Project HANDS members catch landlords in the act of violating zoning restrictions!!!

Congrats to the members of Project HANDS on Normal Street. Thanks to their careful surveillance of the rentals on their block, TRIAD Investments was caught renting a single family home to 6 unrelated people.

The members had noticed 6+ cars parked in the driveway and on the lawn of 301 North Normal Street each day, and began taking times, pictures, and documenting the evidence. They turned their evidence into the zoning enforcement officer on 8/20/01.

When confronted with the evidence, Triad Investments assured the city that they would remedy the situation and stop violating the ordinance by forcing two of the individuals out. They could give no set plans for what those people would now do for housing, however.

The victims in this case were the members of the neighborhood (who had to defend their space against this type of greedy activity), AND the poor students who will now have to scramble to find new housing because of the actions of their landlord, PLUS the students left in the house who anticipated having 6 people to divide all expenses, and now will have to divide those expenses between only 4. We have sympathy for those people, and we wish those students well, but we cannot allow the landlord to continue to profit by this behavior, or a dangerous precedent will be set that will potentially have dire consequences for far greater numbers of students.

We hope the students involved tell their story to all people to warn them that any renters could be preyed upon for profit just as they were. There are no 'winners' in this story...the neighborhood was forced to take a stand to enforce the existing ordinances, and the students are obviously going to be greatly affected.

What is worrisome is the number of people we are being made aware of who are putting up with substandard housing to avoid being evicted due to other landlords doing the exact same thing. Make no mistake...this 'scared into silence' benefits ONLY landlords...NOT the students, NOT the community, and NOT the university.

Our members will continue to monitor this property to insure adherance to the zoning from now on. We will make certain that the Student Tenant Union at WIU is made aware of this situation, and work with them to get the word out to students. We will continue our efforts to arm residents with the knowledge of how to identify and hold landlords accountable for this reprehensible behavior. Finally, we will work together will all interested parties to see that this type of behavior becomes a thing of the past in our city.

Unfortunately, this behavior is not unique to Macomb. Read more about this same issue in Urbana, Illinois. http://www.dailyillini.com/archives/1992/September/15/theedit2.html

Kudos, HANDS members! Keep up the good work. Maybe next year, students and neighborhoods will be safe from this type of victimization.

UPDATE 10/12/02- The renters never moved out, but this year the place appears to be in compliance.