Lets Clear up a few facts about tonights meeting
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Category: Middletown City Government
Forum Name: City Council
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Printed Date: Nov 23 2024 at 9:03am
Topic: Lets Clear up a few facts about tonights meeting
Posted By: Pacman
Subject: Lets Clear up a few facts about tonights meeting
Date Posted: Apr 13 2010 at 10:05pm
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I want to thank Mr. Laubach for an excellent meeting tonight it was informative and gave the citizens a Chance to interact both with Council and City Employees. A few things need to be cleared up concerning tonights meeting:
1) Mr Smith continually insisted that the Middletown Section 8 Program has always had 1662 Vouchers since day one. Even with attempts to question him on this figure he insisted it was always 1662.
The MPHA has been in existence since about 1973. The Section 8 program had 767 Section 8 vouchers in 2000. It was not until 2007 that the Vouchers had ballooned to 1662. This is per the Cities own records.
2) Several Section 8 Landlords were present in this meeting basically defending the program. Mr. Tracy stated that there were 3 cities in Ohio that administered their own programs, Middletown, Parma and Marietta.
While Middletown and Parma do indeed administer their own programs or hire an outside agency to do it, Marietta, Ohio's program is administered by the Washington-Morgan Community Action serving all of Washington and Morgan Counties Ohio, http://www.wmcap.org/index.html - http://www.wmcap.org/index.html .
3) Mr. Tracy further stated that you had to be a Middletown resident to get a voucher in Middletown, then why does the Feb. 2010 Consoc report list 225 non-residents as being on the waiting list.
4) One of the Landlords further stated he would rather have Section 8 tenants than Private citizens because he makes more money. And Section 8 tenants don't tear up the property like private citizens.
HUD pays:
0 bedrooms $473.00
1 bedroom $560.00
2 bedrooms $726.00
3 bedrooms $972.00
4 bedrooms $1009.00
Not bad considering the cost of some of these houses in Middletown. Personally I took much of this talk as them trying to protect their turf at the expense of Middletown.
5) Mr. Tracy further tried to compare Butler Counties vouchers and housing program to Middletown's numbers which was ridicules as you are not comparing apples to apples. You are comparing Butler County with about 1800 units I believe was the number that Tracy used and a population of 350,000 people and Middletown's 3600 vouchers and public housing units and 50000 residents. Hardly seems to me to be an apples and apples comparison as he stated.
6) It was stated that the number of children in Section 8 and the school system is "minuscule". If you take Consoc's number of 2.5 people per voucher and do the math: 2.5 x 1662 = 4155. What does everyone think that 3 adults are living on each Voucher and still getting under the fact that you must make 30% of the Median income for the Cinci area to qualify for a voucher.....come on. A good portion of these people are children.
Bottom line folks is that these programs need to be reduced. No one expects them to be done away with, but for a city this size and the problems that it has financially, infrastructural and image wise the Public housing situation needs to be dealt with as does the poverty level.
The city will not recover with a poverty rate of 25% as businesses will not locate to a city this size with a poverty rate this high. We can continue to pretend these issues don't matter as some did tonight. If that is your choice then be prepared for a city in continual decline until it is beyond reviving.
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Replies:
Posted By: Pat
Date Posted: Apr 13 2010 at 11:29pm
| Yes, I agree, let's clear a few things up... I want to address #6 on your post. It has been stated by Consoc that the vast majority of Section 8 tenants are single parents. (Will call tomorrow and get exact figures). Most of those are women. If one uses 2.5 people per voucher and let's say 80% single parent households (altho I know figure was higher), then that amounts to conservatively 1900 children, which is almost 30% of the kids in Middletown schools. Mind you, this is just Section housing, not including low income pulblic housing. Couldn't make it to meeting. Would like to know Josh's response to Section 8 fiasco. |
Posted By: Pat
Date Posted: Apr 13 2010 at 11:33pm
| Would also like to know who you are referring to in last paragraph of your post. Who are those that think these issues don't matter??? Is it the Landlords??? |
Posted By: Pat
Date Posted: Apr 13 2010 at 11:37pm
| Did anyone tape mtg. Will it be on MiddTV? |
Posted By: TANGO
Date Posted: Apr 14 2010 at 5:33am
| Yes Pat it was recorded by tv middletown. It will be on cable. |
Posted By: Bill
Date Posted: Apr 14 2010 at 7:06am
| I think Mr. Bohannon's roofing business should be boycotted. He and other landlords like him and feeding the Section 8 beast. |
Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Apr 14 2010 at 7:32am
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Mr. Tracy also said that we will soon be seeing a property owner who has just walked away from 140 separate properties in town and that all will be boarded up with grass growing a foot tall over time. Guess he was using that to sell his alternative of making the Section 8 owned properties where the landlord is forced through inspections to keep the property up to code. Both he and Bohannon were very passionate about the success of the Section 8. They've got alot to lose if it doesn't work out for them.
No, IMO, the answer is to not have all of these houses owned by Section 8 landlords and using city resources to oversee the code violations. The answer is to get jobs in this damn town and to provide adequate income to the people living here so that they can purchase and rehab these homes and occupy them as private residences. Better to have private ownership housing stock than to be saturated with low income rental/Section 8 landlord owned housing for the city. Much more healthy for the city-economically, class-wise, image-wise and reduces transient citizens who will never care about living here. |
Posted By: acclaro
Date Posted: Apr 14 2010 at 8:52am
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I was traveling and i knew no one nor Mr. lambaugh would have said a heard about turning back the ordinance regarding dedication to infrastructure and asphalt. He thought the tax could go back to 1.50% but it won't until its defeated in a few years. Too many surrounding communities have 2.0% or higher rate, so the city will never pull it back, as most live andwork outside the city and get the credit. The problem on the streets I totally disagree. It isn't too many not paying the bill, its the city's inept management over many decades and robbing one fund to protct the workers.
Section 8 will not be going away. Mr. Bohanon is a strong catholic and tied to the movers and shakers. I mean that in no disrespectful manner, but he is in on 8 as are many others, because the $$$ are simply too good. The neast will not be slain. You'll be talking about this issue in 20 years or greater.
I see no progress being made on council and its amazing how the city manager, and others, love to show up for hese events; is it to monitor the response or get an appearance credit? This city just is spinning its wheels. Next!
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Posted By: swohio75
Date Posted: Apr 14 2010 at 10:49am
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VietVet wrote:Posted By: swohio75
Date Posted: Apr 14 2010 at 10:50am
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Posted By: Pacman
Date Posted: Apr 15 2010 at 8:50am
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Pat in looking at Consoc's reports for January 2010, I see the following:
0 Bedrooms leased 20
1 Bedrooms leased 335
2 Bedrooms leased 559
3 Bedrooms leased 539
4 Bedrooms leased 66
5 Bedrooms leased 1
Taking out the 0 and 1 bedroom units that leaves you 1065 Multi bedroom houses/apts. being leased with a total of 3004 bedrooms. Take out 1165 bedrooms for the adult renter and that leaves you with 1839 Bedrooms for other members of the family. Now I don't know if HUD allows multiple children per bedroom or not. But I wouldn't call 1839 a minuscule number by any means. What is HUD renting large homes needlessly, I doubt it.
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Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: Apr 15 2010 at 9:45am
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amen pacman and swohio.
Vet's thinking simply makes too much sense to be ingnored any longer
an entire re-focus of planning and ED is in order, along with the up-coming master plan review.
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Posted By: Pacman
Date Posted: Apr 15 2010 at 10:24am
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HUDs specs on sleeping arrangments:
"Vouchers are issued to eligible families based on the family composition. The federal rules require no more than 2 persons per bedroom or sleeping area (living room, den, etc). The precise determination of the appropriate voucher size depends upon the relationship, age and gender of the household members.
The size of unit you choose must be consistent with the needs of the family and the amount of rent subsidy you qualify for." So you can have a 3 bedroom house and actually have 8 people live there according to this, 2 in each bedroom and 2 in the living room.
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Posted By: Pacman
Date Posted: Apr 15 2010 at 7:38pm
Yes SW this is a great quote but the rub is if you are the head of the ED dept. in Middletown how do you attract a company to Middletown with 300-400 jobs paying the high wages everyone wants. There is much more to getting that done than us just repeating over and over on this site as we do so often that we want jobs.
The problem today is Companies want an all inclusive package:
1) Good schools
2) Good amenities, shopping, entertainment, dining, etc.
3) Low Poverty, Public Housing, Section 8, the demographics of Middletown are a hard sell now and will be even harder sell come the 2010 census release.
4) Good infrastructure, roads sewers, water
5) Good Housing stock, up to date housing stock, not a city with 2000 houses waiting to be knocked down and no way to knock them down.
6) They want a progressive leadership for the city, not one that takes two years to deal with Section 8 and now we are almost back where we started 2 years ago possibly looking for a new administrator for the program and inspections, if CONSOC and TIG don't get their act together in the next 30 days.
The list goes on and on and the problem is it is not getting any smaller only longer.
Ms. Gilleland was asked the other night why she originally recommended moving the Section 8 program out of Middletown and she was spot on in her answer. I am paraphrasing here but you will get the gist. The city has to many other issues that need attention and section 8 is taking up to much of the city employees time and resources. There are Organizations, BMH, which handle the housing issues daily. She is right on. The Section 8 matter is way out of control in Middletown and needs to be curtailed so that the other issues above which affect ALL OF THE CITIZENS ARE ADDRESSED. You can't keep on spending the amount of time and resources on Section 8 and get any of the major issues resolved, it is just not going to happen.
The city needs to cut its losses and move ahead. Everyone gasps and says, "oh you are heartless", no I am realistic about the situation. You either get the program down to a reasonable level that can be managed in house with an administrator or you move it to Warren and Butler County and the city can move ahead.
There are 45000 other citizens in this town that deserve more and better than what they are getting in this city in just basic services and infrastructure.
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Posted By: Smartman
Date Posted: Apr 15 2010 at 8:34pm
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You all know when you drive through downtown it is a disgrace. It needs to be bulldozed! I had the oportunity to go to Columbus for business. I had to go through what is call the Brewery District. It was a part of town like our downtown is, but they have truly invented something there. Why do our elected officials see this kind of vision.Not that we need a brewery district, but turn our downtown into something special? Just get rid of section 8 all together and develope this town. I agree boycot Bohannon Roofing, run Dan Tracy out of town, he is the biggest slum lord going and as an attorney they will have to screw him in the ground when he dies.
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Posted By: Bocephus
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 12:13am
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Heres an idea why dont we set up picket lines in front of dan tracys house for a few days 24/7 make sure its all legal,it is crazy how many dumps this guy owns in Middletown we need some kind of limit on how much rental property one person is allowed to own,just like the limit on dogs that someone can own.
Its amazing how much one can learn on butler counties web site and the property search feature.
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Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 7:29am
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WOW.............
Steve Bohannon has 20 property records listed:
Dan Tracy has 105 records listed, major player in the Section 8 system in Middletown. No wonder they were there trying to defend the situation. I wonder who the landowner is that Dan Tracy claims just walked away from 140 properties in Town.
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Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 7:58am
Tracy said we all should be thankful that these properties are privately owned under Section 8. (Thanks Danny for saving us by being a Section 8 property owner!) Otherwise, they would all be boarded up and dilapidated and the city would be in worse shape, inundated with these types of properties. Perhaps he's right. Heck of a choice here- dilapidated properties worthy of the bulldozer or retaining these properties so that Section 8 slumlords can profit from them at taxpayer Section 8 sponsored expense. Either way, it adds to the poverty town image. Just shows that alot of Middletown's housing stock isn't worth keeping. Thanks for the list wasteful. Very informative. Was there a list for Bohannon also? Would be nice to get that list of all Section 8 slumlords in town so we could "honor" them for their "contributions" to the image of the town.  By participating in this program, are these Section 8 owners and others really helping our town? If we had no interest from people like Tracy and Bohannon as to owning slum property, would we still have the influx of vouchers we have now? Are they contributing to our misery by inviting people to live in their slum housing?
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Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 8:14am
Steve Bohannon:
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Posted By: section8
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 9:30am
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Yes, lets do clear a few things, I live on section 8 with my son. I work a crap job for crap money and section 8 lets me have a home for my son and I. But according to all of you I am just a burden on your great Middletown. Well you what....kiss my section 8 ass. And dont for one second try and say that its not guys like me you are talking about, its the ones that abuse the system "we" mean. I read a lot of topics on here before commenting and you dont differentiate between anyone, you plainly state get rid of all section 8 and do it now
Well I have a better idea, why dont you people leave. Most of you are a bunch of, think you know it all types anyway. All you do is piss and moan on here about people on the program. Are some people abusing the system hell yes, is everyone (like you make it seem) hell NO!!
Oh, and no I didn't move here for section 8, I have lived here my entire life, which is more than most on here can say. You dont like the Middletown has turned out then move to Monroe, Franklin or how about Alaska, bet they dont have much section 8.
Bunch of cry babies, the real losers in this town are all of you. ------------- Secton 8 Rocks...and you know it |
Posted By: swohio75
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 9:46am
| Some of those are duplicate listings. But still. |
Posted By: swohio75
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 9:50am
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New player in the Section 8 biz???
Looking at one of the records, Integrity Property has a West Chester address. If you search that address, the name on it is MICHELLE & NEIL F WARNER
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Posted By: Bobbie
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 10:05am
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You really can not blame the landlords for having properties on Section 8. Look at what they are paid and know that it is guarenteed. If I owned properties, I would put them on Sec 8 as well. We do have too many vouchers in Middletown, I know several people on Sec 8 that are good wholesome people. I also know of individuals that are trying to get on Sec 8 that have no business on it. What I don't understand is why it is so hard to lower this number. First there should be no advertising for anyone to be on a list. Second as someone leaves - the voucher is not given to someone else. Are there unannounced visits to individuals on Sec 8 - should be - I think you would see there are some that abuse the system and could be kicked off.
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Posted By: Bobbie
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 10:06am
| I will also state Mr Bohannon is a very good man. I know he takes care of his properties. By know means should he be classified as a slumlord. |
Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 10:12am
| Bobbie it has nothing to do with being a good man. It is about what is happening to our city. |
Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 10:13am
Integrity Property Holdings LLC
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Posted By: Bobbie
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 10:32am
| Wasteful - I did not mean it to come across that in a negative manner. What I was saying is there is no way to get rid of the program all together. I have no problem helping out those that deserve it. However the ones that do not should be kicked off. |
Posted By: Bill
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 10:35am
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"Section8", it is not that YOU specifically are a burden...but we don't want 5,000 of you in town. Too many low or no income people mean little to no money for this town to provide services. Too many poor in an area are a drag on society -- sucking more services out of tax dollars than they contribute.
It's about balance. And if you want all of us taxpayers to leave, how do you think this town can afford the fire runs, police service, water, sewer, etc. than are required??
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Posted By: Bill
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 10:40am
| Bobbie, I have an issue with your thought "I have no problem helping out those that deserve it." What does deserve mean? Only in this country does someone who makes $8/hour and has 3 kids end up being entitled to live in their own house, with our tax dollards. What happened to apartments? Why do those "in need" deserve a home with 1500 sq feet, a yard, and picket fence? |
Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 10:41am
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Section8 maybe you should go back and read and try to comprehend what you read before you say, " to all of you I am just a burden on your great Middletown. Well you what....kiss my section 8 ass."
No doubt some want Section 8 gone from the city, but many have also recommended a reduction of section 8 vouchers to a reasonable level with the balance of the vouchers going to Warren and Butler Counties, but of course you don't recognize those statements, with your despicable comments.
Whether you want to admit it or not, excessive Section 8 for whatever reason is not good for any community as has been stated on here many times by others.
The fact you have a crappy job for crappy wages is your problem not ours, get some training in something and get a better job. Please don't' say I can't I have children, etc. I have kids too and I also only have a high school education and I don't have a crappy job, for crappy wages.
It was such a pleasure reading your lovely first post on this board, I am sure more of the same is to come.
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Posted By: swohio75
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 10:49am
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Keep in mind that all those properties listed above may or may not be currently rented to Section 8 tenants. A property is only classified as Section 8 when there is a Section 8 tenant living there.
In reality, there isn't such a thing as Section 8 property.
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Posted By: Bill
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 10:57am
| as I think Vet pointed out, while Sec8 is part of the problem it's more like a spoke in the wheel of Middletown. The issue is getting in more people who can be homeowners and take care of properties, pay taxes, etc. |
Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 11:01am
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As a landlord don't you and your property have to be registered with CONSOC or the MPHA? |
Posted By: Bobbie
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 11:04am
Well Bill sorry you have issues with what I say - you come across to me as someone with more money then brains. Too many poor people in the area are a drag on society.
When I say some people that deserve it, I am speaking of a veteran that I know that does not have enough money to survive without assistance. He also contributes to Middletown in other ways then taxes. I have personally sat down and talked with another recipeint - she also works with the city and a does some volunteer work in the community to the abiltity that she can. See her health keeps her from working full time.
Do these people deserve help - or should we just throw them out on streets? Bill it sounds like you would rather put these people on an island of their own like they are some kind of lepar.
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Posted By: swohio75
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 11:24am
| Its my understanding that if a property owner wants to rent his or her property and an individual with a Section 8 voucher approaches that property owner about renting and can "make" rent so to speak either with the voucher alone or a combination of voucher and income, the property owner cannot turn them down because they don't want to rent to Section. |
Posted By: Bill
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 11:44am
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"Too many poor people in the area are a drag on society. "
Yep, what's wrong with that comment? It seems pretty self-evident. I should have said a "financial drag" (though frankly the problem is a general "drag" as well!)
Not saying they shouldn't be helped and the people you mentioned are deserving of help. Two problems: who qualifies as deserving and how much should they be helped. I would guess most of the S8 recipients are not in a similar situation as your examples. And the level of help is another issue. Why are people getting vouchers for $800-1000 a month for rental assistance? This amount is so high that it is surprising the renter has to come up with additional money on top of it. When you only have to pay $100/month out of your own pocket I can see it fostering complacency in some people. And why can't folks find a $500 apartment? Why should every person be able to get into a house? Is it now part of the Bill of Rights that any person, regardless of effort, is entitled to live in a house?
It is often said that elections have consequences. Well, not paying attention in school, not trying to improve your skillset, not having 3 kids by the age of 22, all should have consequences too. We have a whole generation of people now who feel a total disconnect between their choices and their lifestyle. If they can get a medical card, a S8 house, heck thrown in a disability claim, then they've made it. As the Jeffersons said "well, we movin on up!"
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Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 11:44am
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Can I refuse to rent to an individual? You have the right to select the tenant you want for your unit using whatever criteria you determine. However, you must not discriminate against an individual because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, familial status, or disability. In some jurisdictions, you cannot refuse to rent to someone just because he or she has Section 8 (called course of income). |
Posted By: section8
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 11:47am
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Wasteful, "Whether you want to admit it or not, excessive Section 8 for whatever reason is not good for any community as has been stated on here many times by others."
See once again you read what you want, I never said that too much section 8 wasn't a problem. But is it the person on section 8's fault or the city in which allows this much? We both know its the city's fault, so why not go beat up on them instead of the persons on the program. I know...the big bad city wont listen.
My point is stop blaming those on the program and start blaming the ones that made it this way. As for my job and education, I too have a high school education along with some college ( a small amount), but hey guess what, there are no jobs to be found. And I do make decent money but when you do it alone, decent money doesn't cut it. The "OTHERS" you speak of have done nothing more than talk poorly about those living on the program and now you are attacking the landlords.
My god why not march down to city hall and tell those in charge how you feel ? Is it because that would require too much effort? My issue was not with you Wasteful, but we can it with you if you want.
All I was saying was to take your angry out on the right people. ------------- Secton 8 Rocks...and you know it |
Posted By: section8
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 11:49am
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Bobbie, so in your eyes the only people that deserve Section 8 are Vets? Is that your stance? Please tell me, so I can tell you just how big of a moron/ jack ass you are. ------------- Secton 8 Rocks...and you know it |
Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 11:59am
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Bobbie why do you and so many in Middletown have a hard time understanding having a "Balance". Is it solely Middletown's job to take care of Butler Counties Poor and indigent....NO, but according to many of you it is. Middletown can not afford the financial drain on its limited resources while the rest of the county basically turns a blind eye to the issue.
Middletown is stuck in this situation because of poor leadership and an overabundance of Cheap, Old housing.
Why do you feel it is Middletown's job to shoulder 1662 vouchers while other than Hamilton the rest of the county has basically none to very little?
Why must Middletown continue to suffer financially and economically?
No one benefits from a imbalance of Poverty and excessive section 8. It is not a matter of not helping it is a matter of knowing the limits a city can financially and economically handle and Middletown has exceeded those limits now we all suffer for it.
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Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 12:13pm
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Section8 states, " now you are attacking the landlords." Please show me any post in this topic where I have attacked a Landlord.
I knew we could count on more informative and colorful posts from you.
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Posted By: section8
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 12:28pm
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Wasteful, Tell me are you a coincided person? Is every post made on this directed to you? Gosh you are special. I guess, I guess we should just name who we are talking about so Mr. Wasteful knows the word does not revolve around him. ------------- Secton 8 Rocks...and you know it |
Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 12:35pm
"My issue was not with you Wasteful, but we can it with you if you want." It seems you have made it that way with your silly threats as if I am to start shaking in my boots from your senseless drivel that spews forth from your keyboard.
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Posted By: Bobbie
Date Posted: Apr 16 2010 at 1:09pm
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Wasteful - read all of my posts before you make comments to me. I stated in earlier posts there are ways to lower this amount , the city and CONSOC make it like it should be brain surgery. I understand balance more then you think - I understand it alot with the value of my home being less then what I purchased it for. Section 8 was meant to get people on their feet - it is grossly abused by many. What I say is get the abusers out of the system, I really think we would be in a lot better shape in this town if we did so.
Section 8 - I don't know you - I posted about 2 individuals that I know. It would wrong for me to say if you deserve the benefit or not - since I don't know you. I do know of some people on section 8 that claim to be disabled - yet they work under the table to make extra money. Does it seem fair that I or anyone else on this forum should be paying for their house. Section 8 is there to help when in need - not to live on it the rest of your life. By the way - I am also a single parent, I work 2 jobs to pay my bills.
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Posted By: wannaknow
Date Posted: Apr 17 2010 at 6:03am
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I have a good friend who recently was approved for section 8 for the house she has rented for several years. She is retired, in bad health and unable to work. Just recently she took custody of her grandchildren because they were living at Hope house or on the street. I don't know what she would have done if she had not been offered this assistance. If she had not taken the kids they would have ended up in children's services, another "financial drain" to the system.
So, who do you blame? Her for not having a better education 30 years ago? Her children for having children they can't afford to feed and clothe? Where do we start to fix this and other situations like this? We can't deny help to people when they are just trying to survive. We can't let children live on the street because their parents made bad decisions. Section 8 is not a solution. There will always be people that need help and hopefully there will always be people to help them. If we don't help the children now, and I mean with more than housing, what will the future hold for all of us.
The property owners are providing a much needed service to the community. I live in Ward 1 ghetto so I know what happens to vacant houses . . crack heads move in. In my opinion it would be much better to have a family in that house. Property owners are guaranteed monthly income and should be held accountable for the condition of the house but more importantly for the type of people they allow to live there.
The real problem with section 8 is the blood suckers who see the dollar signs and forget about the people. We have some property owners that have a slum house and get 10 times what it's worth because they can. We have some greedy beaurocrat (sp) sitting in an office making a salary $100,000+ per year complaining that a single parent making $10 an hour "won't" take care of their own financial needs. This city spends a lot of money for an outside source to govern section 8. A lot of people have made a lot of money and none of those people were the ones that needed it. I see the posts where everyone is caught up with determining if the inspections were done correctly, who does the inspections, is the paperwork correct, is the house a slum, is the landlord really a slumlord? This isn't the problem. You have to start farther back; educate the children now so the future can be different. It is a drain on the city but can we not provide housing to people living on the street? Can we deny food to a child because their parent is negligent? Humanity doesn't have a dollar sign.
I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and say there has to be changes made with our city government. The financial burden should be equally divided among the entire community. We need to find a solution not a band-aid. Too many people are putting government money in their pocket or using it for other things. I'm not sure that they want to stop the money train. Bitching about it on this website will not accomplish much. We all know that we need to make changes and voting is the only way that will happen. Should we go door knocking to inspire our complacent neighbors to vote differently? I have rambled on enough. I think there are others like me that want to do something but lack direction. It is frightening to see Middletown go downhill so quickly.
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Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Apr 17 2010 at 8:59am
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Bobbie it is not CONSOC or the City that makes it Rocket Science it is HUD according to the city. But you also have to understand with CONSOC the more vouchers they hand out each month the more money they make, so for them cutting vouchers is a financial loss, no incentive for them to see any vouchers not in use.
HUD according to the city says you can't just hand over part of your vouchers, you must show some type of hardship on the city by having so many vouchers if I understand it correctly.
I am with you someone turns in a voucher do not re-issue it. Shut down the waiting list and start cutting. It is not a matter of who deserves what when it comes to Section 8. It is a matter of this City as a whole and its residents deserve better that what we are getting from our Government.
wannaknow I am not sure what you mean by this comment, "The financial burden should be equally divided among the entire community." As far as I can see Middletown is doing far more than it's share and I agree that the leadership is to blame for this, but so are the residents. Middletown has become a community that does not tackle it's problems head on. TV Middletown is a prime example of this. TV Middletown deals with information which is just about exclusively about Charities, minorities, United Way, Salvation Army, Hope House, the Schools , the Library, Middletown Community Foundation, etc. etc. etc. etc. TV Middletown does not deal with the any issue that is a problem in Middletown, unless it is a powder puff issue. Most citizens sit with their heads in the sand and the City chugs along sinking farther and farther into oblivion.
Children will not go hungry and their are agencies to see to this. As far as the vacate houses, Middletown claims to have 2000 that need to go. So lets hire a crew of 3 or 4 as has been stated on here before and start tearing these houses down. A crew that works 8 hrs a day 5 days a week and does nothing but rid the City of these blighted properties. If you are paying $7-10k a house now to knock them down after 20-25 houses you have paid for a crew of 3 to 4 to work for for a year.
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Posted By: swohio75
Date Posted: Apr 17 2010 at 11:11am
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There are three basic questions evolving from this conversation: 1.) Is there too much Section 8 housing? That's a more philosophical discussion that will likely continue for a long time coming 2.) Does Middletown have too many Section 8 vouchers in proportion to the rest of Butler County and should something be done about it Yes and Yes 3.) Are certain Section 8 landlords protecting their self-interests in advocating for no changes to the program I have my own opinion, and I am sure you do too. But only these landlords know their true intentions. I am also tired to hearing how Middletown has too much old housing. No. It has too much old housing that has not been maintained. And Section 9 programs are not the means to deal with making sure old homes are maintained. Here is a good example of an older home that appears to have been recently remodeled in an established neighborhood This home is 106 years old. An investor purchased it for $7,000, made improvements had has listed it for a reasonable price. I wish there were more examples of this: http://sibcycline.com/viewlisting.asp?mls=1218018&b=CIN&p=RESI&s=SFRD&m=1&sender=SearchResults&a=2415-Sherman-Ave-Middletown-South-OH-45044 |
Posted By: wannaknow
Date Posted: Apr 17 2010 at 7:47pm
| Sorry Wasteful, when I said the community I meant the other towns. Why should Middletown take so many applications. Each town or county should take care of their own. Back in the day, when families were close, the family took care of their own. Too bad we don't bond like that anymore. I probably should just keep my opinions to myself. |
Posted By: Pacman
Date Posted: Apr 19 2010 at 7:11am
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To watch the meeting online:
http://www.blip.tv/file/3495191 - http://www.blip.tv/file/3495191
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Posted By: Mike_Presta
Date Posted: Apr 20 2010 at 11:35pm
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Pac, Thanks for the link!! ------------- “Mulligan said he ... doesn’t believe they necessarily make the return on investment necessary to keep funding them.” …The Middletown Journal, January 30, 2012 |