Columbus Official Uses Out-Of-State Media To Call Out Absentee Landlords

[John R]

10TV -City Atttorney Shames Out-Of-State Landlords

Tuesday January 17, 2012 8:27 AM

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A city official said Tuesday that he was looking hundreds of miles away to solve a local problem.

Columbus City Attorney Rick Pfeiffer said that the city is scattered with abandoned properties and that many of the landlords live in different states.

Tom Yezzi still lives in the home his parents bought 58 years ago, 10TV's Glenn McEntyre reported.

"I tried to sell it," Yezzi said. "Nobody would even come up close to $60,000. We put it at ($50,000) still nobody."

Yezzi said that buyers were turned off by the city's ample stock of abandoned houses.

"We figure there's over 6,000 vacant structures," Pfeiffer said. "1,000 of them are really bad."

To catch the attention of out-of-state landlords, Pfeiffer said that he has started to notify the media in the property owner's hometowns.

"What am I going to do in Columbus, Ohio? Get on a plane, go out there and bring them back here? I can't do that," Pfeiffer said. "But what I can do is say to the rest of the community they live in, 'Hey, you have these folks in your community.'"

Yezzi said that he supports any efforts that could bring his northeast side neighborhood back to life.

"If something could be done with all this around here, it could be a nice neighborhood again," Yezzi said. "I'm hopeful for that. I really am."