I took this photo of 329 Pine St. S.E. when I passed the address on a bike ride on May 27.
On a dead-end section of Pine Street in Albany’s Willamette Neighborhood, a dilapidated dwelling boarded up since 2022 managed to accumulate a jaw-dropping $768,500 in city fines for code violations.
With court costs added, the city got a foreclosure judgment against the property of $788,062 on April 3.
But the whopping size of the judgment was on paper only. At a sheriff’s foreclosure auction at the Linn County Courthouse on Thursday, June 5, the property, at 329 Pine St. S.E., was sold for $60,000. That was the minimum price the city had set, and there was only one bidder.
The property consists of what looks like a single-wide manufactured house and a carport right next to the tracks of the old Oregon Electric Railway and the Union Pacific mainline.
A bike and pedestrian pathway crosses the tracks there. It’s a shortcut I occasionally use on bike rides through the neighborhood. That’s how I first noticed the place was posted as a dangerous building and boarded up in the summer of 2022.
How did the judgment leading to the foreclosure get so large?
Kris Schendel, the code compliance officer with the Albany police, explained in an email:
“Looking back at the case, the structure had 39 code violations including lack of a water source, structural changes on the interior, electrical issues, structural issues on the exterior, mold, no heater, no kitchen, no smoke detectors, and junk and trash throughout the property. The municipal code sets the fine amount at $500 per day per violation. After months of no movement from the owner, we did assess fines on 11 of the violations ($5,500 a day), vacated the home, and deemed it a dangerous structure.”
He went on:
“Albany uses the International Code Council’s property maintenance code (IPMC), which was established to set the minimum standards for maintenance and is used across the world. The goal of the compliance process is to not reach the fine stage but in instances, where the owner is unresponsive, it can be our only path forward; as occurred with this property. Most of the cases I start never reach the fine stage and compliance is simply reached so the case can be closed.”
Some time ago, Schendel had told me that a neighbor was parking vehicles in the carport so the property would not look abandoned.
What happens there next? I may find out if and when I reach the new owner. Or I might just see something taking place there the next time I go past on the bike. (hh)
How about instead of just racking up the fines over a number of years, they work at resolving the problem? Were there back taxes owed on the property? If so the city likely will recieve less than 60k. Here’s the bright side of this, looks like the property is inside the CARA district.
39 code violations with no response tells the story…
39 code violations with no response tells the story of a day in the life of an Albany City Park.
Are we trying to solve a problem here, or are we just taking something because there is a legal way to do it. As I remember this, there were people who were living there who were kicked out onto the street. So which is better? code violations and a place for some people to live, albeit in squalor, or those people living down by first lake in a tent? Which is better, a tent without services or a structure without services?
There must be some middle ground someplace here.
Staff thinks $5500.00 per day is JUST? What if anything does the Council think?
Obviously, the $-amount didn’t get the owners attention. Should have been foreclosed long before this.. .
Gee, why don’t you just cut their hand off. I do not question fining someone for bad behavior, Did the offender even know about it? it seems to be a violation of the 8th amendment.
After several year & 39 violations, it’s disingenuous to suggest they hadn’t been “notified.” They simply blew off the complaints IMO.
If they can’t pay for the needed repairs, are they likely going to be able to pay an ever increasing fine? I’ve never understood the mindset that says, “we’re going to fine you until you fix the problem(s)…we don’t care if you can’t afford the repairs, we want our pound of flesh.”
We live in a play-to-pay world. No pay..no play. Isn’t that what the Right always says. Yet suddenly, Hering’s screed is overrun by Bleeding Heart John Birchers complaining when the government does what the voters voted for. You can’t have it both ways.
Instead of helping people the city can’t wait to get property for free and push people into homelessness. The amount of time and money the city used to fine them could have been used to help them if they did not have the money for repairs. Paying Schendel to fine people extreme amounts money is not what tax payer money is to be used for. So people’s homes are taken for the city’s efforts then they pass all these laws to build housing to for people that are homeless. The city drew people here that are criminally homeless when they wanted funds to build a low barrier shelter. Now the shelter wants to build housing for them instead for funding. The city and shelter get money. The people of Albany get a slum. Paying for slums is not helping anyone. It is a cycle of income that benefits from people’s misfortune.
Perfect example of over use of intent of the code. Maybe stop constricting in new development and start fixing the city that once existed. Without jobs with meaning the homeless just sit. Many examples of how a city can be destroyed in less than a decade.