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EAST LIVERPOOL - East Liverpool housing inspectors are finding themselves facing dire housing conditions after a slowdown during the pandemic prevented them from being able to get inside homes to inspect, said housing inspector Kayla Crowl.
"We've really gotten to the worst of the worst when it comes to what we are handling," Crowl said at the city health district's April 20 board meeting. "These aren't [where] they have garbage outside their house. It's never that simple anymore. It's different than any of us have seen and I've been here since 2018. I know that's not a long time but it's long enough to see this is abnormal. We are reaching some territory here that hasn't ever been seen before."
During the pandemic, inspectors were not able to get into these homes which delayed the inspection process, said health commissioner Carol Cowan. "Everything slowed down during COVID."
"We weren't going to pressure people during that," Crowl said. "That wasn't even an option. So we are finally able to."
Housing inspector Amy Toot said that often, structural safety and sanitary issues are so severe that condemnation is immediately necessary. "We are getting into homes that have never had eyes on them before," Toot said. "Homes that have had issues for a very long time and these issues can't be seen from the exterior of the home."
Crowl said calls seem to be more severe than ever on a consistent basis. "This is an every call scenario now," Crowl said. "We're getting more and more like this."
Eighteen homes have been condemned in the past two months, Toot said. "We had nine condemned in March, nine in April, four search warrants in the last 30 days just to get into homes that are like that that are actually occupied by people living with or without water, typically without," Toot said. "The last three search warrants resulted in condemning the home and removing the people. It's just becoming very very everyday."
She said Wednesday she was on a call where the garbage department had said people were putting human waste into trash cans for disposal. "That indicates that they aren't using water, but they have active water," Toot said. "So they probably have a sewer issue. That's probably my fourth one in the last two weeks with the same scenario, people using five gallon water buckets for facilities."
In one case, a three year-old child was living in a one room with unsafe heating elements, a mattress on the floor, and a five gallon bucket for a restroom, Toot said. "It was gutted with no facilities and a bucket is what they were using," she said. "You look it up and she's already got child endangerment and all you can do is make the referral and make sure they are not staying in that unsafe home and hope that the best occurs. It's tough. You've got children, innocent, elderly, people that are unable to help themselves."
The housing inspectors are responsible for complaints as well as rental inspections which Crowl said should be caught up by the end of the year. "It looks like by the end of this year we will finally be on track to, next year, being on schedule for the once every five years as that's what the code states," she said. "That's a big deal. Some of these haven't been inspected in a very long time and we are finally getting eyes on them."
Cowan said the inspectors have been threatened before and shared with the board that police chief John Lane had given approval for housing inspector Matt Devlin to carry his firearm from his other job on calls. "He is still the current chief of police part time for Salineville. Chief Lane said he is able to carry his firearm with him at all times," Cowan said. "They don't know what they're going to run into. You can see the scary places they're going."
Crowl said things seem different since Gov. Mike DeWine passed SB 215 in March which allows permitless concealed carry by gun owners. "I think the dynamic definitely changed when that last legislation went statewide that you don't have to have a concealed carry permit to carry a weapon," she said. "And we go into these people's homes. That's one of the things Matt and I talked about, when he is in Salineville, it's like, hey, come on out, let's talk about this. Here, we are in their homes. We are in one of the most vulnerable places to be."
Cowan commended the inspectors for their work. "They're doing a phenomenal job," Cowan said. "They're doing above and beyond. It's a thankless job. They're dealing with the worst of the worst every day. They are in difficult situations."
However, the work must continue. According to Mayor Greg Bricker, a Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation survey last summer identified approximately 450 houses that need to be torn down. Cowan said ten houses were torn down in the last month.
Crowl said her work is emotionally strenuous. "I can say that," she said. "The APS calls. The CPS calls. Things like that, when we are reporting this stuff and you relive it when you pull the pictures up and you relive it again."
Board member Jeffrey Caldwell told the inspectors that he thinks they are leaving things better off, despite how hard it can be. "I think in the long run, though, we all have to remember that these people are being put in a better place," Caldwell said. "It just might not be fun to get them there."
There are a lot of people who are extremely reluctant to make changes, but sometimes they do, Cowan said. "In the end, they see it," Cowan said. "They see it, but you have to go through a lot to get there."
Toot said that is not always the case, but there are people that are grateful. "Even people who have their twenty-some animals removed, they realize that it became so overwhelming they just didn't want to admit it and it's relieving for them in the end," Toot said. "They just don't see it at the time."
llehman@mojonews.com