House of Hope now a den for thieves

By CHRIS COTELESSE

The NewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN

Its doors are locked. Its patients have been relocated, and now a new chapter opens for the House of Hope on Illinois Avenue.

It’s being looted.

The former adult-care facility closed last month after multiple state health department inspection violations, and a court battle that came after the Nov. 11, 2010, homicide of a resident by strangulation.

Only days after the home was vacated by its owners, a series of burglaries and vandalisms began that so far has yielded seven calls to 911, three incident reports filed by police and the arrest of Michael Phillips, 47, of Youngstown, who was released the next day.

Two of the four parcels at 115 Illinois Ave. have liens held by American Tax Funding LLC. Atty. John Zamoida filed paperwork Sept. 27 to auction the property at a sheriff’s sale to recoup what Zamoida estimated as $15,000 owed to ATF. The property taxes also are delinquent at about $20,000.

Bill Sharkey has lived near the facility for seven years. He’s retired, and he brings along his dog, Huggles, when he’s scoping out the area.

“I’m just a resident ... looking out for the community,” he said.

At 8:02 p.m. Oct. 4, Sharkey called police after walking past House of Hope and seeing a man walking around inside. According to police records, a unit was dispatched within a minute and the scene was cleared at 8:41 p.m.

Sharkey made a second call almost 10 hours later, reporting a shadow searching boxes on the second floor. The police arrived after 20 minutes, found Phillips on the third floor and arrested him.

Police were unable to verify the owners of House of Hope. Without a person available to file charges, police had to release Phillips because they can hold a suspect for only 48 hours.

Records on the websites of the Mahoning County auditor and recorder list the property under Center for Hope LLC. The Ohio secretary of state’s online database lists House of Hope Center LLC as the owner. Neither site lists the individuals who make up these corporations.

Lisa Lloyd, a former administrator of the House of Hope, said she co-owns the property with Michael Binder and Charlene Crissman, who operated the home with Lloyd. Binder declined to comment, and Crissman could not be reached.

Youngstown police Officer David Santangelo of the department’s scrap-metal investigations division said neither Lloyd, Binder nor Crissman have provided adequate documentation of their ownership, and YPD is investigating the matter to determine the people responsible for the property.

“We can’t hold someone in jail without a confirmed property owner to file charges,” Santangelo said.

While Phillips was at Mahoning County jail, Mark Peyko, president of the North Side Citizens’ Coalition, witnessed men stripping the house of all the metal on the outside.

“The things that are being stolen from this house are devaluing it and endangering it. There’s a progression in looting, generally. What happens is they go for the low-hanging fruit first,” Peyko said. “It opens the door for other things. ... They’ll steal whatever they can out of the home.”

Peyko also is worried about the costs of repairing the home. He said the damages will deter people from buying and renovating the structure, complicating the coalition’s efforts to revitalize the North Side.

“It does frustrate it, but we are moving ahead,” Peyko said.

Santangelo’s division has made more than 300 arrests in the last five years of people stripping abandoned buildings throughout the city. He said these crimes can create a danger to neighborhoods because the perpetrators sometimes will set the buildings on fire to cover their tracks.

Peyko called police to the home at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 6. A unit promptly arrived three minutes later and found two vehicles and workers who told the officer they were “boarding up the property,” according to a police incident report.

Santangelo was sent to the property shortly after to investigate the calls. Three men were in the basement of one of the buildings, removing a water heater for Lisa Lloyd.

Lloyd confirmed that she asked the men to remove the water heater and secure the doors and windows.

“I have boarded up the one side of the building. I cleaned the parking lot, and I tried to board up the basement, and every time I try to go over there to board up the building, they call the police on me,” Lloyd said.

The morning of Oct. 7, police responded to another call from Peyko. Crissman was at the facility with four men, removing furniture and other items. The incident report states that Crissman was concerned that property was being stolen from the home.

Earlier this year, officials at Ohio Valley Teen Challenge on nearby Broadway Avenue donated a stove and refrigerator to the House of Hope after reading of the home’s problems in The Vindicator. Teen Challenge property manager Bruce Paulette was there with Crissman to get his stove, but the refrigerator already had been stolen.

“They just trashed the whole inside of that place,” Paulette said.

The crime lab photographed the property, and “the scene was cleared without any further action,” according to the police incident report.

The neighborhood remained quiet for a few days until Oct. 11, when two calls were made about a green Dodge pickup truck and three men inside the building. The scene was cleared twice without further action.

Sharkey said he will continue to keep an eye on the place, hoping to keep it safe.

“You wonder, at what point does this stop?” Sharkey said.

TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaboration among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, University of Akron and professional media outlets including The Vindicator, WYSU-FM Radio, The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio (Akron).