There are a lot of concerns over the ways Chautauqua County’s lead rental registry and Jamestown’s rental property registry will affect property owners, property managers and, potentially, realtors.

The issues have been discussed and talked about over the past few years, but frankly there’s a lot happening all at the same time. Those with concerns or questions should make it a point to attend a town hall meeting Tuesday, May 12, at Wicked Warren’s on Third Street.

The forum is being organized by the Real Estate Investor Association of Jamestown, in cooperation with the Chautauqua County Board of Realtors and will feature Anna Powell, Chautauqua County Health Department childhood lead and Healthy Homes coordinator, and Crystal Surdyk, city development director. The meeting provides a chance for those who own, manage or sell property to hear from the city and county officials implementing the programs what property owners have to do and the expectations they have to meet.

Jamestown was awarded $1,700,000 through the Leading in Lead Prevention Program administered by the Housing Trust Fund Corporation under New York State Homes & Community Renewal for a targeted lead hazard remediation initiative within the city’s older rental housing stock in a joint city-county program in coordination with the Chautauqua County Health Department’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. The funding is sorely needed. The city has one of the higher counts of lead poisoned children in New York State outside of New York City, and 75 percent of lead poisoned children in Chautauqua County live in Jamestown.

We all know there is still too much substandard housing in Jamestown. We know that too often renters aren’t getting enough quality housing for rents that are far too high. We also know that too many renters treat properties worse than 1970s rock stars treated hotel rooms and help to create some of the very substandard housing for which landlords often take the blame.

The lead rental registry and rental property registry can be useful tools – but only if property owners, property managers and property sellers are on board. We give a lot of credit to the REIA and Board of Realtors for putting together Tuesday’s forum rather than simply mounting an opposition effort to the two registries. We can’t fix Jamestown’s housing issues without property owners being part of the solution. It’s also important for city and county officials to make sure landlords who are putting in honest effort to provide quality housing aren’t treated unfairly – while those who rent out glorified shanties are pushed to bring their properties up to a livable standard.

We hope Tuesday’s forum is a step in that direction.