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EAST LIVERPOOL -- Columbiana Metropolitan Housing Authority officials Wednesday addressed concerns recently raised by the East Liverpool mayor.
Rich Wymer, executive director, and Melissa Beadle, deputy director, addressed the concerns recently raised by East Liverpool Mayor Bobby Smith at the CMHA board meeting.
Smith, who was not in attendance at the meeting, said he spoke with board member Dan Wolfe before the meeting and emailed Beadle to tell her that he is putting together a panel of people to meet and fix issues.
Smith noted that he does not want a fight with the CMHA and said, "this isn't a Me versus Them; it's a city full of people with years of concerns and very obviously warranted."
Wymer also noted that the CMHA is not looking for any kind of war, but they are looking to present the facts and have the city's population see them.
The CMHA has a total of 351 units with 68 apartments at Riverview Towers, 127 at Fawcett Apartments, 125 family units at Woodland Hills along with 31 scattered sites (properties not owned by CMHA) in East Liverpool. These units provide housing for 534 people, with 232 of them youths under the age of 18.
These CMHA tenants make up less than 6% of the population of East Liverpool. Wymer noted that the number of CMHA tenants is a small number when compared to the overall population of the city.
"One of the things that we do is serve these young people and their kids; some elderly people at the high rise and midrise," Wymer said. We partner with many community agencies -- one is Akron Children's (Hospital), the (East Liverpool Carnegie Public) Library, The East Liverpool Community Resource Center, Head Start CAA (Community Action Agency). We also do EJ's Boba, PysCare. There is a lot that we do. We do wrap arounds and there are a lot of things that we try to encourage the children to be involved in and to get help to the families wherever they would need it."
The CMHA works with the Misson Church in Wellsville to do mission trips with board members and tenants, brings in Akron Children's Hospital Mobile Unit for doctor exams, the library does a reading section with children and the resource center provides back packs of food for children during spring and holiday breaks. PysCare works with children and adults at one of the CMHA sites, and the police and fire department have been involved with children's activities at the sites. They also hold Easter Egg hunts and trick-or-treats for the children.
CMHA provides funding to the East Liverpool Police Department by employing city police officers to patrol the sites when they are off duty. Wymer said they pay the department about $6,000 a month, and the year-to-date total currently is $43,250.
The CMHA sites have property cameras on the sites which are linked to dispatch at the police station so they can see what happens in real time. Wymer said this is to try to cut down on any crime or mischief going on at a family site.
Wymer also noted that the CMHA is changing the look of the housing in the area of the family sites.
"We are strategically working with the police, and we are residing everything with metal siding, which is indestructible and looks really nice, really modern," Wymer said. "We are changing each individual section like the 200 section, the 300 section, the 400 section and the 500 section to different colors, modern colors."
Wymer noted this will help the police in real time by dispatch being able to tell officers about a person of interest in which color section. Officers responding to a call at these sites, especially a new officer, wouldn't need to know section numbers if they have a color to go by.
"Our trying to think outside the box makes our policing more efficient," Wymer said. "We came up with that and plus it makes it not more institutionalized but like a community, plus it makes it look nice. It gives the police an opportunity to get there quickly and be more efficient."
There are over 600 people on the waiting list for housing right now, with preferences being given to the homeless and veterans, Wymer said. If homeless, it has to be documented. The applicant must have a local agency verify the homelessness and write a letter to CMHA who then tries to move them as close to the top of the list as they can to try to get them a home.
Beadle said that the CMHA does not offer emergency housing; those that are homeless would be referred to the shelter managed by CAA.
Wymer said with the CMHA being federally funded they have to follow the rules of the Fair Housing Act, and everyone has to pass a background check and be able to be housed.
The CMHA participates in PILOT (Payment In Lieu of Taxes) and have paid to Columbiana County $221,843.59 from 2019-2024. The PILOT for just the locations in East Liverpool is $200,108.31. Wymer noted this helps support local area businesses, because families, with a lot of them not having transportation, buy local such as the Giant Eagle and other local businesses.
The CMHA paid the city's water company to date $204,343.88, Wymer said, noting that the CMHA is a part of the community, and they invest in the community.
Wymer addressed the mayor's concerns of pest control by saying the CMHA has become efficient with two licensed pest control professionals on staff, one of them being Andrew Swickard, who is also the property manager.
Swickard said that having not only one but two licensed professionals in a housing authority is not very common, and they see that as a significant beneficial factor and they have used third parties to handle pest control and have handled in house with their professionals and found there was better success doing it in house because they tend to care more because they work their everyday and know and have built a rapport with the tenants.
Swickard noted that pest control in the United States was a $26 billion industry last year and it's a huge industry that is not decreasing.
"Being a public housing agency, it's no secret our most common calls are for roaches and bedbugs," Swickard said. "None of our public housing sites have had any mice or rat orders called in 2026. To my knowledge, not in the past three years that I have been here and doing pest control."
Swickard said currently they treat roughly 19% of the East Liverpool units. When they clear a unit of pests, the unit is treated three to five times and then cleared, meaning no active infestation. In East Liverpool, they have a 93% clearance rate. A tenant who calls and says they saw a roach or have a pest problem is scheduled for treatment within that week. There are quarterly inspections in every building and scattered site, and if treatment is needed, they start immediately. Tenants are not charged for pest control.
"We do work tirelessly on the pests and making sure our staff is well educated and know the steps to take," Wymer said. "When we are doing a rehab or turnover of a unit, we inspect that as we go because we will never put someone in a unit that has pest already in there."
Maris Miller, CMHA board member and tenant, noted that the pest control is something you wouldn't get if you lived in your own home, you would be paying for your own pest control. He also noted that in his unit he has no problems.
Wymer also addressed Smith's concerns that East Liverpool and Wellsville were the only areas in the county with the low-income housing and said that it's not based on low income but by income because they have tenants that live in the housing that have really good jobs and there are several other locations across the county that has government subsidized housing such as Heights Manor and Calcutta Woods and there are some in Salem and Alliance. It's just that some of them are privately owned and get federal funds.
He noted the difference is privately owned doesn't have as hard of an inspection to pass as government housing and the CMHA just recently had the Inspire inspection and they have an 80%, which is like a B average, and said there are other places that are a lot worse.
"We don't ever say it's just good enough for government. If you couldn't put your mom, dad, sister or brother in here then it's not ready for any other tenant," Wymer said. "I believe that with all my heart."
Beadle noted that affordable housing online shows that the USDA offers assistance as well and locations include Wind Rose in Columbiana, Roseland Apartments in Lisbon, Church Street apartments in New Waterford and Salem Commons in Salem and other assistance such as the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program (formerly Section 8) for residents who are income limited all across Columbiana County with over 600 landlords on that program.
Board member and HCV manager Mike McDougle said that being an HCV manager is more of a challenge because if they don't pass inspection, they don't get paid. Inspections are done annually per HUD Housing and Urban Development requirements. Out of the landlords they have, they currently have five who have failed inspection and have a hold on any payments until they pass inspection.
He also noted that due to a thing called rent reasonableness, landlords are paid based on fair market rates with good landlords getting up to 110% of fair market rate and bad landlords getting less than 100%.
There are 422 vouchers holders throughout the county with 193 of them in East Liverpool and 183 in Salem and 16 of them with payments on hold with five of them being ones who failed inspections this month.