Concern over the health and safety of rental units grows

Are Bellingham residents living in rental units that are unsafe and unfit for habitability?

Many citizens of Bellingham are expressing concern that rental units are in violation of health and safety codes. For years the City of Bellingham has debated implementing a rental licensing program, which would require the inspection of rental homes either through a city-provided inspector or through a landlord self-certification system.

The city council will soon vote on whether or not to continue with the development of a rental licensing program. If set into motion, the program has four different possible methods of approach; health and safety, nuisances, regulating tenancy situations and making efforts to engage universities in cooperatively solving problems with off-campus rentals.

Although the method of approach Bellingham could potentially use remains unclear, citizens are concerned about the health and safety of rental units, “people are living in rundown houses and slums,” said Anne Mackie, owner of Nelson’s Market and president of the York Neighborhood Association, “[health and safety] is a major issue.”

Health and safety of the rental units

Mackie believes that low-income populations (including students) renting in Bellingham are taken advantage of, and recalls numerous stories (and personal experiences) of tenant’s living in homes filled with mold and bad wiring. “When I went to school in the 60s’ I lived in pretty crummy places, that are still standing,” said Mackie. Many of the homes in Bellingham are old, and with that comes serious health and safety issues such as bad wiring, mold and structural issues, Mackie’s concern is the lack of response from landlords to deal with this natural aging. “People will be sick for 3 months and then move and get better, they’ve been sick because of where they’ve been living,” she said.

Mackie is co-blogger of “Neighbors for Safe Rentals” with Dick Conoby. “If it looks like crap, it is crap,” said Conoby of rental units in Bellingham. “My experience as a renter has been awful,” he said, “it’s hard to get landlords to do any work, trying to get people to fix things and pay for damages, just terrible.”

In 1998, the City of Pasco, Wash. began implementing their rental licensing program. According to Mitch Nickolds – Inspection Services Manager in Pasco – the program was created as a response mainly to overcrowding; landlords were renting single rooms to entire families, emergency response would enter the homes and the city identified that it was a major issue.

At least 20% of properties were in need of a substantial upgrade, and there were serious issues with gas and electrical maintenance, said Nickolds. “Homes with young kids would have stoves on top of milk crates, people were just making do anyway they could live.”

The current legal system

“I have 15-years experience dealing with landlords I call ‘the slumlords of Bellingham,’” said Richard Maneval, president of the Association of Bellingham Neighborhoods and a landlord himself, “when you have a difficult landlord the legal system isn’t helpful at all.”

The residential landlord-tenant act (59.18 RCW) states that all landlords must keep their homes habitable during tenancy, and that it is illegal to rent out a home that is knowingly in violation of health and safety codes. Tenants have the right to notify landlords and complain of unfit living situations, as well as to have their rental unit remedied within a timely manner.

“The issue is people are apprehensive about complaining,” said Maneval, “especially if they are just going to move.” Other community members have also questioned the effectiveness of the current complaint-based system. “You need a license to have a dog, I need a license to sell pancakes, rental housing is a business and should be treated as such,” said Mackie, “there are many, many families and nonstudents, as well as students, who need protection from the city.”

The Pasco program

According to Nickolds, since the rental licensing program has been in effect in Pasco the non-compliance rate fallen to between 2 and 3 percent which is a significant drop since before the implementation of the program. Because landlords were selling property they didn’t want to fix, it also reduced the rental market by 15 percent. In 18 months Pasco had 3 major multi-family unit projects completed by developers who were attracted to the high occupancy rate that came as a result of the decrease in the rental market.

“The best thing that came out of the program,” said Nickolds, “was that it educated landlords and tenants collectively, people now know what they are doing.” The majority of complaints currently come from people who are simply just unfamiliar with the system.

The future of Bellingham rental licensing

“I love that Bellingham is involving citizens in the development stages, it means that everyone is being educated as the process continues,” said Nickolds, “because of this Bellingham won’t have the same problems that Pasco did [when implementation of the program first began].”

“I want a guarantee that housing in Bellingham is safe,” said Mackie when asked her preferred outcome of the continuing debate, “I want it well kept, legally run and for people who are paying rent to be guaranteed good housing.”

Highland Heights Park renovation completed

The completion of the renovation of Highland Heights Park will be celebrated with a grand re-opening ceremony.

Bellingham City Parks and Recreation has completed the renovation of Highland Heights Park in the Alabama Hill Neighborhood. The park has been closed and under renovation since the first week of March. Highland Heights Park, located on Vining Street between Maryland Place and Illinois Lane received new playground equipment during the renovation. The park is also home to a basketball court, open green space, and a picnic area.

In celebration of the re-opening of Highland Heights Park the Alabama Hill Neighborhood Association is hosting a barbeque and ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled for Saturday, June 5th. The grand re-opening celebration will be held at the park, from noon until 2 p.m., all members of the community are welcome to attend.

To learn more about Highland Heights Park please visit these sites:

Grand Re-opening Celebration Invitation http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=51238367419#!/photo.php?pid=5694273&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=51238367419&aid=-1&id=568146678

Highland Heights Park http://www.cob.org/services/recreation/parks-trails/highland-heights-park.aspx

Bellingham City Parks and Recreation http://www.cob.org/government/departments/parks/index.aspx

City council debates next step in rental licensing

Bellingham City Council will vote on the next step to take in the rental licensing dilemma in future meetings.

Whether or not Whatcom County will progress with a rental licensing program will soon be up for vote among city council members. According to council member, Terry Bornemann, the council is currently scheduling a meeting for the planning committee to discuss options for rental licensing. It will take 4 “yes” votes out of 7 for the council to move forward and examine the framework of the potential program.

In 2008, Mark Gardner - public policy analyst for the City of Bellingham, put together a study on the effect of rental licensing in other cities, highlighting the most feasible options for Bellingham. According to the study the recommended program would be phased-in; beginning with property registration and landlord education, from there a cycle of inspection or self-certification would most likely be implemented city-wide.

The goal of self-inspection would be “to augment a more formal inspection process that can reduce program costs and reduce the burden on rental property owners,” according to the study put together by Gardner. It would require landlords to inspect dwelling units themselves, certifying that they would pass all health and safety regulations.

“It’s really hard to tell at this point what the council [collectively] is thinking,” said Bornemann, “it’s important to get discussions started.” According to Bornemann, some members of the council want a more limited program, like a complaint-based or self-certification system. Some want the city to take an aggressive stance, and some aren’t fully informed about the situation. “My personal philosophy is to start off with the least intrusive program and see if it works,” said Bornemann.

New bill complicates decision making

The proposed implementation of the program has only become more complex since the passing of a new bill in early March. State Senate Bill 6459 states that a local government can only require the inspection of rentals every three years, it also details the rules of inspections for large units (such as apartment buildings) and the allowance of sample inspections within dwelling units.

“Right now everything is a little cloudy because of the new law,” said Gardner “no one knows exactly how it will affect things because it is brand new.” Gardner expressed that the 3-year cycle of inspection, whether city-governed or self-certified, would not be helpful “at that point it’s like ‘why bother?’” he said.

The framework of the type of program potentially implemented in Bellingham is still being debated city-wide

In his study, Gardner provided examples of both inspector-certified and self-certified programs; he believes self-certification may not be as effective. “It’s kind of like an honor system, a self-certification system would be more effective than the current complaint-based system, but less effective than an inspector program, you can also combine the two,” he said.

Richard Maneval, chair of the Association of Bellingham Neighborhoods, doesn’t believe self-certification should be included in the potential program at all, “self-certification is not effective,” he said “it depends too much on the individuals, I have a fear that the city will still fail to be aggressive at enforcing this thing. The means and methods for solving this problem need to come from the government.”

Although there is debate about what program would be most successfully implemented in Bellingham, many believe that a program is necessary, “rental licensing is the direction many cities are going,” said Gardner “overtime as problems [with rentals] increase cities begin to see it as necessary.”

Rental licensing to affect more than just rental units

The Alabama Hill Neighborhood is examining the effect of a rental licensing program on residents who are not directly associated with the business of rentals.

The Bellingham City Council is thinking of allowing landlords a self-certification system, instead of the more common approach; housing certification granted by an outside source. In this system landlords would certify themselves that the rental unit did not break any health and safety violations.

For Dick Conoby – blogger of “zonemaven” – this is not enough. He believes that self-certification needs to have back up. He says that in terms of the rental licensing issue in Bellingham, if self-certification was followed up by an inspection by an outside source, that plan could work, but otherwise he wouldn’t solve the major issues of health and safety.

The new program, either self-inspection or a more regulated system will not have a major effect on people who are not directly involved in the business of rental units in Bellingham. Larry Nicholas, president of the Alabama hill Association, estimates that Alabama Hill is 15 percent rental units and 85 percent non-rental units.

However, although there are only 15 percent rental units, the number of landlords residing within Alabama Hill will ensure that more than 15 percent of the neighborhood population will be affected by any new policy.

The summary of the proposal estimated that landlords will have an annual fee of thirty to thirty-six dollars. Although the fee is likely a feasible amount for most landlords, the cost of fixing all health and safety problems found in a home that is essentially open to the public is expected to be high for landlords who do not sufficiently take care of their property, which realistically, is the majority of them, either unknowingly or intentionally.

The city is still in the debate over rental licensing:

Click here to read the proposal https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=4b4f4b7553&view=att&th=1289992282f1f471&attid=0.1&disp=vah&zw

Click here to see the city council’s meeting discussion of the proposal (Dec. 7th)
http://www.cob.org/web/council.nsf/webmaterials!OpenForm&Start=14.7&Seq=1

Click here to read the Dick Conoby’s blog zonemaven dedicated to the issue
http://zonemaven.blogspot.com/