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Saturday, July 30, 2011 | 2 a.m.
Abandoned Home Clean Up
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Across the valley, juvenile offenders are cleaning up foreclosed and abandoned properties.
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This is what it’s come to amid the collapse of the housing market. Thirty-one kids, some of them gang members, weeding and trimming the front yard of a foreclosed home in northeast Las Vegas. County code enforcement officials had called Bank of America Corp., which was identified on a flier placed on the garage door as the contact for the home in this older, blue-collar neighborhood. Officials wanted the bank to maintain the property. But no one replied from the bank, according to the county.
So one recent weekday morning, Juvenile Probation Officer Kevin Niday and his Gang Intervention Team used three county vehicles to haul the teens to Christy Lane. There was a convicted shoplifter, several taggers, a couple of kids involved in street fights, some who used weapons. Each had been sentenced to 50 to 100 hours of community service.
Niday says the teens develop workplace discipline through the program, a fresh set of skills and the ability to work with other teens, some of whom may be from rival gangs. Yet, the longtime probation officer is also a realist. “They should be paying. They should be doing it,” Niday says of what the county characterizes as Bank of America’s failure to maintain the landscaping, “but it’s work for us.”
Some of that work is done by Niday’s crew, but much of it is performed by private contractors that charge about $300 per home, altogether costing the cash-strapped county about $350,000 through the budget year that ended June 30. County officials attempt to recoup those costs and related fines through liens placed against the homes, only to be recovered when those houses are sold.
Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani is pushing a proposal that would establish a registry of vacant and abandoned homes in unincorporated Clark County. Lenders that own the units would be required to identify locally based representatives who could be contacted to make necessary repairs, a practice that has been adopted by at least 17 local governments in foreclosure-ravaged Florida.
“They want to make sure that someone is responsible for keeping these properties up to code,” said Ron Pierce, a Tampa-based lobbyist who pushed for the measures’ passage throughout his home state and has met with Giunchigliani and fellow Commissioners Steve Sisolak and Susan Brager to push for its adoption here.
During her failed bid to become Las Vegas mayor, Giunchigliani walked door-to-door seeking votes, and said she routinely came upon foreclosed homes that were abandoned and had overgrown yards, broken windows and filthy, partially filled swimming pools that were primed to become carriers of viruses. Notices are often posted on the front of such homes identifying the holders of mortgages. The county commissioner called toll-free numbers listed on the forms and typically spoke with people out of state who knew little about the damaged homes and made little or no effort to dispatch crews to repair them.
What she discovered was the fallout from Wall Street investment houses that created the derivatives markets of the past 15 years — millions of mortgages purchased from original lenders, then sliced and diced into packages of high-, middle- and low-risk loans that are then sold to domestic and overseas investors who have no physical connection to the properties financed by those mortgages. One result is the fruitless phone calls for help placed by Giunchigliani to those toll-free numbers. “It’s a ghost feature to make it seem as though there’s someone responsible for the homes, and there really isn’t,” Giunchigliani said. “These banks are making a profit again; you know they have a responsibility to help maintain a community.”
A Bank of America representative did not return the Sun’s phone call and email message seeking comment about the foreclosed home that had its weeds pulled and sparse lawn trimmed by Niday’s crew of teen offenders. But Wells Fargo Home Mortgage spokesman Jason Menke noted that banks often listed as the contact for a foreclosed property are little more than processors for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, VA and FHA loans. “You can’t look at (the paperwork) and say that because Wells Fargo is listed as the contact (that) it’s our responsibility,” he said. About 20 percent of Wells Fargo’s foreclosed properties are actually owned by the bank, Menke said, noting that those houses have locally based property managers.
The front yard of the Christy Lane home was a mess, a potential poster child for the broken windows theory of law enforcement. The concept is simple: If you fail to repair a broken window, more will follow, and the entire feel of a neighborhood spirals downward, leading to increased crime and the eventual collapse of law and order.
The young offenders turned landscapers steadily moved through their tasks while Niday and two other probation officers watched. Most of the youngsters knew little of the financial issues that left this once-comfortable home vacant and scraggly looking, but several were surprised by what they found. “This is crap,” one of the kids said. “It’s very sad,” another said. But one teen may have spoken for an entire community when he asked a passer-by: “A bank owns this place? Hmmm, they ought to pay for it to be cleaned up.”
How many people have the contractors laid-off now that the work they were doing is being performed with non-paid labor? I'll bet the couty will still be charging the full price (via a lien on the property) to be paid when the property is sold. Isn't that the definition of slave labor?
Tell me Mr. Williams, Who is going to pay to do as you request. Who is going to level the home, haul it away and once that is done who is going to plant and maintain the "green space" you want there.
Seems to many don't think through what they wish for and that is what got most people in these problems in the first place.
totally bogus...the owner of the house is responible..why dont the HOA's go after the banks like they do with US homeowners? The banks own it..not Fanniie may, etc..thats their excuse..check the title and it will say BofA..
BofA - now known as The Bank of A**ho*es
Turning children into slave labor is wrong, Mr. Niday.
The county commissioners are too spineless to hold Bank of America responsible.
If I was a parent of one these kids I would sue and win.
This is not community property, this is private property.
Well, Caroll, If your child was in this program, it would suggest that your judgement as a parent could be called into question. I suppose you would sue, but you would not win. It's called community service. It's what people who screw up have to do. They didn't pick random urchins off the street and make them mow the lawn.
Talk about enabling BAD BANK BEHAVIOR and modeling BAD BUSINESS ETHICS to already troubled teens!
Corporate America bailouts SUCK and this is just another example of big money hurting the middle class taxpayers funding FREE RIDES for these greedy ba$tard$.
What they don't get is that as soon as the middle class workers' taxes dry up due to lack of jobs, there will be no one to pay the government's debts...oh, wait, that's happening NOW. But, God forbid, any of the GREEDY RICH will step up to pay their fair share of anything, let alone taxes.
And let everyone else clean up the mess left in the wake of the biggest worldwide scam from Wall Street and the Bush Administration ever to hit the planet!
"Let them eat cake!" -- or whatever the food pantry has on stock for those of us without jobs and whose small businesses were ruined by this reign of terror from 2000 to 2010.
Were it my child, I would say "YES! Make them work it off!" Private or public property...who cares!? The point is for them to learn Newton's Third Law and how it relates to social responsibility! Of course, they'd have to make time to also finish the plethora of extra duty they'd face at home, too.
Oh and one comment about slave labor: "1926 Convention's definition of slavery was broadened to include forced or compulsory labor:
...all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily." I say...once you committed the criminal act, you voluntarily submitted yourself to the penalties of the court...if that means cleaning up a deserted lot, so be it.
Having worked at a Juvenile Hall, and Community School, dealing with criminal youth as a part of my teaching position, let me posit that the work these incarcerated youth perform might be considered part of their restitution or community service that is written as part of their sentence to be served.
Many of them would rather be out doing something constructive, as this, than to be locked up subjected to a highly structured day for them at the Hall Residence or School. Hardly slave labor.
This also provides them with some time with examples of human destruction, and the effort, time, and resources needed to clean it up and maintain a clean, orderly, and liveable community or neighborhood. They are thinking while they are doing.
Our political system and elected political leaders have truly let the American Citizens down, with the Wall Street fiasco, Enron, AIG, etc., it is turning into a mighty long list! So it is no surprise that adults(and the destructive economic policies and laws) in the lives of these youth as well as US, have led the downfall and demise of many. Had there been effective support systems in play, perhaps we would not be seeing the current fight of the economic default of the USA. If there were adults in tune with these youth prior to a crime being commited, perhaps that crime might not have happened. One wonders.
Sounds like slave labor to me.
I believe it is a good idea that the offenders are given an opportunity to work and somewhat learn a skill and working with other people. Do I think it will rehabilitate all of them, no. However, some will learn from their work instead of being locked up like an animal only to learn how to do more crime.
As far as the work being done on a home owned by a bank is questionable. The kids are doing a community service by cleaning up the house and making the "community" better looking.
The lien on the house will eventually get paid, but if we were to wait for the bank to do it themselves and hire people to do it, it's probally not going to happen, and the property will continue to get worse.
1. Banks take unheard of risks with home loans and loose.
2. Banks and bank executives are rewarded for their recklessness with bailouts from the government.
3. After getting an injection of cash, banks refuse to help the taxpayers who bailed them out.
4. Government can not force banks to maintain the properties they own, but can force convicted minors to do the job for free.
5. This should tell you all you need to know about what government, banks, and big business are doing for the working people of Amercia.
This is pretty much slave labor and not kids responsibility to clean up. It's the banks.
FYI, if any of those kids are reading, I would obtain a lawyer, more than likely you have a great case against the state at this point.
Using kids to labor for private Big Banks?
Who represents these kids? Do we not have a Public Defender's office willing to challenge this vile exploitative practice?
Who in their right mind thought this was ok? Out of your minds! This is absurd!
@The Next Opinion
Community service does not mean private free child labor. FI!!
Foreclosed homes? It seems odd their labor would benefit private property owners. Have them powerwash the sidewalks Downtown and along The Strip.
Using public, unpaid labor to improve privately owned property is outrageous. If you want to use this labor, pay them the going wage and bill the owners of the private (note - PRIVATE - not public)property for the cost of the labor of these children, the taxpayer paid supervisors, to cost of the vehicles used, the cost of the tools and supplies, etc. Instead of putting a lien on the instant property, put a lien on ALL of the property of that owner and move to foreclosure as quickly as possible.
If it is a bank owned property, a foreclosure against them would be just delicious.
While the foreclosed homes may be private property, cleaning them up benefits the entire community. While it is good for bankers its better for the neighbors. It has proven out in urban settings that unkempt properties encourage crime and the breakdown of social values. Maintenance like this will lessen further property value erosion in the neighborhood while discouraging vandalism etc. Punishing young offenders while teaching lessons about community preservation, the value and satisfaction of hard work. What could be better?
People complain of unkempt yards.
People complain when a foreclosed house has weeds.
People complain when someone finds a solution.
People complain when the solution costs them no money.
People complain when kids tag walls with spray paint around the city.
People complain that prisoners are sucking on the public teet.
But, when the gov't puts these people to work bettering your community for free, you all still complain.
These same people fail to say "Thank you" when their property values increase.
To buzzbomb
With your reasoning, all property owners should let their property fall in to disrepair in order for these 'community service' unpaid laborers come in to fix it up because it (your words) "benefits the entire community".
What could be better?: pay the going rate to have it done and charge the owners accordingly.
I support making young offenders sentenced to community service work on public property, but not on private property.
My mom is a senior code enforcement boss in another state, and she says using community service offenders on private property is VERY questionable at best, and they got plenty of public eye sores that deserve to be cleaned up first anyway..
At Markey, your Mom is correct, it is a real grey area, ethically. If we looked at the big picture, and waited a long time for payments to manifest, those private properties have yearly tax bills, within those bills, a lien for abatement of weeds/public nuisance code violations (that these youth offenders are working off part of their RESTITUTION PAYMENT credit, or sentenced servitude). It make take a while, but folks get their credit or payment.
These youth could have also done cleanup across the street from Martin Luther King, Jr. Park on East Carey Avenue and Christy Lane, and many readers would have been happier with that. That blighted area is adjacent to the new City of North Las Vegas' Waste Water Treatment Plant!
I'm sure the Probation Department is receiving your comments and communications and reevaluating this important piece of the rehabilitation puzzle. Having these youth sit within an institution not doing this is more detrimental to them, so I hope they continue the community clean up service, and these youth take the opportunity to work off their restitution and learn some important life lessons!
Who bears the liability when one of these kids gets hurt while working? With the reported broken windows and general state of disrepair of these properties, it is only a matter of time before it happens. Someone must have lost their mind to sanction this!
Hey, can I get these guys to come in and do MY yardwork? I'll even pay up front, no lien required...