Lorain to purchase 'nuisance' home, sell to police officer

LORAIN — The city is buying a house deemed a nuisance by officials, with plans to sell it to a Lorain police officer. City Council unanimously approved the purchase of 1069 W. 45th Place during the final meeting of the year on Monday, allowing the city to spend $300,000 from at least two funds to buy the four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home near Horizon Science Academy. City officials cited a history of crime and a potential destabilization of the neighborhood if the house were to remain with its current owner. The property was one of five identified as "hot spots" for crime based on Lorain police data, Mayor Jack Bradley said, alongside 1608 New Mexico Ave., 2850 Lexington Ave., 1245 Oberlin Ave. and 3251 Amherst Ave. Off those, the West 45th Place home was the only owner-occupied property and "one of the worst" on the list, he said. The mayor's solution? "Get out of Dodge," he said during Monday's meeting. 'Nuisance' Records provided by the Lorain police department that deemed the West 45th Place home a nuisance included 10 police reports from 2022 to 2025. Those reports included the home being shot up at least twice — on Aug. 5, 2022, and again March 31, 2025. In both instances, the homeowner, Lakeisha Miles, is listed as the victim. Miles was contacted, but declined to speak on the record. One of Miles' sons, Jeffery Reed, 22, was shot and killed outside the home in May 2022. Another one of her sons, Larry Moore Jr., 21, was shot and killed outside a barbershop on Tower Boulevard not far from the home last May. The home was also involved in the search for a man in connection with a homicide in February 2023. A man, Elijah Seymour, was wanted for criminal damaging, according to the Violent Fugitive Task Force's report, and found at the home along with a stolen pistol from Jackson Township. In June of that year, another one of Miles' sons, Amarion Tate, 18, reportedly posted a video to Instagram with several firearms in the home, a violation of his parole from a juvenile conviction, according to an incident report. On Wednesday morning, Bradley and Safety/Service Director Rey Carrion said the property had been on the city's radar for some time due to the family's frequent run-ins with police and complaints from neighbors. Bradley said neighbors complained of having to "kneel or crawl" to and from their vehicles in their driveways for fear of being caught in crossfire. Initially, officials planned to try to declare the home a public nuisance — similar to the legal steps taken against the former Bruce Towers apartment complex in 2021. The city filed a lawsuit against the Oberlin Avenue apartment complex in July 2021, alleging the property was a hotbed of crime, including several shootings, and myriad health and city code violations. The court case saw tenants temporarily relocated and the property transferred and rehabbed into the current Harmony Square Apartments. Rather than go through a monthslong or yearslong legal process with the West 45th Place home, the city notified Miles of its plans to file a nuisance suit against her, and invited her in to discuss the issue. During discussions, officials suggested she sell the home to the city, Bradley said. After getting the house appraised, the city offered Miles $300,000 for the home, using a mix of $75,000 in grants from Brilliant Source and $225,000 in UDAG funds, which is a catch-all fund separate from the city's general fund. "I don't want people to feel that the city overpaid just to get this home," Carrion said, referencing the housing market performance for the lot. "The city got it at a fair price." The sale is contingent on Miles and her family moving out of Lorain, the mayor said. Miles purchased the home in 2021 for $210,000, according to the Lorain County Auditor's website. It is appraised at $200,870, according to the auditor. Bradley was adamant that the city was not setting a precedent for buying problem properties — but that it also was not a novel approach. "It's a one-off to solve a problem and it's been a problem we were presented several years ago by the residents in that area," he said. Carrion said the city has acquired properties for years, and used Lorain's acquisition of an entire blighted block near the Head Start complex at Reid Avenue and West 10th Street. When the Hopkins-Locke Center was built, the adjacent block was a hive of alleged prostitution, drug dealing and "an absolute disaster," Carrion said. "We bought the entire block, every single property — commercial, industrial, residential — tore everything down … and then we ended up building six or eight new single-family homes to stabilize that neighborhood and give that property the support it needed. So it's not a new concept, the city has done this many times before." He added later, "In every ward we've acquired properties for one purpose or another." New neighbors Once the deed is in the city's hands, Bradley does not plan to keep hold of the property long. He hopes to sell it to a Lorain police officer through a pilot "officer next door" program. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development operates a Good Neighbor Next Door program to help teachers and first responders purchase homes at a discounted rate in designated neighborhoods as a way to stabilize communities and increase homeownership opportunities. In Lorain's case, the program has yet to be fully fleshed out. The West 45th Place home would be the first, and would only be available to police officers, Bradley said, as a way to encourage its police to live in the city they serve. He estimated the incentive could be $40,000 to $50,000 toward the down payment, and would be required to stay in the home for five to 10 years and that the home only be later sold to a first responder, teacher or "the type of resident that we want to be in that neighborhood to stabilize it." The process of selecting an officer to buy the home from the city is still in the works, Carrion said, and may include a lottery system if multiple officers are interested in the property. "The good news is that Chief Failing stated to us that he's seen an interest from several members of his police department that would have an interest in the home … it's a great area, a great neighborhood," Carrion said. There was little public discussion of the plan ahead of Council's vote Monday, and an attempt by Victoria Kempton, D-2nd Ward, to send it to committee for further discussion failed to garner Council support. "I believe that the public should always be informed about the goings on of council and have an opportunity to address any concerns," Kempton said Wednesday evening. Councilman Dan Nutt, D-4th Ward, said the sale is a fantastic result for the 4th Ward to alleviate an ongoing issue. He said the process is not meant to be a "slippery slope" for the city to constantly buy up properties, but instead meant to address dangers in the community. Eileen Torres, the councilwoman-elect for the 4th Ward, shared Nutt's approval. "It's a relief because there was a lot of fear and anxiety in the neighborhood with people very nervous about their comings and goings on their own property," she said. She said community members had a good sense of the situation: "A good neighborhood with one bad apple bringing down the positive aspects of the neighborhood." Evictions The Chronicle-Telegram has requested the police reports related to the four other properties identified by officials. When officials contacted those landlords, Bradley said, they saw those nuisance tenants removed. "You evict those people that are causing these problems and we have data that will support your evicting them," the mayor said. "An eviction is a due process procedure. … If a tenant believes they are being falsely evicted on inaccurate information, they certainly have a right to go into court and have a judge or magistrate decide whether or not the landlord is justified in asking that they be evicted." So if the city is mistaken, Bradley said, a court can make the ruling not to evict them. "We want people to have their right to contest anything that we say about a particular property or neighborhood. At the end of the day, in these five cases, I think everyone involved realized that the data supported what was happening to the people living in those homes." Bradley said the city was not evicting people, that the matter was between the landlord and tenant. Asked if the tactic could lead to an increase in homeless individuals or families within the city, he said the city would deal with collateral issues as they came up. "If you want me to tell you that I have sympathy for somebody who is causing all kind of havoc in the city of Lorain and therefore I'm going to worry about whether or not they have an eviction on their record or not – don't cause havoc in the city and then you never get to that point," he said. "We, as a government, have an obligation to protect our citizens. But I think our citizens have an obligation to be good citizens." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.