City officials looking make change in housing code; How it could impact homeowners, LLCs

DAYTON — A new housing code could crack down on neglected and abandoned homes in Dayton.

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As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00, Dayton city officials are looking into a new ordinance that will make housing violations civil offenses.

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These violations are currently criminal offenses, but it can be difficult to process them for out-of-state homeowners and LLCs.

“It isn’t really workable in its current form. So, we wanted to make it more workable and expand it, make it more. We been working with the housing department and planning neighborhoods division department to make sure this will be actually workable for the city,” Assistant Attorney for the City of Dayton Alissa Schriner said.

Most violations are reported by community members and city officials.

Last year, there were more than 22,000 housing violation complaints and this year, there have been more than 15,000 housing complaints.

“On that scale, we typically have several thousand every quarter we are addressing. It peaks in the spring or summer. Vegetation overgrowing, tall grass. It’ll dip down come wintertime, more structure issues, broken windows, gutters falling off, damage to roofs,” Planning, Neighborhoods, and Director of Development Steve Gondol said.

In 2023, the city issued more than 2,700 warnings, but this year, that number is nearing 2,000.

A woman living in the Five Oaks neighborhood said she sees run-down homes every day.

“We have a lot of houses that are boarded up and need to come down to improve our neighborhood. And basically, we haven’t seen anyone, you know, try to solve the problem,” Clarice said.

She has lived here for more than 20 years.

“When I’m sitting on the porch, it’s not nice to see that, it’s ugly,” she said.

If the city passes this plan in November, it will go into effect in 2025.

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