Left to right: Director of Development Crystal Surdyk, Jamestown resident Jade Shirey, Healthy Communities Consultant Lisa Schmidtfrerick-Miller, Council member Brent Sheldon, Council Member Regina Brackman, and Council Member Marie Carrubba at City Council Housing Committee meeting (March 20, 2023)

A Jamestown mother is urging the City to take on lead hazards in housing that’s resulted in hundreds of children being affected by lead poisoning.

Hazzard Street resident Jade Shirey spoke before the City Council Housing Committee, saying health issues caused by lead paint exposure is 100% preventable and that no homes should be allowed to have lead paint, “It is, I get, an expensive fix, but we are spending money either way. We are either going to spend it in being proactive and getting lead out of homes, or we are going to spend it reactive in giving services, inundating our school system, our fire people with the condemned houses or the fire calls from the properties not being where they should be, police activity later on in their years when these (lead-poisoned) kids are facing impulsivity.”

Shirey shared that her son was diagnosed with lead poisoning two years ago, “So, in part of that, I brought my child who suffers from verbal delays, speech-cognitive delays, is going to be put in a (inaudible) classroom, who I’ve had so much trouble securing services for. I’m not sure how families have been doing this for 45 years.”

Shirey said Jamestown is seventh in the state for lead poisoning, with 60 kids in the 14701 zip code being affected by lead poisoning a year. She said that equates to about 900 students in the Jamestown Public Schools system who have suffered from lead poisoning.

Shirey said her goal is to make sure no other families go through what she has.

Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said while she doesn’t have a fix that can have an immediate impact, the city is working on dealing with lead in housing from a policy standpoint, “So, we have rental inspection ordinance that we are working on. We have a vacant property ordinance that we’re working on. And then we have a third, a nuisance property ordinance that we’re working on which won’t directly impact lead inspections, but through those two other ordinances, lead inspection, mandatory lead inspections will be rolled into those.”

Surdyk said the city has been working with the Healthy Housing Coalition, which includes county government and other housing agencies, on how to give landlords incentives to take care of lead paint in their properties, “We want to offer a carrot, right? We’re going to give you this big stick. We’re going to say, ‘This has to be done,’ and we’re going to have ‘x’ amount of time to do all of these inspections. And if there is lead found, you’re going to have another ‘x’ amount of time to remediate it. And then the intention is, if we’ve identified it, looking at ways to subsidize the cost of the inspection for the lead.”

Council member Brent Sheldon, who previously worked for the Chautauqua County Health Department in lead hazard reduction, said while the county has received funds to do lead abatements, it’s a struggle to get people to participate.

For additional information on lead poisoning prevention, visit the County’s Environmental Health Department’s website at: https://chqgov.com/environmental-health/lead-poisoning-prevention

City Director of Development Crystal Surdyk and Assistant Corporation Counsel Ben Haskins address City Council Housing Committee (August 8, 2022)

The Jamestown City Council Housing Committee received an update on properties that would be purchased and rehabilitated by the city under the 19A Homeownership Program if Council approves the $750,000 request of American Rescue Plan funds.

Assistant Corporation Counsel Ben Haskins said under state law, municipalities can take ownership of properties that are vacant and either have one year of unpaid taxes or are subject to an order of condemnation, “We have, as you all know, pursued title to numerous houses under the statute. We’ve currently got about 11 of them with another five or six in the wings coming up. And then we’ve got two or three more potentials that we found in the last couple of weeks, just stumbling upon them through complaints and stuff – one on Stowe and one on lower Dearing.”

Haskins said the funding request would go to rehabilitating four houses located on Utica, Baker, Johnson, and North Main Streets, “And selling them to people who, A, reside in them for five years as a owner-occupant; B, during that time pay their taxes on time; and, C, once all the initial code enforcement violations that were written up upon taking title are fixed, that they will ameliorate further code enforcement that arises over that five year period.”

Haskins said the mortgage by the city would be action based, versus money based, where the city can foreclose on the property if the owner doesn’t meet requirements of the program.

He said three of the four properties proposed to be rehabilitated could likely be sold at a profit with the money being used to purchase and rehabilitate other vacant houses in the future. Haskins added the city would contract out for the rehabilitation.

He said once the houses are ready for sale that some will go right to market for anyone to buy with the city working with other non-profits that have first-time home buyer programs for the other properties, “They aren’t going to get them for free. They’re still going to have to make some sort of offer to us, but they’re probably going to be able to get them for below market value in a lot of cases. They’re going to be subject to the same five years and we’re probably going to require them to at least take some sort of online first time homeowner course that we prescribe. Make sure they’re aware of the responsibilities as homeowners, especially as it relates to more nuisance items.”

Director of Development Crystal Surdyk added that the Chautauqua County Land Bank was working on developing a tool lending program to help new homeowners as well. Land Bank Executive Director Gina Paradis had been expected to give a presentation to Council on Monday, but had to reschedule that for the August 22 work session.

Surdyk also relayed to the Housing Committee that the department met with the Real Estate Investor’s Association Monday to begin reviewing three proposed housing ordinances. She said they only got through the public nuisance ordinance with the rental inspection and vacant property registration still needing review at future meetings.

Assistant Corporation Counsel Ben Haskins said one part of the discussion was a clarification on the public nuisance ordinance regarding police action, “In terms of arrests at a premises, if it’s a multi-unit premises, instead of counting, if there’s a 24-unit, and there’s three arrests in separate apartments versus just specifying it’s got to be all within the one unit to constitute a nuisance, I think was our biggest point of discussion, which I thought was pretty fruitful.”

Surdyk said the intention is once all three ordinances are reviewed and revisions are made that the Department of Development will send the revised ordinances to the Real Estate Investor’s Association members for review. She said DOD will then meet again with the full association for a final discussion before it comes to City Council for a vote.