The Maryland Department of the Environment issued 11 enforcement actions against 11 Baltimore City property owners for lead paint violations.  The enforcement actions resulted in $267,500 in fines, and affected 75 properties.  Many thanks to the MDE for the excellent work they do on behalf of Baltimore City’s residents.

The property owners are as follows:

• Oluranti Jacob Awe
• Richard Burke and John Burke
• American Equity Rentals Three, LLC (Registered Agent:  Julius Balzac, 11436 Cronridge Drive, Owings Mills, MD 21117)
• LKW Real Estate, Inc (Not a registered corporation in Maryland)
• 3133 North Calvert, LLC  (Registered Agent:  Gordon D. Fronk, 502 Washington Avenue #700, Towson, MD 21204)
• Pride Investment & Development, LLC  (Registered Agent:  John Conway 916 Whitelock Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217)
• Syed Zakir Shah, Shamim Shah, and Shah Real Estate, LLC
• Ida Gowans
• TMG 21223, LLC (Registered Agent is a dissolved corporation, “1106 W. Pratt St., LLC” with the address of 1700 W. Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21223)
• William A. Glide, Jr.
• Joseph L. Russ

From the Baltimore Sun:

A city jury awarded more than $2.5 million Tuesday to a pair of siblings who were poisoned by lead-based paint while living in a West Baltimore rowhouse that their mother had been told was “lead safe.”

The siblings, Dontae Wallace, 20, and Searra Wallace, 17, have permanent cognitive and behavioral disabilities that stem in part from being exposed to lead paint in the house their family rented from City Homes Inc., a nonprofit organization, for four years in the early 1990s, medical experts said in court.

Court records show that the owner of City Homes, Inc. has been sued several times for the same issue.  We hope this nonprofit is put out of business quickly before more children suffer the same fate.

You can read the entire Baltimore Sun article here.

Property address:  2134 N. Fulton Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217

Property owner:  Portugal Properties, LLC, 6718 Holabird Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21222 (Corporation is not in good standing with the State of Maryland)

Registered agent for Portugal Properties, LLC:  Robert A. Griffin, Jr., 6718 Holabird Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21222

Baltimore City Council district and contact:  District 7, Belinda Conaway

According to a source, two homes owned by Milton Tillman’s New Trend Development Company were raided by police a total of three times in the summer of 2009.  A large quantity of drugs was found in 2628 McElderry Street, and drugs were also found in 515 N. Streeper Street.

There’s a new Slumlord Watch in town — Richmond, Virginia’s slumlords should be forewared, because I don’t think these people are messing around!

Welcome, Richmond, to the family of Sumlord Watchers!

October 5, 2009

The Maryland Department of the Environment issued enforcement actions against nine Baltimore City property owners, whose properties were alleged to be out of complaince.  The actions resulted in a total of $205,000 in fines, and a total of 59 affected properties (property owners listed below).  Kudos to MDE Secretary Shari Wilson and her staff for their dedication to this issue.

• Elizabeth Isabemoh
• Robert Lambert,
• West End Ventures, LLC and Curtis E. Boteler
• Marsha Johnson Gladden
• Marc Wynder and 3031 Oakley Avenue, LLC
• BH Property Management, LLC and Jadwong Paul Olweny
• Shelton A. Burton
• Ernest Spellen and Sandra Spellen
• Brett Rodgers

Milton Tillman is back in court again, and this time his legal woes have nothing to do with his drug dealing in Baltimore City.  Apparently being a drug kingpin isn’t as lucrative as it once may have been, and he’s now the defendant in multiple foreclosure lawsuits filed by a Mr. David Cohen of the law firm Cohen & Forman, LLC.

Case Number 24O09003503:  Total debt $875,981.55

The affected properties are as follows:

• 1509 E. 28th Street
• 2932 McElderry Street
• 401 N. Rose Street
• 5201 Invahoe Avenue
• 623 Melville Avenue
• 515 N. Streeper Street
• 707 N. Lakewood Avenue
• 317 N. Gilmor Street
• 2628 McElderry Street
• 3002 McElderry Street
• 506 N. Ellwood Avenue
• 530 N. Ellwood Avenue
• 607 N. Ellwood Avenue
• 742 N. Kenwood Avenue
• 740 N. Kenwood Avenue
• 1053 N. Kenwood Avenue
• 2607 E. Chase Street
• 2816 E. Chase Street
• 2114 E. Hoffman Street
• 623 N. Curley Street
• 605 N. Curley Street
• 415 N. Belnord Avenue
• 2022 Robb Street
• 742 Bartlett Avenue
• 2421 E. Madison Street
• 1607 Riggs Avenue
• 928 N. Collington Avenue
• 2718 Ashland Avenue

Case Number 24O09003452:  Total debt is $69,458.08

• 819 E. Lakewood Avenue

Case Number 24O09003449:  Total debt is $29,007.13

• 2114 E. Federal Street

Apparently one Baltimore “investor” has given up on the 1500 block of Biddle Street, and is selling off his properties, as evidenced by the notices spray painted on the boarded up doorways of three properties we saw yesterday.

All three are in the 1500 block, and all three are owned by Group One Financial Holdings, LLC / Leonidas G. Newton.  Mr. Newton is your typical Baltimore “investor” — lead paint violations, a bunch of foreclosures, a few injunctions…your slumlord same-old same-old. We do hope someone buys these homes so they can be lived in — anything to ease the blight in this East Baltimore neighborhood.

1508 E. Biddle Street

1520 E. Biddle

Multi-unit on E. Biddle

Property Address:  713 E. Biddle Street, Baltimore, MD 21202

Property Owner:  Mayor and City Council, 417 E. Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21202

City Council District and Contact: 12th District, Jack Young

Property Address:  601 N. Calhoun Street, Baltimore, MD 21223

Property Owner:  Housing Authority of Baltimore City, 417 E. Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21202

Baltimore City Council District and Contact:  11th District, William Cole IV.

601 N. Calhoun Street, Baltimore, MD