Reform One Strike Ordinances in PA
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The city of Wilkes-Barre, along with cities throughout the state and region have been instituting "ONE STRIKE" anti crime legislation that seize the profits and sometimes property of landlords whose tenants are ACCUSED of illegal behavior.
These tenants may have passed background checks, and the landlords are never accused of complicity in the wrongdoing before such seizure. It is done simply because they are the landlord and property owner.
This illegal and overreaching action by cities, which does not combat crime and increases blight through creating more vacant properties, must stop!
“I will be defending my small business, and offering some common-sense solutions to the ongoing crime problem in Wilkes-Barre that hopefully City Hall will take into consideration,” said Kelly Rafuse, who along with husband Steve Franco founded GPGH Management as Good People Good Homes in 2008. The company is responsible for over 50 units in the Valley. Several had been vacant and boarded up before the couple rehabbed them for use as rentals.
“I don’t agree with the One Strike ordinance at all,” Rafuse said, “but I sort of understand why Mayor Leighton enacted it. We don’t want drugs or guns in our apartments either. Drug dealers aren’t stupid – they recruit people who will pass a background check to get into a place. It seems like Wilkes-Barre should be working with us landlords, as the eyes and ears on the street, instead of lumping us in with the criminals. The police didn’t have to kick in the door, we would have opened it with our master key! To say we looked the other way for the sake of a $500 rent check is absurd.”
We are looking to mount a campaign to stop and change these laws, draft model legislation that actually impacts the problem, and help cities large and small learn to deal with the problem and work better with the investor and landlord community.
These tenants may have passed background checks, and the landlords are never accused of complicity in the wrongdoing before such seizure. It is done simply because they are the landlord and property owner.
This illegal and overreaching action by cities, which does not combat crime and increases blight through creating more vacant properties, must stop!
“I will be defending my small business, and offering some common-sense solutions to the ongoing crime problem in Wilkes-Barre that hopefully City Hall will take into consideration,” said Kelly Rafuse, who along with husband Steve Franco founded GPGH Management as Good People Good Homes in 2008. The company is responsible for over 50 units in the Valley. Several had been vacant and boarded up before the couple rehabbed them for use as rentals.
“I don’t agree with the One Strike ordinance at all,” Rafuse said, “but I sort of understand why Mayor Leighton enacted it. We don’t want drugs or guns in our apartments either. Drug dealers aren’t stupid – they recruit people who will pass a background check to get into a place. It seems like Wilkes-Barre should be working with us landlords, as the eyes and ears on the street, instead of lumping us in with the criminals. The police didn’t have to kick in the door, we would have opened it with our master key! To say we looked the other way for the sake of a $500 rent check is absurd.”
We are looking to mount a campaign to stop and change these laws, draft model legislation that actually impacts the problem, and help cities large and small learn to deal with the problem and work better with the investor and landlord community.
Organizer
S James Franco
Organizer
Wilkes-Barre, PA
