I have lived and ministered in the downtown of Lewiston for the past 17 years and I must say that it has become a dunghill.

The downtown has become very disgusting. Just about every street has a condemned building waiting to be torn down.

How are landlords supposed to maintain their investment properties when they have deadbeat renters? How does a landlord pay the mortgage when stringent rules are put in place to protect the deadbeat from being evicted?

I have witnessed many times what I call midnight movers. They are people who move out inconspicuously to avoid a landlord on rent day. They often leave behind a huge amount of trash and an untold amount of damage.

How does a landlord keep a building heated and well maintained under such conditions? The cost to clean, repair and advertise a rent after a deadbeat gets done with it is not profitable for the landlord. Throw in the possibility of having to pay an exterminator to rid a property of bed bugs and other rodents, is enough to throw a landlord into default with the mortgage.

Not to mention the drug enforcement officers who have to use brute force on a criminal that is in a landlord’s building, busting up the place.

My prayers are with our local landlords and I wish groups such as the Visible Community, a tenant advocacy group, would just blow away with the trash on a windy day.

The Rev. Douglas Taylor, Lewiston