Cleveland’s Crackdown on Blight Might Hit Snag with Controversial Proposal
One Community Update
January 26, 2024
Source: cleveland.com
An ambitious plan aimed at improving Cleveland’s housing stock through a major overhaul of code enforcement was largely praised by City Council during its first public hearing this week.
But one part of the plan may prove to be a sticking point for council: point-of-sale inspections for vacant homes. It’s unclear whether that provision will make it into the final version of the law, or at least, in the form initially proposed by Mayor Justin Bibb.
“Without this, you’re just rolling out the red carpet to every bottom-feeding flipper and speculator,” Building and Housing Director Sally Martin-O’Toole said at the Tuesday meeting.
Such inspections are just one part of Cleveland’s proposed “Residents First” code enforcement shake-up. But it’s proving more controversial than other aspects of the plan, such as the creation of a civil-ticketing system where nuisance fines can stack up quickly for derelict landlords, and requiring hard-to-reach, out-of-state investors who own rental properties to designate a local person who would be on the hook for poor conditions.
Some City Council members helped Bibb shape the Residents First reforms, and members this week generally offered enthusiastic support for the local agent requirements, civil tickets and other proposed tools to fight blight.
But on point-of-sale (POS) inspections for vacant homes, members had lots of questions, and Council President Blaine Griffin said the only reason he was considering it was because it applied to empty homes, not occupied ones.
Even then, Griffin said he feared unintended consequences could crop up if it were enacted, but he told cleveland.com after the hearing that he hasn’t made any firm decisions about tossing it, changing it, or allowing it to move forward.
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