SitemapThe Youngstown Housing Task Force wants a company that owns over 300 houses in the city to sign a community agreement with them, committing to making repairs and meeting other benchmarks set by members of the task force, but a representative of the company said the task force set an unreasonable timeline for a response.
The company, Youngstown Houses, LLC, has come under the radar of the task force following complaints from tenants about subpar living conditions, a lack of response to their requests for repairs and spikes in rental prices. Many of those rental properties have code violations.
The company purchased 290 single-family homes and 17 multi-family duplexes from Gary Crim, Inc., in April 2023 in a $5.6 million deal, county auditor’s records show.
The task force met Wednesday night and spoke on the phone with a representative of the company. A copy of the community agreement was emailed to the company and reviewed with the representative during that call. When the representative would not make a commitment, task force members gave the company 24 hours to respond.
Jad Pernot, who identified himself as the project manager for the company, spoke to WKBN after that meeting and said he could not sign such an agreement on the spot and felt that they were not given enough time to review it. He also questioned various deadlines for repairs that were mentioned in the agreement.
“They didn’t want to listen. They just wanted to ask this question and close the phone, and they shouted and closed the phone that you have 24 hours or we will proceed legally, so I told them, OK. Do as you wish,” he said.
“I feel like they are pushing us into a corner, and they don’t want to listen to what we have to say. They just want to say what they want to say, and they want an agreement, and they want a signature… They didn’t keep a space for discussion,” he added later.
Jack Daugherty, neighborhood stabilization director for the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) and member of the task force, said the task force is willing to make adjustments to the agreement with Youngstown Houses, LLC, if those at the company are committed to working with them.
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