Trending
Following relocation of eight residents from a red-tagged apartment house in April, the city has ratcheted up pressure on landlords who provide substandard housing.
It has conducted "Operation Safe Space" actions on three other condemned properties, each with different landlords, moving 10 additional tenants to hotels, with plans to help them get permanent housing, according to Codes and Enforcement Director Rebecca Brown.
Based on rental license ordinance changes in January, the city has also suspended for five years all rental licenses held by three landlords who own a total of 47 properties -- though existing tenants can stay until their leases expire or the properties are red-tagged, city officials said.
"If you have a s***thole, we're going to smash it," said City Councilman Dave Ellis after a meeting Monday.
A subcommittee of a social service, church and landlord group called Hope for the Homeless initiated the Safe Space relocations, which have involved firefighters, police, codes and agency workers.
The first operation was conducted on April 20 at a building on the 1100 block of 14th Avenue owned by Lou Grillo.
The second was conducted April 28 on a building on the 1400 block of First Street owned by Creek Property Management, with five tenants relocated, according to Brown.
The third was conducted May 2 on a building on the 2200 block of Fifth Avenue owned by Raife and Melissa Bailey, with one tenant relocated, according to Brown.
And the fourth was conducted June 7 on a building on the 2900 block of Maple Avenue also owned by Grillo, with four relocated, according to Brown.
The city red-tagged another Creek Property Management building Tuesday, following a property maintenance inspection that disclosed a "major sewage issue" and is working with one tenant, with the possibility of a Safe Space operation coming, Brown said.
Most displaced residents have been taken to hotels, although some found housing on their own, according to Brown.
Blair County Community Action Program has been working on the permanent housing, she said.
Issues that have led to condemnation include problems with -- or absence of -- water and electric service; along with fire hazards, structural issues and accumulation of materials, Brown said.
The city's fire inspector has been involved in helping determine when condemnation is warranted, she said.
Before January, the Residential Rental Unit Inspection Program ordinance allowed for suspension of rental licenses for individual properties when landlords failed to correct violations or failed to allow inspections, Brown said.
That month, council added provisions triggering suspensions for failure to provide contact information; failure to pay registration fees or tenant documents on time; violations that led to the city making corrections itself; unpaid reinspection fees following violations; and having three or more violations of the same nature within a 12-month period, according to Brown.
It also added a provision under which two or more individual property suspensions trigger the suspension of all rental licenses held by the landlord.
The ordinance amendments were intended to allow the city to deal with landlords who are "grossly negligent and habitually noncompliant," stated Mayor Matt Pacifico Monday.
The amendments were based on Codes Department research into what works in other communities, Pacifico said.
The city suspended Creek Property Management's licenses on June 1; the Baileys' on June 2; and Grillo's on June 9, she said.
The suspension letters the landlords received include information on how they can appeal to the city's Code Appeals Board, Brown said.
The city hasn't received any such appeals yet, she said.
There has been some confusion among tenants, although the city has tried to make it clear they don't need to vacate as long as their leases are active, according to Brown.
The city isn't getting involved in issues of continuing rental charges or payments, she said.
While existing tenants with leases don't need to vacate, landlords can't bring in new tenants to properties for which licenses are suspended, according to Brown.
There are other landlords in the city with revocations on single properties, but none currently in danger of a second license suspension that would trigger a five-year revocation, Brown said.
Nor are there any other properties currently being considered for an Operation Safe Space relocation, Brown said.
"Council is committed to not permitting irresponsible landlords (to operate) in our city any longer," said Councilman Jesse Ickes.
Of the 47 properties involved in the five-year revocations, "very few are comfortable for someone to move into," and some are an "absolute disgrace," said Ellis, explaining that he drove around and looked at them all.
Collectively, those properties are a significant part of the city's blight problem, Ellis said.
The city will use all available tools to clean up blight, Councilman Ron Beatty said.
The city has "three tiers" of rental housing: well-kept private units; Section 8 or other subsidized units that are inspected routinely; and housing that is "under the radar" — in which sufficient investments aren't made, said Councilman Dave Butterbaugh.
Those tend not only to be blighted, but to be havens for drug activity, according to Butterbaugh.
The measures the city is taking should help the city on "an exponential path where Altoona will be safer," he said.
Such properties "suck up code (enforcement) time," Beatty said.
Eliminating them as problems could help code officers pay attention to other issues, he said.
Substandard housing also draws an outsized share of attention from the police and fire departments, Pacifico said.
The city continues to welcome "responsible investors and landlords who are interested in providing clean and safe housing," Pacifico said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.