By: Diane Benjamin
Yes, I received this list by FOIA.
Below is a list of properties where water appears to be shut off because there aren’t any current bills, at least that’s the policy. They all show past due amounts over 120 days. If even the first 10 pages (49 per page) have water shut off that’s a lot of properties sitting empty. How many are rental properties? The City of Bloomington has no idea.
Is Bloomington’s accounting really this bad? There are 3095 entries on this list. Starting around page 26 the amounts are below $60 which leads me to believe people moved and didn’t pay the final bill. Nobody is trying to collect? They haven’t been turned over to a collection agency? How many months/years have they been on this list?
Didn’t Bloomington have an agreement with the new owners of Jumer’s to pay the bills? (See the first line)
Total Due is $441,269.22. Since Bloomington can just raise rates if they need more money, they aren’t worried about collecting?
Note: Where are the East or West? 713 W. Front or 713 E. Front? The current owners probably care if they are mistaken for the owner not paying the bills.
They do not want to pay people to collect.?
It’s as though they don’t want someone living these houses. Why? Are they waiting for the property to go into foreclosure so out-of-town investment companies can buy them to rent them out? Thereby causing the current individual property owner to lose their property and source of income? What the City of Bloomington is doing to these property owners and these properties is reprehensible. With lack of available housing apparently being an issue, they are allowing this to persist when they could easily step in and solve this problem today. Truly unbelievable.
Remember the Coachman Motel back in the day?
The Roachman Motel?
If these are all shut-off water services then that is your housing shortage right there. They should use the covid relief money to give the landlords relief from paying the water bills of their deadbeat tenants. Once the water is turned back on then the house can be rented. Housing shortage solved.