The Dayton City Commission must figure out how to fill the city’s nearly 13,000 vacant structures or right-size its building stock.
Candidates for mayor — incumbent Rhine McLin and her opponent Gary Leitzell, Southeast Priority Board Chairman — both seek the same end, viable, safe neighborhoods. They approach the problem from different directions.
Candidates for City Commission, incumbents Joey D. Williams and Nan Whaley along with their challenger, neighborhood activist David Esrati, also shared their views on an issue that impacts them not only as city leaders, but also as residents of Dayton.
“There is a strategic plan with a priority list for demolition, rehab and new building,” McLin said. “We have to go block-by-block. There is no easy way to solve the problem, but one thing we have to do is move forward.”
McLin developed the concept for Lot Links, a new program in the city’s arsenal to move vacant, unproductive land back on to the tax rolls.
“Our first priority with this program is to stabilize neighborhoods,” she said.
Through Lot Links, homeowners can purchase vacant lots owned by the city that are adjacent to their property for as little as $100 or as much as $1,200. If the lot is not owned by the city, but the property owner is two-years delinquent in property taxes, the city, working with Montgomery County, can initiate a tax lien foreclosure, so the lot can be acquired though Lot Links, McLin said.
Aaron Sorrell, Dayton’s manager of housing and neighborhood development, said the city began marketing Lot Links in December.
“We’re getting about 20 calls a day on it,” said Sorrell, adding the process can take up to 14 months.
To date, six properties have been transferred and 160 are in the pipeline.
“We expect to complete transfers on at least half of them in the next six months,” Sorrell said.
McLin said she is laying the groundwork for another program to boost home ownership, while enticing recent graduates from Dayton-connected colleges to put down roots here.
The pilot program, which hinges on receipt of a federal Neighborhood Stabilization II grant, would initially involve no more than 10 homes.
Students who earn an undergraduate degree from Sinclair, University of Dayton, Wright State University or Central State University — all have Dayton locations — could apply for a low-interest loan to buy and restore a home. The applicant must have a full-time job and be involved in community service.
McLin said the graduate must live in the home for at least five years. All of the homes would be located in one neighborhood.
“It’s a tool in our toolbox to attract college graduates to make a nesting place here in Dayton,” she said.
Leitzell: ‘People need incentives’
Leitzell also has a plan to attract buyers to the city’s eclectic housing stock. The candidate, having spent eight years rehabbing a former drug house on Volkenand Avenue, said he understands the challenges of restoration.
“People need incentives to fix them up,” he said.
While he acknowledges some Dayton homes should be demolished, many others could be saved. His idea centers around homes built in the American Foursquare style, a common design here.
Similar to McLin’s plan, Leitzell suggests making low-interest loans available to buyers. During the remodel, homeowners also could be required to get city housing inspectors to sign off on improvements. That paperwork would be attached to their local income tax filings.
“Give me credit on my income tax for the work I’ve done. It would be just a small incentive,” he said.
Leitzell said it was a problem with vacant houses behind his home, and the lack of response from McLin in 2008, that drove him to run for mayor.
“She told me it was a county problem,” Leitzell said.
Tax liens on those houses were sold by Montgomery County to Florida-based American Tax Funding.
“The investment company can’t sell them. No one else can acquire them,” Leitzell said. “The county in its infinite wisdom has perpetrated this problem in Dayton neighborhoods.”
If elected, Leitzell said he would work with county officials on a solution that could include property swaps between Montgomery County and the lien holders.
“This is a big problem that no one has addressed,” Leitzell said. “It takes vision.”
Paul Robinson, Montgomery County’s chief deputy treasurer, said selling tax liens enables the county to collect 100 percent of property taxes owed when there may not be another avenue to do that.
The county is willing to listen, but Robinson feels the conversation needs to begin with schools, libraries and other entities that benefit from property taxes.
Whaley: Best use for vacant lots
City Commissioner Nan Whaley said she has a special interest in housing issues for two reasons: her former job with the Montgomery County Auditor’s Office and, as a resident of Five Oaks, a neighborhood with a high vacancy rate.
“I think Five Oaks, built between 1922-1929, has some of the best housing stock in the city,” Whaley said. “I see the difference it can make on a block when a blighted property comes down.”
Whaley said Dayton’s housing issues will not be a short-term fix. She leads the commission on land use with a goal of reducing the supply of housing, identifying areas for development while creating parks, even nature preserves.
“We have to think about what our neighborhoods will look like 20 years from now,” she said. “We have completely changed the mind-set on housing in the city from mothballing everything to open space is OK. We’re trying to determine our highest and best use for vacant lots.”
Whaley is working on land bank reform in Ohio with Montgomery County Treasurer Carolyn Rice and Auditor Karl Keith.
They’re advocating expansion of Ohio’s county land bank statute that currently only applies to Cuyahoga County. A land bank is a public agency that takes control of empty houses and land to make plans for reusing them.
“Dayton is not alone. We’re trying to put our heads together to deal with our large housing stock, vacant houses and population loss,” Whaley said.
Williams: Laying the groundwork
Commissioner Williams said Dayton’s vacant housing situation has been exacerbated by foreclosures.
“This is an unprecedented time,” he said. “As jobs come back, housing values will rebound. In the meantime we have to be disciplined around a strategy of demolishing dilapidated structures.”
Williams said the city isn’t just waiting for the economy to recover.
“I’m proud of the work being done around infrastructure. Look at the road work being done downtown and the bridges,” he said. “We’re laying the groundwork for future development.”
Williams said the news about housing in Dayton is not all demolition.
Infill housing has steadily been going up or will soon be sprouting in Dayton’s Fairview neighborhood, Twin Towers, Historic South Park and Wright Dunbar. The Litehouse Development Group is introducing environmentally friendly homes to the Dayton market.
Some 1,280 new homes have been built in Dayton since 2001, with a total value of $132.9 million, according to the Dayton Area Board of Realtors.
Esrati: Neighborhood associations key
Esrati calls Dayton’s neighborhoods “the building blocks of the city.” He would push for neighborhoods to have an association with a president that meets routinely with the city manager to discuss issues or share ideas that are working.
While campaigning, Esrati has seen blocks with one viable house and others that are thriving, blighted by one vacant structure.
He believes the city has to figure out how to move individual households from otherwise decimated blocks, into a vacant house in an otherwise thriving neighborhood. He suggests property swaps with banks to make it happen.
“We have to figure out where to invest and where to tear down,” Esrati said. “Let neighborhood associations decide which (structures) have to go and which ones don’t.”
Esrati said he would urge the city to develop legislation holding banks accountable for upkeep of foreclosed properties.
He said neighborhood associations should play a role in building data collection, so it becomes quickly known whether a structure is vacant, if the grass needs mowed, or if there are housing violations.
When a bank takes over a property, Esrati suggests the neighborhood association inventory the condition of the building — windows, plumbing, roof, etc. If the gutters need repaired, or plumbing replaced, banks should be held accountable for repairs.
“The banks are just letting houses rot. The (gas and electric) goes out and the water gets turned off. That’s when entropy sets in,” he said.
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