Jackson Free Press

March 30, 2005

In his Feb. 14, 2005, press conference in front of Bobbie Johnson's house on Lamar Court, mayoral candidate Frank Melton complained that "half" the housing in Jackson is crumbling. It's hard to quantify the figure Melton used, but there are indeed several neighborhoods and clusters of houses that are either abandoned and rundown or occupied and unlivable.

The biggest question then is: What can be done to fix it? "If she (Johnson) feels in any way that the dwelling she is in should be investigated for inspection because of code violations, she should call us immediately," City Community Improvement spokesman Herman Taylor told the JFP. Johnson said Feb. 14 that she had not contacted the city for help.

Once a call is made to Community Improvement, Taylor says, the organization tries "to contact the owner and have an on-site meeting." Then, regardless of contact, the organization visits the property to see if it's actually in violation. If it is, the owner gets a notice. He or she then has 10 days to get the repairs made or send a reasonable repair plan back to our office. After the 10-day period, if the owner still hasn't responded, made the repairs or submitted a repair plan, the owner is summoned to court. "There they will either be fined or can be sentenced to spend up to 90 days in jail," Taylor said.

When the problem is extremely bad, the city's environmental court is where the owner will be fined or sentenced.

Other laws temporarily shield home-owners, however.

"When a tenant has a small problem like the air conditioner goes out ... state law says that the landlord has a reasonable time, depending on the situation, to repair the problem," said attorney Richard Hitt from Legal Services. After that, the tenant can pay for the repair and deduct the cost from their rent or take their landlord to Justice Court. But that limits tenants' options if they don't have the money to fix the problem.

Some landlords like Robert Denny, who owns Johnson's house, say that if a tenant cannot pay rent, the landlord cannot be expected to pay for pricey repairs. "I wouldn't wish any bad on Bobbie Johnson," he said, "but ... she's been saying she's going to move for over a year. Every month she was going to move, every month. That's one reason nothing's been done."

"If you're not getting money coming in, after a while you just run out," Denny said. "I can't afford anymore to fix a house to try to get $100 or $80 rent. Even if I got paid a full $100 a month, what do you think I could fix for $100 a month? Service charge for a plumber is $65 minimum."

Denny lamented that even when repairs are made, they are not usually very lasting because of frequent vandalism.

Not About the Landlord

Taylor said the landlord's ability to cope with repairs is not the top priority of his organization, however. "Our enforcement has nothing to do with the lease agreement," Taylor said. "Our concern is with the safety of the tenant."

Section 101 of the Housing Code states that "public safety, health, and general welfare through structural strength, stability, sanitation, adequate light and ventilation, and safety to life and property from fire and other hazards" are to be maintained up to standards by the owner of the property.

In Johnson's case, there appear to be structural hazards, including cracked, wobbly steps leading to her porch, which is on the verge of caving in. Also, she says the lighting in her house is so dim that her house is nearly pitch dark in the day.

Denny told the JFP that he has tried many times to get the city to help him, since little to no money is being gathered for repairs. He added that if he turned out tenants who could not afford to pay the low rent, they would be left homeless.

"I got people that still live there because they've got absolutely nowhere else to go. I'm wrong if I let them stay there because I don't have the money to fix their homes, but if I turned them out I'd be just another evil landlord. But they don't hardly pay any money at all, so I can't fix anything," Denny said. "Look, if I had one or two houses it would be easy to clean up, but the situation is that I've got a bunch of them."

Denny adds that most of the repairs that do happen have to be financed through resources other than rent, creating a black hole in his account books. His houses, he said, cost about $50 or $60 a month in taxes alone. "I don't even get $50 or $60 a month in rent for most of them," he argued. "Now think of how much it costs to have the yard mowed, and to keep them boarded up. That's about 25 or 26 houses requiring mowing and monthly taxes and upkeep."

‘Disinvestment and Neglect'

Triggers for the degeneration of the homes is still under speculation. Willie Martin, president and CEO of the Jackson Housing Authority, said that these houses are suffering from a great deal of "disinvestment and neglect," primarily through population shifts. "More and more people are leaving the inner city for the suburbs. But those starter homes that were built in the ‘30s and ‘40s still remain," he said. "Those people who wish to continue to have ownership of these homes usually maintain it by renting out the property."

The problem of dilapidated homes, Martin explained, is not one that the city of Jackson alone can solve.

"The private sector is a key component to solving this problem," he said. "They can bring access to capital, capacity and expertise to the table. But they will not come to the table if there is not a way to make money. We have to strategically entice private developers to (help solve) this problem."

Martin said his strategy is to invite more developers to meetings, show them where the profit potential is in these projects and put pre-development dollars in place.
Denny says he's been waiting for the private sector to step up to the plate for years, and has sold many homes at a loss in an effort to both get the neighborhood cranking and plug the hemorrhaging of his bankbooks. "I keep hoping something will come along or some speculator will come in there; somebody who's politically connected will get a grant or something and need some property to build and I'll get out then, but I don't think I'll ever make any money. Like those 38 houses I sold to the [Farish Street Historic Foundation's] Shotgun Property project. I didn't make any money off that. The guys that made the money are the guys who got the two and a half million dollars to repair them," he said.

Denny said he has already torn down as much property as he can afford and would be open to tearing down more as funding comes along. Demolition costs an average of $2,000, he said, but added that sometimes he gets resistance from the city because of the location of some homes, such as Johnson's, which he said sits in the Farish Street Historic District.

A Historic Problem

Recently, the city has had a problem with historic overlays like Farish. Most of the houses in these areas cannot be torn down because the city would lose the historic preservation status, but Denny said the city seems to be relying on cash-strapped owners to foot the bills.

"Like right now I've got to get this request in by March 24 to the Preservation Commission, then there's a meeting April 12 or something like that," Denny said. "It cost $26 per house just to request for approval to tear them down. Nobody's going to help me. Other outfits are getting money left and right for storefront grants or whatever but my bank won't even loan on the property. They'll loan on a signature before they'll loan on one of those houses down there."

Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. said in a recent interview that substandard housing has been a priority of his. "Since I came into office this has been a concentration of mine. In fact, we have demolished some 1,500 units since 1997," Johnson said, adding that the city has changed its approach for efficiency.

One approach involves the city's Quality of Life Task Force. The task force's goals include reducing the number of Code Violations relating to grass and weeds, housing and vehicles by 90 percent; collecting 100 percent of the existing tax liens or laying claim to property involved with Code Violations within three years; eliminating existing code violations; processing all new cases within 90 days of initial notice; reducing illegal dumping; implementing a Community Service Program through the Municipal Court; and coordinating neighborhood associations in keeping their areas clean.

Johnson said the task force is making a difference. "Recently we have been using a more effective method called clustering," Johnson said. "Before, we would tear down one house and though there might be another one nearby that needs to come down, it would take two or three years to tear down the other one. Now we do them in clusters."

Word of the Law

Republican mayoral candidate Rick Whitlow said the issue could be simplified by merely following the word of the law, asserting that city workers weren't pushing the policies in place regarding dilapidated housing.

"I think there are some policies and procedures that are not followed as aggressively as I would follow them to deal with that matter," Whitlow said. "You enforce the policies and procedures that are in place all the time."

Melton has been a bit vague about what he would do—although he is stringently using the problem against the incumbent. At his March 23 press conference, he backed off a bit on his earlier assertions that he would help everyone get their own house. Then, he said that the city should provide "support" for non-profit groups such as Habitat for Humanity.

The mayor countered: "We have provided nearly $6 million to non-profits since 1997 to help them do a number of things such as acquisitions, lots, demolition, rehabilitation, development of new housing, etc."

Last week, Melton acknowledged that getting new homes for many of the poor might be a challenge. "No bank in America is going to give a 70-year-old couple a loan," Melton said at the press conference, adding that the answer, then, is finding a way to help senior citizens so they can help themselves. In his written platform, he says the city "has not had a housing rehabilitation program for eight years; instead, it uses its Federal Community Development Block Grant dollars (CDBG) for demolition and other Mayoral priorities.)"

The mayor said Melton is clearly confused: "Melton says we use the money for demolition, which is interesting because he accuses us of not tearing down houses."

The mayor, meanwhile, argues that the situation is rooted more deeply in economics than law, agreeing with Martin that the owners need to reinvest in their property.

"Nothing lasts forever. In order for these properties to stay in good condition, property owners have to invest in them." Johnson said, adding that projects won't do well without some form of community involvement. "People need to realize that when we have to repair or improve housing we are using taxpayers' money to pay for it. These communities need to put pressure on the property owners to make the improvements to their property."

Denny argues that if the city ever had a priority on tackling substandard housing it seems to have kicked in only recently.

"The city's all over it now probably because of the election, but six or eight months ago the [grass of the] lot next to mine was up over the trees. Fifty percent of the lots down there were uncut and stayed that way. ... The city just would not clean it up," Denny said, claiming that the city's ambivalence helped fuel his own.

"After a while you just stop in your tracks and just wait for better times," he said.

Call 960-1426 to report housing problems to the city. You can read the full platforms for candidates, and more about the housing issue, at http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/politics