SitemapYoungstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and Action are organizing a free bus trip to Columbia, S.C., to deliver a bill to Vision Property Management for properties the company owns in the city.
The bill, the community groups said, is to pay for “damages incurred by the city such as demolitions and legal costs associated with the blight left behind” by Vision’s land contracts.
In these contracts, Vision and other such company’s purchase houses that have been foreclosed, offering them to homebuyers under land contracts requiring residents to pay for all repairs and often charge interest rates in double digits.
“These companies are picking up on the wreckage of the foreclosure crisis, buying properties and using unregulated predatory practices to take advantage of people, particularly low-income people,” said YNDC Executive Director Ian Beniston in October at a press conference announcing legislation to address the practice. “They target minority neighborhoods the most.”
YNDC and Action site the house at 226 E. Lucius Ave. as an example. Behind the disintegrating front porch roof on the house owned by Vision, hangs a sign advising that the property has been winterized. Just a few yards away, a tree grows through an attached trellis. To read the full story from The Business Journal, click here.