The demographic data on Northeast Ohio did not support the big housing bubble that was never oversighted by our local elected officials during the "HOUSING BOOM" earlier this decade...
These elected officials should be held liable for violating so many laws and acting in direct violation of common sense when allowing the real estate industry to get out of control locally. The obvious factors that should have been oversighted blatantly start when appraisals skyrocketed in various neighborhoods before things went citywide. Yet, the "Connected" were living large along those inflated appraisals, high property taxes, and ability to hire all their family and friends up the chains to cover their asses in every direction. Our government is so corrupt that there is no one you can trust at this point... The connected dots are all keeping the interceptions going for the players to sustain their seats. It's amazing.
Local City Councils learned to use HUD/CDBG Funding to allegedly BUILD UP COMMUNITIES through not for profit agencies known as Community Development Agencies. They then collected all of their pals and opened approximately 2 CDC's for every city ward that got to solicit the annual funds of around $400k per year which then went for hiring Code Enforcment Officers to do the job of the City Inspectors who are primarily "COMPLAINT DRIVEN" by the CEO's.... This process allowed for so much collusion between city council members who approved and lobbied for their direct agencies to get these funds. Then, when the low income folks needed resources- because of Housing Violations-they were sent back to the folks who were initiating the original complaints(CDC's)... The humor is that most of those issues were driven by DEVELOPMENT PLANS (long range) by those CDC's in combination with the City of Cleveland Planning Commission and City Council membership.... (Also, those plans that should have been cited to the citizens via the public newsletters-stopped getting distributed regularly-so the public got left out of the "LOOP".) Target Enforcement basicly drove many families out of their homes and businesses over the last couple of decades locally. Instead of the citizens being able to have a resource that assisted them with remaining in the community, it (THE REGIME) played God to who "FIT THEIR OBJECTIVES" and "WHO WAS LESS THAN DESERVING/DESIRABLE."
Thus, uncountable families were derailed from receiving resources from the CDC's that would have empowered them to sustain their homes, consequently-steering them out of their homes/communities due to an inability to now "AFFORD" their own neighborhoods. Prime examples of this collusive practice have resulted in the premier neighborhoods of Tremont, Ohio City, Detroit-Shoreway, and Cudell. Just look at all that lakefront development...beautiful-but ill affordable to uncountable lifelong residents due to inflated appraisals from their development and a lack of consideration for the elderly and low income families. As the Yuppies moved in...the old school folks slowly were pushed out and in some cases-very "SYSTEMATICALLY".
Uncountable complaints to higher echelons have been intercepted too...Just read the blogs of folks who had faith in our government oversight and who had tried reporting it throughout the years...Heck, I even have multiple citations of "LOST IN THE SHUFFLE" reports to the Governor, Attorney General's Office (he's kind of peeved that the FEDs took over all local investigations!), and HUD. It brings me to wonder how far up the chains of our local government the connections go-including the federal levels as there appears to be NO HUD oversight either. That makes me believe that these elected leaders have INFILTRATED every single organization in our County that may have protected the rights of our citizens and the public at large.
The elected officials of these eras have moved up to become judges (PIANKA), County Auditors (RUSSO), County Treasurer (ROKAKIS), and we still have many of the original councilman around like (Sweeney & Westbrook)....who've been working this model for "GENERATIONS". The results have been devastating--just look at our community at large!!!!
Are you seriously trying to tell me that they had no idea what the effects of their practices would be on the public at large? Or were they all so intrenched in their "PLANS" that they oversighted the obvious and missed the boat? I am having trouble believing that.
The demographic data has long shown that "AFFORDABLE HOUSING" in our region should be taken into consideration...particularly when we were LOSING INDUSTRIES and those families needed sustainable stability with their housing and market values. The obvious has long been oversighted recklessly and without regard for the public at large. The lack of oversight has led to the "HOUSING BUBBLE" which was a completely foreseeable event from anyone in the real estate investment field. If the average income of a family is $914 and their rent is 51% of that-then they are bound to fail....moreover-investors should NEVER have been allowed to refinance investment properties for DOUBLE the average rent of various neighborhoods-particularly when it was a set up for failure city/county wide. There were houses being bought, rehabbed, refinanced, and sold for more than the income rates supported and in many cases-those houses were shambles....at all levels. Are you seriously trying to tell anyone of the citizens in our county that the AUDITOR and his team of APPRAISERS and consultants were "CLUELESS".... Try again. They set us all up for failure and the statistics are revealing themselves now.....Foreclosures, Tax Foreclosures, and Evictions....
When was the public supposed to get protection from this inflated scheme of manuever portrayed upon them?
Yet, they foresaw this inevitable bubble Bursting...and that's why they set up shop with all their liaisons across the board to be on the receiving end of this calamity.....So, here came Plymouth Park Tax Services aka XSPAND....(AEGIS/FLORIO). Here came a bunch more Not For Profit Agencies to allegedly help STOP FORECLOSURES.... comical...none of them were able to assist with TAX FORECLOSURES....hmmmm... (Now NHS does for some odd reason.) Yet, connect the dots of those leaders and figure out who's doing what...I can remember a great friend of mine applying for work with excellent credentials at one of the agencies and being denied employment and hearing him flip out about it b/c he felt so frustrated by what he offered as "IT DIDN'T MAKE SENSE"....yep, it sure didn't and there was a very simple reason....HE REALLY DID KNOW THE BUSINESS AND HE WAS A COMPLETELY STRAIGHT UP, NO NONSENSE, NOT CORRUPT INDIVIDUAL....HE WAS A ZERO TOLERANCE KIND OF PERSON...WITH THE HIGHEST OF ETHICS....AND HERE HE WAS TRYING TO GET IN WITHOUT A "connection to the corruption!" (OBVIOUSLY-HE WAS UNSUSPECTING OF THE DEPTHS OF THE CORRUPTION.)
I implore the federal investigators and the federal prosecutors to file an injunction /stay for 6-12 months on every foreclosure action in our county. I implore the investigators to void tax certificate sales that were fraudulently achieved through fraudulent appraisals. I implore the feds to make right of the decimation upon our citizens and to order reprieve by the county to every citizen violated in this "CLASS ACTION" environment.
Our citizens have also been denied due process on a grand scale because NO ATTORNEYS will go against the REGIME...as it will blackball them locally....so, we default to LEGAL AID and PRO BONO CLEVELAND BAR ASSOCIATIONS with limited resources who deny us at all places. Thus, the low income and innocent bystanders to this debacle have been losing again and again because they cannot get legitimate legal help without paying more in legal fees than the taxes themselves.
It's an amazing cycle of events that have resulted in this calamity... and how many citizens are being denied justice, damages, or relief from this insane game they have portrayed on our community at large???
UNITED WE STAND!!!