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Where Did The Pride In Maintained Homes Go?

To The Reader’s Forum:

Houses in Jamestown, even those owned or rented by people with modest means, always used to be well-maintained: fresh paint, mown lawns and swept sidewalks. This isn’t the case in a lot of neighborhoods anymore. When did that pride disappear? Why are so many properties neglected today?

The quick answer is to blame the landlords, but that is not the reason. Responsibility also lies with the renters.

There are seven housing agencies that I am aware of. Section 8, or HUD, housing and Jamestown Housing Authority are two programs with waiting lists. Both of these programs inspect the residence before authorizing a tenant to move in. The lease is for 12 months, and they inspect the residence again before the lease is renewed. It is up to the renter to provide the landlord with a deposit to cover any damage done to the property. Many landlords will inspect the house once a month.

However, according to the local property owners and managers I interviewed, the state-funded Department of Social Services agency does not inspect properties. It provides the applicant a voucher to find housing. If a person is evicted from a property, DSS will provide an emergency voucher with no questions asked as to why they were evicted.

It should be required that renters receiving assistance provided by taxpayers divulge where they were living before moving into another rental property – giving the prospective landlord the opportunity to ask the previous landlord in what condition the tenant left the property or under what circumstances they moved out.

There is no denying that citizens such as the elderly, the disabled and single mothers need assistance. However, we should expect accountability to extend to all members of our community. If you break a window, you should replace it. If you have garbage in your front yard, you need to remove it. It isn’t fair for landlords to foot the bill for trash, debris, broken windows, walls and doors and anything else that would not pass criteria for rental though many other agencies. Residents living in those dwellings should be held accountable; the same ordinances that apply to homeowners need to be enforced with all citizens.

If the prospective landlord had the name and address of the previous landlord to contact, they would be able to make a better-informed decision. This would be a big deterrent to renters moving on after destroying another person’s property. This could help stop drug dealers and criminals from finding hideouts to destroy our children and neighborhoods. This could also establish a semblance of pride and permanence rather than transience and disinterest.

It costs us nothing to get results through accountability.

Andrew R. Liuzzo

Jamestown

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