Contributed PhotoAn anonymous source I will identify only as a "Hawthorne resident" sent me the juicy "back story" of how 3024 6th St. N. came to be demolished today. The story came as an email, which I'm printing as it arrived except for inserting paragraph breaks, and so forth.
Here it is...
Through PPL, we tried to purchase this property from Evannor (Haymon) quite some time ago. It is a parcel that is included in Phase I, so it is a crucial piece of the EcoVillage. It was well known that Evannor was running prostitution out of that property at the time we were trying to purchase it. But because of rules associated with the funding we had available to buy the place, if we even got to a certain point in negotations while the building was still occupied, we'd have to pay relocation fees.
Well, the neighborhood had no intention of paying possibly tens of thousands of dollars to the devil's demons and demonesses, even if it wasn't technically "our money." (Side note: if we had done that, he may have had enough money to pay the mortgage on 3020 and then where would we be?)
Plus, we just knew that he'd fill the place up with "tenants" to maximize the relocation dollars and really screw us over even more if we started playing that game. Oh, and of COURSE he wanted significantly more than market value for the property anyway, and what little negotiations we could have were nowhere near productive.
At the time, he was significantly behind on the water bill. (JNS says: a conversation with my source said the water bill was, at one point, in the thousands...which is really hard to pull off, considering how cheap municipal water is in the "City of Lakes.")
So we figured the easiest and fastest way to vacate the property was to shut of the water, declare it unsanitary for habitation, and then keep it vacant long enough so that relocation fees no longer applied.
Well, we did just that, but somehow water still continued to flow to the property. We were mystified. It turns out he had broken the stop mechanism in the street so that turning off the water elsewhere had no effect. And this also revealed to us an interesting bureaucratic loophole. As long as water was flowing to the property, it could not be declared "unsanitary for habitation." It didn't matter whether the water was LEGALLY flowing to the property or not.
We then got the required repair on the city's to-do list, but kept on getting the equivalent of a bad customer service automated response like "Thank you for contacting the city with your concern. All maintenance requests are handled in the order they are received." We couldn't even get an ESTIMATED time of when they'd get to the repairs.
In our predicament, Council Member Diane Hofstede was absolutely integral to our getting the situation resolved. I know there've been concerns about her responsiveness in Hawthorne, and some of those concerns were valid. But she hit it out of the park on this one. Thanks to her work with us, this repair issue got moved to the top of the list and the water was finally shut off. Prostitutes were vacated and forced to go...well, next door, (to 3020 6th St. N.) but at least with no relocation dollars in hand.
We tried to buy 3024 from the devil again, but of course he still wanted way too much money. But wihtout any income from the place, it quickly went into foreclosure--quickly enough that we're pretty sure it was already pretty far down that path.
Once the bank foreclosed, we were able to purchase it from them at a fair market price. And that's the back story to 3024 6th St N.
Here it is...
Through PPL, we tried to purchase this property from Evannor (Haymon) quite some time ago. It is a parcel that is included in Phase I, so it is a crucial piece of the EcoVillage. It was well known that Evannor was running prostitution out of that property at the time we were trying to purchase it. But because of rules associated with the funding we had available to buy the place, if we even got to a certain point in negotations while the building was still occupied, we'd have to pay relocation fees.
Well, the neighborhood had no intention of paying possibly tens of thousands of dollars to the devil's demons and demonesses, even if it wasn't technically "our money." (Side note: if we had done that, he may have had enough money to pay the mortgage on 3020 and then where would we be?)
Plus, we just knew that he'd fill the place up with "tenants" to maximize the relocation dollars and really screw us over even more if we started playing that game. Oh, and of COURSE he wanted significantly more than market value for the property anyway, and what little negotiations we could have were nowhere near productive.
At the time, he was significantly behind on the water bill. (JNS says: a conversation with my source said the water bill was, at one point, in the thousands...which is really hard to pull off, considering how cheap municipal water is in the "City of Lakes.")
So we figured the easiest and fastest way to vacate the property was to shut of the water, declare it unsanitary for habitation, and then keep it vacant long enough so that relocation fees no longer applied.
Well, we did just that, but somehow water still continued to flow to the property. We were mystified. It turns out he had broken the stop mechanism in the street so that turning off the water elsewhere had no effect. And this also revealed to us an interesting bureaucratic loophole. As long as water was flowing to the property, it could not be declared "unsanitary for habitation." It didn't matter whether the water was LEGALLY flowing to the property or not.
We then got the required repair on the city's to-do list, but kept on getting the equivalent of a bad customer service automated response like "Thank you for contacting the city with your concern. All maintenance requests are handled in the order they are received." We couldn't even get an ESTIMATED time of when they'd get to the repairs.
In our predicament, Council Member Diane Hofstede was absolutely integral to our getting the situation resolved. I know there've been concerns about her responsiveness in Hawthorne, and some of those concerns were valid. But she hit it out of the park on this one. Thanks to her work with us, this repair issue got moved to the top of the list and the water was finally shut off. Prostitutes were vacated and forced to go...well, next door, (to 3020 6th St. N.) but at least with no relocation dollars in hand.
We tried to buy 3024 from the devil again, but of course he still wanted way too much money. But wihtout any income from the place, it quickly went into foreclosure--quickly enough that we're pretty sure it was already pretty far down that path.
Once the bank foreclosed, we were able to purchase it from them at a fair market price. And that's the back story to 3024 6th St N.
Council Member Hofstede had a very experienced and dedicated associate in her office, Lorna Hanson, who served the third ward through multiple Council Members. Lorna's expertise and tenacity was a tremendous boon to all Third Ward residents, but most especially those on the west side of the river, as she herself was a committed Jordan resident (previously part of the Third Ward). Unfortunately, Lorna was ill and in and out of the office for the past year, and passed away recently. She will be greatly missed by those in the neighborhoods who know who really does the work in the Council offices.
ReplyDeleteThis story also exemplifies why the whole "breaking into vacant homes" is a CRAPPIER idea.
ReplyDeleteFixing the water at the street can cost thousands of dollars, and we'll all pay for that. And a water bill stays with the property when a home is sold. Usually the water bill gets taken care of at the closing table so the new buyer doesn't have to pick up the tab. But the presence of a huge water bill can make it harder to sell.
And if by chance nobody sees that until after the closing, a new buyer is stuck with a huge bill they might not be able to afford. I've seen it happen.
Jeff is alluding to the "CRAPPIER" in this story:
ReplyDeletehttp://adventuresofjohnnynorthside.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-on-planned-housing-takeover.html
"CRAPPIER" is an acronym Jeff made up in the course of a discussion about "should homeless people take over houses in North MInneapolis?"