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Lawsuits, state approval delay moving allowances tenants need
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, Dec 07, 2007
About a dozen boarders in two rental homes are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place as the University of Akron buys homes to clear the way for a new stadium and student housing.
Many say they do not have the money for a security deposit and first month's rent for new lodging. So they must stay where they are until UA gives them a promised moving allowance of $1,500 each.
Yet UA won't turn over the money until the sales close. So the boarders — adults all — may end up on the streets just days before Christmas.
''It gets more confusing by the minute,'' said Jim Watkins, 45, who does siding and roofing work. ''We don't know anything and don't have any answers.''
UA is purchasing many properties on a 12-acre footprint southeast of campus to make way for a $32.5 million residence hall and a stadium which has a price tag that has risen from $55 million to $61.5 million because additional options have been added.
The university has filed eminent domain lawsuits in Summit County Probate Court to force four property owners to sell and has come to terms
with others.
The latter includes Don Mangan of Kent, who has agreed to sell his two rental homes at 346 and 338 Spicer St. for a total of $308,500. The proposed sales go before the Ohio Controlling Board, the state agency that provides oversight of expenditures by public agencies, including universities, on Dec. 17.
If the sales are approved, UA and Mangan would close the deals within a few days — possibly by Dec. 21, UA spokesman Paul Herold said.
The university is offering $1,500 moving allocations to all residents who are being displaced from properties it acquires. In most cases, they have been UA students.
But in Mangan's modest two-story century homes, they are adults in their 40s and up, some of whom have lived there for years. Some do not work.
''We understand the unique position these folks are in,'' Herold said. ''We aim to hand them a check as they're moving out, the minute they leave, as soon as we own the property.''
The university sent letters to Mangan's tenants this week to clarify the change in ownership, although it can't guarantee when it will take possession.
In the meantime, four tenants have not paid their December rent — at least two of whom say they need the money for down payments on other places.
The four tenants said Mangan is taking action to evict them before the university takes possession of the properties.
Mangan could not be reached for comment.
The tenants pay up to $275 a month for furnished bedrooms. They share bathrooms and kitchens with other lodgers, but keep to themselves and often don't know their living companions' last names.
Pamela Sines, 42, said her room at 346 Spicer is a step up from her former lodgings — a ''terrible'' one-bedroom apartment. Getting her new home was a ''stroke of luck,'' said the widow and former truck driver.
She spotted the house as she was walking to a CVS drugstore, loved the look and ''bugged'' Mangan to find her a spot.
But the future doesn't look bright, she said this week.
Sines said her only income is $493 a month in disability payments from Social Security for a spinal problem and $36 a month in food stamps. It will be hard to find something as nice on so limited a budget, she said.
Thomas Fichter, 60, will be losing a home that is ideally situated to his work as manager of the Ultimate Wash car wash at East Exchange and Spicer streets.
He is looking around for something close by because he doesn't own a car.
Leaving will not pose a big problem for him, though, as after 14 years at 338 Spicer he has yet to unpack the boxes stacked in his small attic room, where the key piece of furniture is a single bed.
Patrick Kolmer, 49, might be in the best shape.
He has an open invitation to move into a friend's house in Kent but is sticking around to collect the moving allocation. He also said he has a new job waiting for him in Portage County as a telemarketer.
He is blessed, he said, but the other tenants aren't as fortunate.
''The fact that we live in a rooming house to begin with pretty much tells you we are no Rockefellers,'' he said.
Sines said she has ''no choice except to stay, unless you know a refrigerator box I could move into somewhere.''
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
About a dozen boarders in two rental homes are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place as the University of Akron buys homes to clear the way for a new stadium and student housing.
Get the full article here.
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