LORAIN, Ohio — Lorain resident Katie Kellogg contacted News 5 after seeing our series of reports on how junk houses filled with trash, debris and more are a problem in the City of Lorain.
Kellogg sent News 5 information and pictures on a house in her Lorain neighborhood that has old tools, garbage cans and machinery piled up in the driveway, and said she believes the ongoing issue is a potential health and safety risk.
"I felt like I needed to step in and reach out to you. For kids that want to trick or treat, it's not a safe environment," Kellogg said. “People need to start standing up against these kind of junk piles.”
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
News 5 was quickly able to find several other homes that had junk piled up out front, car repairs taking place out in the open, or were filled with high weeds, debris and trash.
Lorain Ward 2 Councilwoman Victoria Kempton told News 5 she is well aware of the issues of getting condemned homes demolished and the issue of delinquent property owners and junk houses. Kempton said the city council took action on Oct. 16, passing new legislation that is increasing the penalties for property violations from a minor misdemeanor to a first-degree misdemeanor, which carries up to 6 months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
“We on council know the frustration of the people driving past it, certainly the residents that are living next to it," Kempton said. “Long-time residents have been trying to bring back up the standard of living that we want in Lorain, and we’re not going to tolerate it on council. We’re not going to tolerate it.”
Kempton said residents should report junk houses to their council members, the city department of building and housing, or the Mayor's office and try to avoid any potentially volatile confrontations with their problem neighbors.
“Those who have decided to just destroy neighborhoods, we’re going to penalize them. Lowering the quality of life in Lorain is no longer going to be acceptable, Kempton said. "With these houses, potentially children or people getting hurt messing with this, so there’s a litany of things and reasons we don’t want this, we’re not going to tolerate it as a representative, we are going to have them cited, we are going to get them in court.”
Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley also quickly responded to our story and said his chief building official has now set up a patrol, proactively looking for problem junk houses that have code violations.
News 5 will continue to follow through on this important neighborhood issue.
