real estate company to stop what's been called "predatory and corrupt" practices seems to be working.

Officials say Vision Property Management has stopped buying property and is selling what it has instead of using lease-to-own contracts. Still, more pressure was applied on Monday in the form of a lawsuit filed by Community Legal Aid, who is representing five Youngstown clients. The lawsuit claims that Vision Property Managment used predatory and corrupt contracts to lure people into buying uninhabitable houses. There are 18 total counts against Vision Management. "They went after people knowing that they could never fulfill the terms of these contracts -- low-income people who were already living in dilapidated neighborhoods and sold them the dream of home ownership but with contracts that would really result in a nightmare for them," said Steve McGarrity, of Community Legal Aid. The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) has also complained about the company in the past. "I think it's criminal and it's great to see this type of lawsuit being filed here in Youngstown," said Ian Beniston, who runs YNDC. To read the full story from WYTV, click here.

Justine Nieves was in the midst of what seemed like endless repairs on the East Side home she had bought from Vision Property Management when a letter from the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. arrived in her mailbox.

“The letter told me I was involved in a predatory land contract,” Nieves said. “Once I researched what that entailed, my heart sank. All the work I did on the house was for nothing. I’d been played.” Nieves – one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Monday against Vision Property by nonprofit law firm Community Legal Aid – has been living with her husband and their five children in her Vision Property home in the Oak Street Extension neighborhood for more than four years. She estimates she has poured more than $8,000 into attempting to make the house habitable. “When I moved in, there was no electric box, no ground wire for electricity,” she said. “It cost me more than $700 to get the electricity turned on, and I had to pay another $200 to $300 dollars to buy a new water meter before they turned the water on. The copper pipes in the house were all cut, so those needed replaced.” Though she has stopped pouring money into home renovations after receiving the letter from YNDC in 2017 – as she now agrees that her landlords are responsible for making the structure habitable, not her – she still pays her $325 per month to stay at the property. After everything that has happened, she still hopes to one day own the home, so she won’t dare withhold her rent to try to force her landlords’ hands, as she fears a single missed payment will earn her an eviction notice. Nieves hopes that by participating in the lawsuit, she may get some of the money back she has already invested into the property, and that she may get to keep the house. Otherwise, her family may end up searching for a new place to live. “I have kids, so it’s been really rough dealing with this,” Nieves said. “My kids have helped me and my husband out a lot in this situation. They’ve been understanding. But with us fixing things and spending money on repairs, its been hard because we can never take them out for anything fun. I know it’s had an effect on them.” To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here.

Presley Gillespie ‘84 – After successful banking and community development careers in Youngstown, he was selected as the inaugural president of Neighborhood Allies, a Pittsburgh-based community development intermediary that supports people, organizations and partnerships committed to creating and maintaining thriving neighborhoods.

After 18 years in banking, he was named the founding executive director of Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., the first such city-wide corporation. He is a nationally recognized leader in community and economic development. To read the full story from The Sharon Herald, click here.