A boarded up house on Spring Street is one of several condemned houses in the city, including the property next door. More than 200 properties in the city have had multiple cases code violation cases opened during the last two years. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

More than 200 properties in Jamestown had multiple housing code violations last year and the city is well on pace for that to occur again in 2017.

According to the zoning code violation reports for properties in the city, there were 1,247 housing code enforcement cases opened in 2016, with 267 properties with multiple cases opened last year. Year-to-date in 2017 as of Tuesday, there have been 855 housing code enforcement cases opened, with 199 properties with multiple cases opened so far this year.

When asked who is the typical repeat housing code violation offender, Vince DeJoy, city development director, told The Post-Journal that it is usually the investor-type who owns numerous properties.

“Typically with the larger investors, with larger portfolios, they buy houses that they convert into rental units, and that is typically where we see more code violations,” DeJoy said. “Sometimes the tenants are the cause, but usually it is a lack of maintenance and reinvestment into the property.”

DeJoy said he does believe property owners, whether they are an individual or a corporation, don’t purposely try to defy the system by not having their properties up to code. He said commonly they hear from landlords how tenants destroy their property and that is the reason the house is a mess and violating city codes. However, he did say some properties owners who own multiple properties do just the minimum to stay within the zoning code.

“There are many multiple property owners, and I’m not talking about the smaller investor who owns one or two, but the ones with several properties, that tend not to reinvest in the property to maintain a quality property for the neighborhood,” he said. “They are going to do just what they have to do to stay off our radar. When they are on our radar, we progressively do pursue them.”

DeJoy said the areas of the city where they see the largest housing code violations are the blocks that have more rental properties. He said throughout the city, half the properties are rental with the other half being owner-occupied. He added the streets with the most housing code violations is where the number of rentals is far greater than 50 percent.

“Where the number exceeds 50 percent, that is typically where the code violations tend to exist. One street you can have mostly owner-occupied and it is a fine neighborhood. The next two streets you could tip the greater than 50 percent rental and, in my experience, that is where the problems exist. Where you have an excess of rentals is where you tend to have issues and problems with code violations.”

City housing code violation reports can be viewed by going to app.mygov.us/ce/citizen/report–center.php?citiesID=715&modulesID=1.