To the Editor,
BEFORE YOU RENT IN OSWEGO, NY BEWARE! Oswego and CNY wish to retain people, yet allow Oswego landlords to chase people away. Oswego City is taking bows for overdue repairs around town, passing ordinances against “For Rent” signs while there are 6′ tall “Realtor For Sale” posts every block, planted like trees. MOST IMPORTANTLY- city officials think planting flowers will keep people from moving and encourage some to move here, YET completely overlooking one of the biggest problems in this city. True any college town has issues and makes it very hard for non-students to rent anywhere, BUT it doesn’t help that the city closes a blind eye to so many out of town and in town LANDLORD PROBLEMS. This city constantly has landlord owners not paying their taxes or barely, punishing families because students will pay more, they do not fulfill their end of a lease; this area even has a landlord going to the extreme to drive people away from Oswego. BEWARE OF MANY LANDLORD/PROPERTY MGMT. OWNERS IN THIS AREA, (Edited Name removed). They do not honor their own leases, raise the rent all the time even in a pandemic, push to evict people during the pandemic where it is against the law, and have townhouses infested with bugs and will not respond to the city’s order to exterminate. Their rents avg. $925-$1300, barely plow in winter even though you pay for it.
The math is very simple; people leave an area if there are no jobs and no place to live. CNY and Oswego wants to retain people, but ignore a real problem driving people away, horrific Oswego landlords. One constantly up on criminal charges for deviant behavior, and landlords like (Edited Name removed) that treat tenants horribly and do not honor their own leases. For example at (Edited Address Removed) a OHS hospital nurse and her son were forced to leave in 2020 after less than one year there due to lack of plowing and bug infestation. The landlord was repeatedly confronted and refused every time to react and resolve. At (Edited Address Removed) the same, almost never plowing for 5 years which is in the lease agreement and refusing to respond even to a City of Oswego Code Enforcement order to professionally exterminate bugs. Yet they charge almost $1,000 a month in rent, and raise the rent almost every year, even during the pandemic. They forced the tenants of (Edited Address Removed) to leave after paying perfectly for 5 years, during the pandemic which was illegal, because the tenants refused another rent increase, the second in 12 months.
Oswego city, enforce your own rules and wake up. The landlord situation here is driving people away. Oswego City Code Enforcement never enforced their order for (Edited Name Removed) to exterminate the bug infestation, and to this day the current tenants paying $1200 a month for a tiny townhouse still have the stink bug infestation the city ordered the landlord to resolve. An empty order not enforced means nothing and tells tenants Oswego doesn’t care. And you wonder why employed, working, taxpaying people leave Oswego daily? Wake up.
-Jill Abbott
Oswego County Today reached out to Mayor Billy Barlow for comment
From Mayor Barlow:
“No city government, anywhere at any time, has been tougher on landlords than we have since taking office in 2016. In order to receive a rental permit, landlords must pass a tax check, so landlords can’t not pay their taxes. We’ve dramatically increased code enforcement with complaints and violations up 150 to 300% since 2016, we passed numerous pieces of effective legislation, assess fines and penalties, hold public hearings, publicize violation reports, don’t accept DSS or HUD funds from landlords with code violations, have code complaint phone lines and the list goes on and on. No serious person can drive down city streets today and not see the stark difference in our neighborhoods from 2016 until now. Do we have more work to do? Yes. But the culture has changed and the neighborhoods are improving,” Barlow said.
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no one will deny improvements are happening locally. going from 0 to 30 is better than standing still, but people do not reside in Oswego improved parks or sidewalks. The middle class pay the taxes, pay the bills, shop and want to reside here, but find it difficult. Let’s not pretend there isn’t a landlord issue locally. One landlord makes national news currently for horrific behavior and criminal charges, many take advantage of college students and therefore hurt non college student families. Many of these college houses are horrible looking, yet very high rent. The rent in general is high here, greatly due to the college, who do not stay after graduation. Wonder why? Also who oversees the city Code Enforcement office? They refuse to enforce their own order in May of 2020 for the local landlord to exterminate 2 buildings on Simmons Drive, causing 2 of the 4 townhouse tenants families to move, and during the pandemic. Parable: We are grateful for the improvements to the 1st and 2nd floor, but without attention paid to the foundation the house is on shaky ground.
I agree with this post 1000% and have been battling my section 8 neighbors almost daily calling code and cops . We are DONE after 4 years of it and they have won so as a homeowner I am of course NOT happy but that’s what they want it seems . I guess our house will be a rental soon enough and we will be gone 🙂