Twilight Zoning in Bellingham: March 2013

Thursday, March 7, 2013

WWU Student Escapes Rental Fire

We now have another rental fire in Bellingham that can be enshrined with the rental fires (several nearly fatal) in the last year or two on Grant St.. Ellis St., 24th St., and E. Maple St. You can read about each of these fires by clicking on the street names above. The Bellingham Herald article on this most recent fire can be read by clicking here. This blaze was in Sunnyland at 2338 Humboldt St. in a 113 year old rental owned by Melvin and Barbara Davidson of Bellingham according to Whatcom County property records. The Davidsons apparently own about a half a dozen rental properties in the city. The renter, Kyler Frydenlund, is a student at Western Washington University. About 13 WWU students have been displaced due to rental fires in the last several years. Several of these students barely escaped death or serious injury.

The problem, as with most of the recent rental fires, has been preliminarily identified by the Bellingham Fire Department as electric in origin, possibly due to old wiring (knob and tube) exacerbated by a rat infestation. Knob and tube wiring was basically phased out in the 1930s. There are many hazards associated with this wiring about which you can read by clicking here. In this case, we may have witnessed an confluence of two important health and safety issues; bad, outdated wiring and vermin, like rats, who love to chew on things.

Councilman Jack Weiss, Chairman of the Planning Committee of the City Council, has been working steadily over the last several months to bring to bring to the full council a measure that would create a rental registration and inspection program to Bellingham. This latest fire ought to "build a fire" under the Council to ensure that all of Bellingham's rentals are free of health and safety hazards.

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The Rationale for Rental Licensing

There is the definitive experience of cities that have already adopted rental licensing and inspections in the face of exactly the same opposition as we saw in Bellingham over the last decade. Ultimately, each of these cities was proven correct in its resolve to move ahead to protect the safety and health of the renters. We already know that the city of Pasco, WA found that 15% of the units inspected under their program had serious life/safety issues. 10% had mold problems. A full 85% had problems of varying degrees. The city of Gresham, OR performed over 1600 inspections in 2009 and issued, as a result, over 4,000 citations. Lexington, KY performed inspections of units near the University of Kentucky and found that 50% had life/safety issues. Sacramento, CA began an inspection program during which one third of the units inspected had serious safety and health issues. The question why does anyone believe that the condition of rental housing here in Bellingham does not mirror that which is found in cities that have the statistics to show that time and time again the condition of rentals in our cities is problematic? All we have had to date from those who oppose licensing are broad statements by the landlords and their paladins that are completely and utterly unsubstantiated. The Zonemaven has searched in vain for the horror stories that these opponents of licensing and inspections have predicted. On the other hand, The Zonemaven did find over 100 cities that have licensing AND inspections without the catastrophic effect for the rental markets that the landlords would have you believe. (See this blog's sidebar at bottom left for list)

One Reason Illegal Rooming Houses Do Not Work

The limit for unrelated persons at a single family home rental is three residents. Leases are signed by three people who then invite additional renters to join them to lower per capita rental rates. The perverse effect is that rental rates tend to rise under these circumstances making it difficult for single families to rent single family homes. Some local rental agencies facilitate this practice.

"To say that a family is so equivalent to a ragtag collection of college roommates as to require identical treatment in zoning decisions defies the reality of the place of the family in American society, despite any changes that institution has undergone in recent years. Only the most cynical among us would say that the American family has devolved to the point of no greater importance or consideration in governmental decision making than a group of college roommates." (Stegeman v. City of Ann Arbor)

That being said, accommodation ought to be made for protected classes, especially non-traditional unions and group houses for the disabled. These classes are laid out in federal and Washington State law.