City Orders Troy Street Rooming House Vacated
Dayton inspectors cited "significant life safety hazards" at a shared-housing building east of downtown, and its owners say they will appeal.
The city of Dayton has ordered tenants out of a rooming-house-style apartment building on Troy Street after inspectors reported "significant life safety hazards," the Dayton Daily News reported Oct. 23. The building's manager says the order puts residents at risk, and its owners plan to appeal.
The property, Troy Street Apartments, sits at 301-309 Troy St. and 1215-1219 Kiefer St. It has about three dozen units whose residents share kitchens and bathrooms, the newspaper reported.
What the city says
In a release issued Friday, Oct. 23, the city said its Division of Housing and Inspections carried out an inspection warrant at the property Oct. 22. The warrant covered documented structural, electrical, fire safety and occupancy problems. Police officers went in with the inspectors, who looked at the building's shared and common areas, according to the Daily News.
Inspectors found significant hazards and decided the building had to be vacated immediately, the city said.
The city said the property had already been formally declared a nuisance and that the owner's deadline to fix the problems had passed. It said it gave occupants information and help finding temporary housing, in line with its emergency vacate procedures.
"The City's priority is to ensure that anyone living or working in this property is in a safe environment," the release said, according to the Daily News. The city also said it wants the building brought up to housing, fire and building codes, and that the inspection findings will guide the next steps in its nuisance abatement process.
Owners push back
John Desmond, the property's manager, criticized the closure in a statement sent late Friday, the newspaper reported. He said the vacate order puts lives at risk and gives tenants "fewer rights than an eviction."
Desmond said many of the tenants had come to the building straight from homelessness. He pointed to the property's website, which describes its mission as providing "clean, safe and affordable" housing.
"The owners are appealing the order," Desmond wrote, according to the Daily News.
Desmond said he believed the city had already decided to empty the building when officials entered with law enforcement, a date he gave as Oct. 21. The city's account puts the warrant inspection on Oct. 22.
As of the Daily News report, neither side had said where displaced residents were staying, and no appeal hearing date had been reported.