In 2022, city officials commissioned a report from the Greater Ohio Policy Center that is now serving as the playbook the city is using to protect, preserve and improve neighborhoods.
City commissioners last week learned about the growing price tag associated with addressing problems with abandoned, unmaintained and nuisance properties thus far in 2023, which already has topped $800,000.
Steve Thompson, Springfield deputy community development director, indicated the city is systematically implementing steps suggested in the Greater Ohio Policy Center report, including pursuit of home ownership identity and assessment that opens the door to legal action against negligent property owners.
It used to be fairly straightforward to identify the property owner through property title and tax payments, but increasingly property ownership has become cloaked behind business and corporate identities that obscure ownership, making it difficult for renters to connect with landlords to file complaints, and making it difficult for communities to hold individuals responsible for meeting building safety codes.
Once ownership is determined and city officials communicate concerns, property owners are given the opportunity to address needed repairs and safety issues. By the time the city considers demolition, Thompson said property owners have typically had multiple interactions with and notices from city officials regarding the need for property improvement.
“The criteria used to qualify a property for possible demolition is, first, it has to be vacant and, second, based on the violations in our opinion, it is beyond repair — meaning it would cost more money to repair it than is financially feasible to bring it back to a habitable status,” Thompson said. “At that point we move it forward as a demolition case.”
Thompson said the next step involves a property title search “to determine who the owner is and to determine if there’s anyone with a lien or mortgage against the property. All of these folks are sent a notice and given the opportunity to come before us to give evidence of why it should not be demolished or what plans they have to repair it. Nine times out of 10, we never hear from anyone. That begins the formal process to start demolition.”
The 2022 Greater Ohio Policy Center report has also pointed the way toward additional city steps to strengthen neighborhood housing.
“We have increased code enforcement and response to complaints,” Thompson said. “The Rental Registry program introduced this year and our receivership program are two major new tools now in place. We are still working through some of the logistics, but once these are more well established, we will be able to expand those efforts.”
Thompson said a major rewriting of the entire zoning code for the city is also in process, which will mark the first full-scale modernization in over 60 years and will open the door to creation of affordable household units for a wide range of households. The goal of zoning updates, the reports says, is to make it easier to develop and build housing in ways that equitably benefit all residents.
The report also noted a need for the expansion and enhancement of Springfield’s housing ecosystem, which can be directly connected to the city’s purchase of two hotels — the Villager Inn and the Executive Inn — to expand emergency shelter for the homeless. The report noted that between spring of 2021 and spring of 2022, the population of family homelessness grew by 300%, creating an unprecedented crisis the city is continuing to address.
Purchase of the hotels was funded through the American Rescue Plan Act enacted by Congress to help cities recover from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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