ABOVE: Danville renter Sabina Therenciel, who lives on North Harmon Street, addresses Danville City Council about very poor conditions in Danville rental properties.
Amidst a very crowded Danville City Council agenda on Tuesday (Aug 20th) evening, one of the longest segments involved testimonials from Danville renters about alleged deplorable conditions in Danville rental properties, and landlords that allow this to happen. Sabina Therenciel of North Harmon Street, who brought packets of thousand of dead flies, bugs, and roaches from her apartment; said she was speaking for everyone when she addressed the City Council, and asked for a Town Hall meeting. She implied that at a later time in the evening, convenient for more people, potentially hundreds could show up.
AUDIO: So that we can actually have action taking place and not just talking. It could be over 100 people, over 200, probably over 500. Because a lot of people have this issue, it’s just that everyone cannot get here at 6 PM at this time. Because people have been complaining to me; they’ve been going through this for years.
ABOVE: Danville Tenants Joseph Hutchings and Susan Reed speak about difficulties with Danville landlords; the Rev. Frank McCullough (2nd from left) stands next to tenants waiting for their chance to speak; area landlord Jerry Hawker, who was at the Council meeting for a different reason, steps up to speak for landlords, saying it must be remembered that problems can be initiated by tenants as well.
Danville’s Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr stated that new city inspectors are currently wrapping up their training to help enforce new Danville ordinances concerning landlords, including enforcement when landlords take retaliatory action action against tenants that complain. Williams stated that rather than a special town hall meeting, he believes that tenants with difficulties should use avenues already in place; such as speaking with their aldermen, speaking with Human Resources Administrator Sandra Finch, and attending Council meetings to speak when they can. The mayor did ask for contact information from those that spoke Tuesday night.
AUDIO: Just as they did this evening, folks have an opportunity twice a month to do that. So I don’t see a need for a special meeting; especially considering that we have just put all these new ordinances in place, and we are going to be aggressively enforcing them. What we need is for people to make complaints. They need to make complaints with their aldermen, or with Administrator Sandra Finch, and we will follow up on it. Having a huge community meeting sounds good, but it doesn’t actually accomplish much. We need information. We need people to come forward with information, so that we can hold irresponsible landlords accountable.
Area landlord Jerry Hawker, who was at the Council meeting for a different reason, stood up and spoke for landlords; saying that there are certainly bad landlords; but that there are also two sides to this issue, with tenants sometimes causing problems as well.
