Sunday, December 07, 2008
Time to go after slumlords
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Jeffrey Campbell
Campbell, of Roanoke, is president of Old Southwest Inc.
For many years the neighborhood of Old Southwest has been able to overcome many obstacles in its continued effort to improve the quality of life for those living and working in our great neighborhood. In the last two years, this historic neighborhood has experienced a decrease in criminal activity and calls for service by as much as 30 percent.
One of the main reasons Old Southwest has been so successful in its efforts are the dedicated members and residents who, day in and day out, keep a close watch for suspicious or questionable activity in and around their own homes or businesses. This commitment has benefited everyone involved. Old Southwest has also been extremely blessed because of a significant increase in homeownership, and for three years running has had the fastest growing property values in the city of Roanoke.
In a lot of ways Old Southwest is very lucky, but in others we are still striving for improvements. The fact that homeownership has increased is truly wonderful, but the neighborhood is still dealing with an extremely high level of rental properties whose owners take little or no responsibility for their property or the people they rent to.
Don't get me wrong, throughout Old Southwest you will find fine examples of quality rentals where property owners have routinely displayed their diligence with regards to maintenance and overall condition to their properties.
On the other side of the rental spectrum, we have absentee- or slumlord-owned properties where the owner is only interested in how much he or she can collect from tenants without investing in the continued upkeep or maintenance of the properties.
In some strange reality, these absentee slumlords feel they are providing quality homes for renters when in actuality they are doing a real disservice to the neighborhood and community by creating a haven for criminal and/or questionable activities. Drug dealers, users, prostitutes and the like seek out slum properties in hopes that their activity will be overlooked by the average person.
Slumlords need to realize their days are numbered because decent people will not stand for or condone these activities any longer. Don't be fooled, either. A good portion of the slumlords here in Roanoke hold rather impressive titles within their own communities, in certain churches or even certain professions.
I would love to ask these property owners a question that has continually come up when thinking about this particular issue: Would they live next door to one of their own rental properties? I'm sure they'd most definitely say yes, but would their neighbor care to have one of their properties next door? Most definitely not.
One of these landlords in particular who does not live in the neighborhood but is considered an upstanding citizen in the city has been contacted repeatedly regarding a property that had more than 50 calls in one year for police because of unruly tenants or possible drug dealings taking place. Each time the police are called to this property, the fire/EMS is also dispatched.
Can you imagine as a taxpaying citizen what this one property owner is taking from you? Do you know how much money Roanoke could save the taxpaying citizens if more enforcement and/or stronger penalties were levied, including charging property owners for calls for service at slum properties with habitual visits from police, fire and EMS?
Even if you don't live in Old Southwest this issue has a ripple effect on everyone in the city. It's time slum properties and their owners are held accountable.
