SitemapThey have raccoons living under their roof, holes in their ceiling or water leaking into the home — the tenants of one company in Youngstown all say their complaints were disregarded. They spoke to WKBN about their new landlord, Youngstown Houses, LLC, because they are fed up with the issues and have seen little help so far. In the meantime, the property owner raised their rent — some as much as $400 more a month than they had been paying the previous owner. Many of those tenants ended up in court facing evictions — either unable to pay the increased rent or refusing to pay because the repairs hadn’t been made. And Youngstown Houses, LLC evicted them in droves. WKBN attended four eviction proceedings in Youngstown Municipal Court. Each time, the company was evicting five to 10 tenants from its properties.
The complaints from tenants did catch the attention of the Youngstown Housing Task Force, a group comprising Youngstown residents and members of organizations that work in the local housing sector. They see themselves as backing for tenants and other residents in the city who may have been overlooked. Task force members went door to door speaking with those tenants and logging those issues. The Youngstown Housing Task Force doesn’t just focus on one property owner. Group members have been going out and surveying properties in the city, reporting any potential issues to Code Enforcement. But after complaints from several residents, the purchase of over 300 properties in Youngstown by an organization labeled only as “Youngstown Houses, LLC” last year has the task force taking a new look at the company.
“We received a lot of complaints from tenants regarding Youngstown Houses, LLC — their rents doubling or tripling, maintenance not being done in there, not … having any responses to their requests. There have been a lot of different complaints. So Youngstown Houses, LLC actually came under the task force’s radar simply from tenant complaints, and then we started an investigation into them,” said Vi Aguirre, community engagement manager for Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC) and member of the task force.
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