The Dayton Fire Department, Dayton Police Department and City of Dayton Department of Planning, Neighborhoods and Development are working together to increase awareness of vacant structures and encampments of unhoused people, while also trying to connect homeless people with the appropriate resources.
“A variety of programs within the Dayton safety forces assist in guiding unhoused individuals into safer living conditions through organizations such as St. Vincent DePaul and Miami Valley Housing Opportunities,” said Dayton Fire Department Chief Mike Rice.
The department’s Fire Investigations Unit also relocated to the Public Safety Building to maximize collaboration with the police department.
Dayton Mayor Jeff Mims said the city has made progress in reducing the number of blighted properties in the city, there are still people sheltering in vacant and abandoned property,
City officials are asking residents to report vacant or abandoned structures through the Dayton Delivers portal at daytondelivers.daytonohio.gov or by downloading the Dayton Delivers app.
Residents can use Dayton Delivers to report the following:
- Unsecured structures in need of boarding
- Previously boarded up structures that are no longer secured
- Structural damage to building that appears to be a safety hazard
- Other issues such as overgrowth of trees and brush that could cause access problems
When someone reports an issue through Dayton Delivers, the Dayton fire and police departments and Department of Planning, Neighborhoods and Development will respond to the property and identify if anyone is living there.
If they find anyone, they’ll connect the person with the appropriate resources and services, said Rice. The Department of Planning, Neighborhoods and Development will secure the property to prevent anyone from going back inside the structure.
Dayton police Lt. Col. and Assistant Chief Eric Henderson said a common issue the department faces while investigating activity at a vacant structure is finding the property owner.
Henderson said it’s important for owners to keep their information on file at the recorder’s office or auditor’s office so police can contact them and let them know what’s going on at their property.
Sometimes homeless people in an abandoned house may have an existing place, such as a fireplace, to start a fire. But Rice said it’s common to see people use non-traditional items, such as combustible materials, or have combustible furniture too close to fires.
“It’s not always intentional when these fires start, but they do start,” he said.
Some vacant or abandoned properties may not have working smoke alarms, which puts anyone inside at an increased risk if a fire breaks out.
Five people were recovered after they were killed in a North Broadway Street house when it caught fire on March 8, 2023. While the cause of the fire is undetermined, an incident report by the fire department said the most likely cause was people using fire or makeshift heating devices. Flames reportedly spread to other combustible items while people slept inside the vacant house.
Rice said the fire “shook this community to its core with the magnitude of life lost.”
“Any loss of life is the loss of some loved one,” Mims said. “...Every citizen has value and we want to try to protect them as best we can.”
The mayor and Rice noted vacant fires also put firefighters’ lives at risk.
“Many times there have been elements removed from that structure, such as floor furnaces, and there’s now holes in the floor where we could have a firefighter fall through,” Rice said. “So it adds a significant amount of danger for our folks as well.”
Firefighters respond all structures the same — regardless if it’s a vacant property or occupied home. Even if a property is vacant or abandoned, firefighters know it’s still possible people may be inside and will search the building unless fire conditions are too dangerous.
Some people at vacant properties may have warrants or other issues that would make them less willing to work with police.
Henderson said it’s not the police department’s goal to just arrest people when responding to activity at vacant properties.
“We want to work with other resources to try to connect them to housing,” he said.
The department has two officers dedicated to mental health and homeless related issues and the city also has a mobile crisis response team.
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