City officials say they will use survey data to try to prioritize investments and figure out strategies to improve the housing stock and supply.
“I will be presenting this data to the Housing Policy Steering Committee that I co-chair,” said Steve Gondol, Dayton’s director of planning, neighborhoods and development. “This group will need to incorporate these findings into our discussions of best practices, leveraging funds and assessing where to prioritize the work.”
The city also will be tearing down blighted housing units in these neighborhoods and others as part of the Dayton Recovery Plan, which is the city’s spending blueprint for the $138 million it received in federal COVID relief funding.
Housing conditions survey
Dayton housing inspectors recently visited and evaluated more than 57,100 residential properties across the city and gave the structures grades of 1 to 5.
Inspectors visually surveyed the exteriors of the properties and did not go inside.
Grade 1 properties are in good and sound shape, while grade 2 properties need minor repairs.
Grade 3 buildings have significant repair needs and grade 4 properties need very substantial and potentially very costly rehabilitation.
Grade 5 structures most likely need to be torn down or may already be piles of debris.
The survey found that about nine in 10 residential properties in Dayton are in good or pretty decent shape on the outside, which was a welcome surprise for some elected leaders and community members.
About 27 of the 65 Dayton neighborhoods surveyed had “very good” housing conditions, meaning more than 95% of the residential buildings had grades of 1 or 2, says survey data.
The Forest Ridge — Quail Hollow, Gateway, Kittyhawk, Stony Ridge and Webster Station neighborhoods each did not have even one residential property that inspectors thought needed more than minor exterior repairs.
Another 19 neighborhoods had “good” overall conditions, meaning the overwhelming share of residential properties had grades of 1 and 2.
The city, however, said survey data show that 14 neighborhoods had “fair” housing conditions and five had “poor” conditions and grades.
The data show that more than 5,800 single-family and multi-family properties have significant repair or rehab needs (grades 3, 4 and 5).
Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein said the survey data is helpful “baseline information” that will assist the city with developing some housing recommendations.
The poor five
Between 28% and 43% of the homes and housing in Southern Dayton View, Santa Clara, Riverdale, Roosevelt and Wolf Creek received grades of 3, 4 or 5.
More than 1,140 of the nearly 3,100 residential properties in those neighborhoods had fairly poor or substantially poor exterior conditions.
Gondol said these neighborhoods may have housing with condition issues because of the legacy of redlining and significant disinvestment and population migration. Household incomes for residents in these areas may not have kept pace with housing costs.
Neighborhoods with poor housing conditions may have code issues, lower home values and are at risk of seeing further decline, Gondol said.
Gondol said the city will review best practices from other jurisdictions across the nation with similar kinds of housing issues in the hopes of identifying the best kinds of interventions for properties with poor conditions.
The city wants to stop grade 3 housing from further deterioration and being downgraded and possibly ending up on the nuisance list.
The city is going to remove a significant amount of residential blight from the neighborhoods with the worst housing condition grades, he said.
For instance, Wolf Creek is one of the priority focus areas for the Dayton Recovery Plan. New housing is expected to be built in the neighborhood and officials say it should benefit from housing repair programs.
Dayton plans to tear down more than 1,100 decaying structures across the city using federal COVID relief money and other funding.
Dayton City Commissioner Chris Shaw he’s seen a significant improvement in the amount of blight in local neighborhoods compared to just five years ago.
Commissioner Darryl Fairchild said he hopes the city in the not-too-distant future is in a lot better place when it comes to housing conditions because of its demolition activities and planned investments.
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