and listened to neighbors discuss the latest Greater Frogtown CDC rental
initiative. Many in the room were upset about a project that would turn more
homes in the neighborhood into rental. District 7 hosted a meeting about the
initiative late last year and the community had voted against supporting it.
Patty Lammers from the CDC was at the March 23 meeting to tell the community
that the organization had received federal dollars to proceed forward with 8
properties - fixing them up, hiring property managers and moving in families.
The CDC would put together an advisory board to help guide the program since
this marks the first time in its 15-year history that the organization would
become landlords. Preserving rental is a part of the CDC's work, Lammers said.
Having a good balance of rental and homeowner-occupied homes in the
neighborhood creates healthy communities, she added.
Neighbors expressed concerns. Some said they were adamantly opposed to
increasing the number of rental properties. Clearly, the neighbors are not
saying all tenants in Greater Frogtown are bad and that all rental properties
are bringing down home values, but would I have felt comfortable as a tenant
sitting in that meeting? My family and I rented two homes in Frogtown when I
was in high school -- on the 700 block of Minnehaha Avenue West and the 600
block of Blair.
If this program is going to happen anyway and if bad renters and absentee
landlords have consistently been a problem for Frogtown, then the neighborhood
is being given a chance now to have a say in how rental properties should be
run. Instead of empty,foreclosed homes taking over Frogtown, the CDC program
will rehab those homes and get families in them. The owner of the homes -- the
CDC -- will be in the neighborhood and neighbors know who to get a hold of when
problems arise. This is vastly different from most scenarios when landlords
never even bother to post their name and phone number on the house as is
required, let alone visit the properties regularly.
Is this program really that bad for Frogtown? Is rental better than having a
vacant house next door? If our experiences with rental properties have been
poor, what actions can we take to hold landlords more accountable? Is there
really ever a way to control who moves in on our block?