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.”