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On Tuesday, the LaGrange City Council discussed tearing down condemned houses.

During the council reports section of the LaGrange City Council work session on Tuesday morning, Councilman Nathan Gaskins urged the city to cut back on code enforcement.

Gaskin acknowledged that the council had previously stepped up enforcement to discourage slum lords but he said it is hurting the wrong people.

“I was inundated with many phone calls after court proceedings,” Gaskin said. “They said that when they went to court, it was filled with disabled, elderly, poor, black folks from the front to the back. There were no landlords. It was all people who were trying to keep what they have.”

“If we’re going to be aggressive with code enforcement. We need to be aggressive with helping the people because the people who wind up getting hurt off the bat are the ones who can’t afford to defend themselves. My request to this council is that you rethink your position about it, taking a hard stance in code enforcement, because it’s not the slum lords that get hit; it’s the poor folks,” Gaskin said.

Mayor Jim Arrington said that he believes the people losing their homes from the court proceedings are not homeowners or tenants. They are people living in abandoned houses.

City Attorney Jeff Todd took issue with the characterization of what was happening with the homes that are being torn down.

“I’ll be glad to share all the cases that we had in this recent nuisance report and show you the titles on how long they’ve been vacant and the pictures and who showed up [to court]. I’ll be glad to because, obviously, I was there and I would take issue. I’ll be glad to show you all those cases, and I think you’ll feel a lot better about that day in court,” Todd said.

Arrington suggested that the city cannot simply ignore complaints from neighbors either.

Gaskin said some people cannot improve their homes, saying he knows of an elderly woman who needs to paint her house but can’t.

“She doesn’t have the physical capability to paint. She doesn’t have the money to paint. Who can she go to for help unless she knows that there is a problem?” Gaskin asked.

Arrington said the city would not cite someone for not having their house painted and certainly wouldn’t take it away from them for it.

Councilwoman Darby Pippin said non-profits, like Mission Serve which is returning in the summer, can help people with repairs to their homes but they have to own them, not rent. They don’t help landlords.

Todd said the goal of the nuisance abatement program is not to tear the house down. 

“That’s the last thing we want to do is tear a house down. It costs us money to tear a house down. We bend over backward to give people the opportunity to do to fix them up,” Todd said.

Todd suggested that Gaskin come to the next nuisance abatement court session to see what is really going on.

“None of this is a surprise to anybody. These places, they didn’t look bad yesterday and people didn’t die yesterday,” Todd said. “One we had this time, the estate was almost two years old. At some point, you’ve got to do something. It’s the neighbors that are complaining. You’ll feel better about it if you’ll come to at least one.”

“People get all the chances in the world. It’s due process. You can’t go tear somebody’s house down without a due process, and we give it in spades,” Todd said.