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STEUBENVILLE -- The Ohio Civil Rights Commission has upheld a city resident's claim that neighborhood conservation districts have a disparate effect on the minorities and families with children.
Community activist Royal Mayo filed the complaint after being told he couldn't rent a home friends owned on Linda Way because it hadn't been properly registered as a rental property in accordance with district guidelines.
The commission cited a statistical analysis done by an unidentified expert witness that reported 47 percent of households in Steubenville are renter-occupied. While only 41 percent of the white population lives in rentals, 69 percent of non-white households are renters, the report said.
City employees and City Council members interviewed by the commission said the conservation district ordinance was driven by a need to address noise levels, overcrowding and landlords who failed to maintain rental properties in good condition, as well as the difficulty enforcing property maintenance codes when landlords live out of town.
The commission said the city failed to provide documentation of its claims that there was a correlation between Steubenville's exploding rental population and a decline in property values due to issues with drugs, prostitution, crime and abandoned properties.
"Moreover, (the city) points to no information or studies to demonstrate the creation of NCDs has curbed the undesired excess criminal activity, such as breaking and entering, drug trafficking or prostitution," the commission concluded, adding the city could have employed "less onerous means of achieving the goals of curbing noise, vacant and abandoned properties, crime and overcrowded street parking."
According to the commission, the city already requires owners of rental properties to register annually, and could enact legislation requiring landlords to designate a local property manager or limit the number of non-relatives living in one household.
Additionally, the commission said the city "has the option of stepping up enforcement of existing noise and nuisance ordinances, as well as penal codes, tax foreclosurers and other measures currently in place" and could consider other options, like "implementing parking restrictions and exploring options available for condemned or vacant properties."
The Civil Rights Commission has scheduled Mayo's complaint for conciliation, an opportunity to resolve the case through "conference, conciliation and persuasion." If conciliation doesn't work, the commission could then issue a formal complaint and schedule a public hearing.
The city also can ask the commission to reconsider its decision.
In October, the commission came to a similar conclusion in an conservation district complaint filed by Crystal Zimmerman, a former Steubenville resident who said she was evicted from the four-bedroom, 1.5-bath home she'd been renting on Belleview Boulevard because her landlord missed the city-imposed deadline for renewing the rental registration.
While the Zimmerman case also was scheduled for conciliation, city officials chose instead to ask the commission to reconsider. So far there's been no decision.
City Law Director Costa Mastros declined comment Friday. Mayo was not available for comment.