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A city landlord who in June was stripped of his right to operate all 20 of his rental properties for five years under a new anti-slumlord ordinance lost an appeal recently with the Altoona Code Appeals Board.
Raife Bailey's appeal was limited to one of those properties, although it was denied based on a prohibition that applies to all 20, officials said.
Under that prohibition, landlords who've lost their rental licenses may not rent to a new tenant until the suspension period expires -- a prohibition Bailey violated by renting one side of a duplex on the 2200 block of Fifth Avenue.
"You can't rent to anybody, unless they were there before the hammer fell," said board solicitor Dan Stants, referring to the universal suspension. "You can't bring in someone new."
Bailey brought a new tenant for one side of the duplex because he had made a verbal arrangement with her prior to the suspensions, Bailey told the board.
That's irrelevant, Stants said.
The board didn't even consider the appeal on its merits, because Bailey filed it after the 10-day deadline for filing had expired, following the license suspension in early June, officials said.
The city suspended all of Bailey's rental licenses based on a provision in the ordinance calling for that to happen if the licenses for any two properties are suspended.
The city passed the ordinance in January to deal with landlords who are "grossly negligent and habitually noncompliant," Mayor Matt Pacifico said previously.
Around the time the city suspended Bailey's rental licenses, it also suspended those of Lou Grillo and Creek Property Management.
Those suspensions were handed down in conjunction with "Operation Safe Space," under which tenants living in unfit conditions were relocated to hotels, while social service agencies sought more permanent housing for them.
Tenants in place in acceptable conditions at the time of the rental license suspensions are allowed to remain until the end of their leases or until those properties are declared unfit for habitation by the Department of Codes & Inspections, according to Codes Director Rebecca Brown.
The city declared both sides of Bailey's duplex unfit for habitation -- the only such declaration for Bailey's properties that was listed on a summary sheet provided at the hearing.
Bailey was non-confrontational, although he pleaded his case.
A tenant with four children who lived for three years on one side of the duplex was a "disaster," he said.
She was poor, and he only charged her $400. He was sympathetic to her situation and didn't want her to become homeless, he said.
"I stuck my neck out for her, and I got punished," he said.
Things got "ahead" of him during COVID, he said. The termination of a COVID-related government rental payment assistance program has caused him problems.
He's in "a sinkhole," and at risk of going bankrupt, he said. The houses are all he has.
A longtime art teacher, he began acquiring properties to work on during the weekend, he said.
He tries to do it all himself, and he's not good at that, he confessed.
"I'm willing to do what I have to do to get back on track," he said.
He needs to work with the Codes Department, and he might consider attending the area's annual landlord workshop, suggested board Chairman Brian Durbin.
Bailey has been one of the department's "most frequent customers for years," according to Stants. "You have a long track record of noncompliance."
Noncompliance issues listed on the meeting packet include repairs not made, overgrown vegetation, fees not paid and officers not admitted for inspections.
Since the suspension of his rental licenses, Bailey has sold two of the 20 properties, according to code officials.
Bailey can appeal the board's denial to the Blair County Court of Common Pleas, Brown said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.