York Neighbrhood Joins in the Call for a Rental Safety Ordinance

The York Neighborhood joins in the call for rental licensing and inspection in order to ensure the health and safety of Bellingham's tens of thousands of tenants.  You can help pass an ordinance by writing to the mayor (klinville@cob.org) and to the city council (ccmail@cob.org).  Tell them that we need to act before more are seriously hurt in preventable incidents.  Read more here on actual situations in Bellingham involving serious injury and near loss of life.  


Here is the York Neighborhood letter:

City Council

City of Bellingham

210 Lottie St.

Bellingham, WA 98225

June 23, 2014

RE:! Rental Registration and Inspections

Dear Council Members:

After 10 years of debate, research, and public input it is time for the City Council to approve a  Rental Safety and Inspection ordinance that will improve the housing conditions for our citizens. In the York Neighborhood we know first-hand that many rental houses are substandard. Two house fires in 2011 were determined by the Fire Marshall to be the result of (1) an electrical failure, and (2) a heating-system fan that was not correctly attached and which fell off and ignited the carpet. In other neighborhoods there have been life-threatening fires. Are we waiting for a disaster to happen?

We hope the wait is over with introduction of the proposed new ordinance addressing rental housing conditions. Our neighborhood is dotted with “money-making machines.” Single-family houses rent for $1,500 to $2,100 a month in York. These profits are not being put back into property maintenance. A walk around the neighborhood shows that. One can only wonder how bad the interiors are, if the outside is any indication. Two surveys conducted by Western students in recent years revealed numerous safety and health problems with the city’s older, deteriorating housing stock, such as we have in York; but we won’t really know how bad it is until an inspection program is launched. Inspections are a necessity.

Complaints filed by tenants have remained low because they fear retaliation in the form of increased rents, their deposits not being returned, or the threat of eviction. To complain is to put oneself one step closer to homelessness. We have heard the idea put forward in Council meetings that the neighborhood associations should take on the duty of filing complaints, but that is not our job. Our job is to build a sense of community, security, and pride; and to foster neighborly relations. Our job is not to promote a neighbor vs. neighbor mentality, or oversee rental businesses that are exploiting their tenants and disrespecting the rest of us with their slum conditions.

To the landlords who do a good job -- and there are many -- we say “thank you” for responsible business ownership and pride. For the ones who are here just to suck out profits, we say “shame on you.”

An inspection program will remove the burden from the tenants to file complaints and will bring a qualified inspector into the equation. Landlords will be required to make repairs, or else. With an inspection program in place, the City can begin to reign in an industry that has gone unregulated for years. In York there is one property owner of 25 houses who also manages many others for absentee landlords. Another owns 11 rentals. These are businesses that have a huge impact on the neighborhood.

Rental registration is a start, but it only creates a listing of owners. This list actually already exists through the Whatcom County Tax Assessor’s database. Alone, a registration program really accomplishes nothing; but coupled with an inspection program, we can begin to turn these deteriorating properties around. With a rental registration and inspection program, the Council is taking a stand for public safety, quality of neighborhoods, and creating a voice for working class families, students, and the poor who cannot afford other housing options.

We are proud to live in Bellingham where a commitment to equality and justice is fostered by our City leaders. Annually the Council leads a celebration in memory of a great leader who dedicated his life to the unheard voices of the poor, Dr. Martin Luther King. His legacy includes equality in education, employment and housing -- yes, housing -- and his work led to the Fair Housing Act in 1968, enacted into law just weeks after his assassination. In 1966 Dr. King moved into slum housing in Chicago to bring attention to the deplorable conditions there. When he spoke before a crowd of 35,000 at a rally supporting fair and safe housing he said, "We are here today because we are tired. We are tired of paying more for less. We are tired of living in rat-infested slums...”

We, as leaders in our neighborhood, along with many renters in Bellingham, are tired, too. We are tired of 10-years of no action on this issue. We urge you to vote for a Rental Safety and Inspection program this time. Let’s celebrate Dr. King’s legacy not just one day of the year, but 365 days.

Sincerely,

On behalf of the York Neighborhood Association:

Don Hilty-Jones, President 

Mark Schofield, Vice President

Anne Mackie, Secretary

Lisa Anderson, Treasurer

Tom Scott, MNAC Representative

Cory Anderson, Board Member

Kirsti Charlton, Board Member

Robb Correll, Board Member

Katie Dunne, Board Member

Brian Kennedy, Board Member

Sehome Neighborhood Also Supporting a Rental Health and Safety Ordinance

Earlier this year the Sehome Neighborhood sent a letter to Mayor Linville indicating its support of a rental registration and inspection program.  The Samish Neighborhood recently wrote their own letter of support for such legislation to the city council as I reported on 19 June (click here).   The Sehome letter follows:

January 8, 2013

Ms. Kelli Linville, Mayor

City of Bellingham

210 Lottie St.

Bellingham, WA 98225

Re:  Rental Licensing Issue

Dear Mayor Linville:

The Sehome Neighborhood Board appreciates your acknowledgement of the rental licensing issue.  As I will briefly describe in this letter, we feel that a local ordinance is needed to address a business that is completely unregulated in Bellingham; that is, single family rentals.

The primary beneficiaries of a rental licensing ordinance would be the students of Western Washington University (WWU).   This was described very well in the August 2nd letter from the Associated Students’ Board of WWU.  The following quote from that letter summarizes the issues:  

“Students make Bellingham their home for four or more years, and they should not have to deal with conditions which affect their quality of life in order to obtain an education”, said Stickney. “Students also don’t know their rights as tenants or get labeled as ‘high-maintenance tenants’ if they try to exert them. This issue doesn’t just affect students, but all residents of Bellingham who live in rental houses.” 

A survey of renters was conducted through WWU student Heather Rees (past WWU student representative on the SNA Board) in her internship for Whatcom Family & Community Network, a community group dedicated to promoting public health and safe. It was conducted in partnership with WWU’s Campus Community Coalition.   Some of the more dramatic results were:

28% of the respondents had significant mold issues;

18% had structural problems

This is not the first time the AS Board has taken formal action on this issue.  On June 4, 2010 they passed a resolution that asked the City to proceed in the licensing of single family rentals within the City. Since a high percentage of our neighborhood is student rentals, we feel a responsibility to pursue this issue.

Councilman Weiss presented a draft rental licensing ordinance at SNA’s fall general membership meeting on September 25th. which was received with considerable interest and a useful discussion.  While beginning the process for drafting an ordinance must come from your office, we appreciate the work that Councilman Weiss has done to get it started. From general membership comments at that meeting, the SNA Board has come up with three primary issues on this licensing issue:  

Education – Both renters and landlords need easy access to information about their rights and obligations.

Enforcement - What codes apply and how can we bring properties up to code?

Administration – Shall inspectors be city employees only or may landlords hire private inspectors? How will the inspection process work and who will pay for it?

While rental licensing is a  new issue for Bellingham government, it has been well documented in Washington state.  Pasco has a system in place that has already survived a Supreme Court challenge. On October 1st of last year, the Seattle Council approved legislation that requires anyone who owns rental property to register with the city and to certify that the unit meets city safety and health codes.  They are now setting up the process.

The SNA Board has discussed this issue in our meetings for nearly two years.  We have been hesitant to take formal action until the Mayor’s Office, and Council, have begun a formal process.  We believe it is now time for that action to begin.

Sincerely,

Sehome Neighborhood Association Board

Jean Hamilton, President


As I said in my post earlier this week, you can help support the tens of thousands of tenants in Bellingham by writing to the mayor (klinville@cob.org) and to the city council at (ccmail@cob.org).  Tell them that the rental industry is a business and, as such, should be regulated for health and safety issues just as restaurants and hotels.  That means registration and periodic inspections.

Samish Neighborhood Supports Rental Registration and Inspection

The Samish Neighborhood delivered a letter to the city council earlier this week that announced the neighborhood's support for legislation to register and inspect rental housing.  The text of the letter follows below.  The city council is tentatively set to discuss rental health and safety on July 7th. 

Samish Neighborhood Association

P.O. Box 1551

Bellingham, WA 98227

RE: Rental Housing Regulation

June 16, 2014

To Bellingham City Council Members,

The Samish Neighborhood Association Board would like to express its support of the City of Bellingham for considering proposals to reform the regulation of rental units to ensure the health and safety of renters. 

First is the need for regulating rental housing, which should be classified as a business, through licensing or registration with concomitant inspection of units.  Rental businesses should be controlled in a way that protects the tenants while maintaining the character and integrity of all neighborhoods.      Licensing or registering these businesses would ensure that the city has an effective enforcement tool and that minimum standards for safety and health are met.

Second, we strongly recommend changing BMC Title 20 to alter code violations to make them civil infractions instead of criminal misdemeanors.  Many nuisance issues are not criminal problems.  We believe the city will save significant time and resources addressing them at the civil level allowing for more rigorous and uniform enforcement. 

As the Board of the Samish Neighborhood Association, we encourage you to move quickly on these important issues addressing residential rentals to promote the welfare of tenants in all neighborhoods throughout the city. 

Sincerely,

Don Hale

President

You can help support the tens of thousands of tenants in Bellingham by writing to the mayor (klinville@cob.org) and to the city council at (ccmail@cob.org).  Tell them that the rental industry is a business and, as such, should be regulated for health and safety issues just as restaurants and hotels.  That means registration and periodic inspections.

Rentals and Restaurants - Commonality

Betsy Pernotto is a resident of the Birchwood neighborhood.  On May 5th she made the following comments to the city council regarding the inspection of rentals in Bellingham.  So often, the spoken comments at our city council meetings become lost in the ether of the video record which cannot be searched easily - or at all - unlike the written record.  Here are Betsy's unedited comments, then, for the written record.

"Imagine going to a nice restaurant with friends with plans for enjoying a relaxing dinner.  Now imagine how you might feel if you went to that same restaurant and had to wonder if the food was safe to eat because restaurants were only inspected if there was a complaint.  Put your mind at rest.  In Whatcom County the Health Department inspects restaurants on a yearly basis, not simply on the basis of complaints.  Now imagine renting an apartment or house for yourself or your family, assuming that the residence is a safe place to live.  Then you discover that some electrical outlets spark when you plug in an appliance and you start to question the safety of the electrical system.  Or your child has frequent asthma attacks triggered by the black mold on the wall of her bedroom because of an unrepaired leaking tub.  Then you realize that rental housing is not inspected unless there is a complaint.  But you have paid first and last month deposits and you are afraid of being evicted if you complain because you have no money to put up for another apartment if you had to move.   That is the current system in place in Bellingham.

We require restaurant inspections because food-borne illness can be deadly and we want the public to be safe eating in those business establishments.  When we pay for a restaurant meal, we have the expectation that the food will be safe.  We deserve to have the same expectation when we pay for rental housing.  Safe housing is as much an issue of public health as is safe food in a restaurant.  Eating in a restaurant is a choice we make.  However, we spend many more hours in our homes than we do eating in a restaurant and the dangers we might face there can be as life-threatening as food-borne illness.

I urge City Council to enact an ordinance requiring registration for all rental units in Bellingham with a small monthly registration fee for each unit.  Before a system of inspections begins, the City needs to clarify for landlords the City’s requirements for safe, healthy rental units and needs to educate tenants about their rights.  The goal of this ordinance should be a safe and healthy residence for all tenants.  To that end, I support a higher inspection rate than offered in the current proposal by the Mayor and her staff.  I support the inspection of all rental units (except perhaps those built in the past five years) over a five year period.  I also support the creation of a fund to relocate tenants who must move because the unit in which they are living is found to be unsafe.  In this way no landlord would feel singled out and every tenant could have the peace of mind of living in a safe home."

For the record.  Thanks, Betsy.

Rental Health and Safety Chugs Along at City Council

The effort to bring a minimum level of health and safety to the renters of thousands and thousands of rental units in Bellingham chugs along with another meeting of the Planning Committee of the city council this coming Monday.  There is a lot not to recommend the draft ordinance in its present form.  To that end, I have sent the following commentary to the city council.

"Dear Council Members,

I have reviewed the redraft of the rental safety ordinance provided in the agenda packet for the 9 Jun Planning Committee meeting  [then click on agenda item 20382] and have the following comments:

Paragraph 6.15.030 B  states that “ cosmetic conditions that do not affect structural systems, fire safety systems, sanitation components or weather resistive systems shall not be considered as part of any declaration of compliance or certificate of inspection required under this chapter.”   I would suggest adding “electrical systems” which do not appear to be captured by the categories already stated.

The ordinance 6.15.040 B 4 further states that no fee is required for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) when the owner resides in either the single-family residence or the ADU.   The idea behind this is that an owner, if living on the property, will pay more attention to either the ADU or the main home.  Perhaps one might make a case for this if the owner lives in an attached ADU or the main house as he/she will be living under the same conditions as the renter and subject to the same dangers.   With unattached ADUs the dynamic is different, the danger to the owner is less or not present.  For that reason unattached ADUs and/or the main dwelling on the property ought to come completely under this ordinance and pay the required fee.

6.15.040 requires a Declaration of Compliance. “As a condition to the issuance and/or renewal of a residential rental registration, an applicant shall provide a valid Declaration of Compliance prior to  the issuance of a registration. A Declaration of Compliance submitted under this chapter must state that each unit complies with the requirements and standards listed in BMC 6.15.050.-B.1-13 and/or authorized under BMC 6.15.050.C using a checklist provided by the City, and state that there are no conditions presented in the units that endanger or impair or could endanger or impair the health or safety of a tenant.”  This is an unwarranted requirement to place upon a property owner who is not trained to make such declarations.  Such declarations, if made, will present a false notion to potential renters that somehow the rental unit is a safe and healthy one.  This is a disservice to our renters as well as being superfluous.

The continued call for an annual audit of merely no more than .5% of the city’s rental units is a ridiculously small number from which to gain any useful information that may be extrapolated to estimate the condition of rest of the rental housing stock.  Again, I refer you to my comments in an earlier email to the council that gives a real world picture of an existing inspection regime.

'After the presentation by Jeff Thomas on the rental ordinance budget estimates at the council’s Planning Committee meeting last Monday morning,  I phoned Debbie Scott, a senior code enforcement officer in Pasco, WA.   They have had an inspection program for over 15 years.  I went over with her some of the information that you received from the Planning Dept that morning and got a quite different story from her.  

She has been inspecting rental units in Pasco for 13 years.  Here is her experience.  A single family home rental takes about 20 minutes to inspect.  For apartment buildings, they do about 10% of the units.  Accordingly, in a 100 unit building she looks at 10 units (unless she begins to find more problems) and is done in about an hour.   She schedules inspections at about 30 minute intervals so that she can write up reports, call owners, etc.  A single inspector usually can do about 8 (maybe more) at day unless the inspector encounters a really bad property, then the number of inspections would drop to about 4 or so since they may have to immediately get people out of an uninhabitable unit.  The first round of inspections in Pasco 15 years ago (about 4,000 units) was done by one inspector in a two year time period.   Scheduling may be an issue from time to time but they pretty well have it down to a science.'

Based on the above, my contention is that the staff has grossly overestimated/inflated the cost of providing inspections at various levels and that we can, with a reasonable fee per unit, engage in a systematic inspection (using city inspectors) of all rental units at the rate of 20% per year, or 2,600 to 2,800 units (by inspecting, for example, only 10% of units within apartment complexes the actual number of inspected dwelling units would be greatly reduced) .  I refer you to the agenda packet item prepared by Mark Gardner with the comparative costs/estimates of programs in other cities and of options with respect to Bellingham.  See attached.

The draft ordinance paragraph 6.15.170 provides for a City Council Review and Sunset Provision. “Before January 1, 2019, the City Council shall review the chapter's effects on the community and the problems the chapter was intended to remedy and shall repeal, continue or modify this chapter. Failure by the City Council to act in accordance with this section shall cause this chapter to expire at 12:01 a.m. on January 1, 2019.”   This is a totally unnecessary limitation to the ordinance which can be repealed at any time by an act of the city council.   Because of restrictive portions of the ordinance, such as the audit of no more than .5% of the units, a future council will have little in the way of statistically valid information (approximately 200 inspected units maximum) on which to base a judgment regarding the efficacy of the program.  This sunset clause can only be a sop to those who oppose this ordinance by providing an expectation that the ordinance will be allowed to languish into oblivion by a future council without a cumbersome debate.

The changing of the name of the ordinance to Residential Safety Program seems odd in that any reference to rentals has been omitted.  This ordinance is about health and safety of housing units that are not merely “residential” but specifically offered for occupancy by an owner for a price.   I suggest the ordinance be properly identified as applying to rentals, e.g.,  Residential Rental Safety Program. 

I would also like to point out that there is a growing proliferation of so-called “vacation homes” for rent within the city limits.  These homes, if not otherwise actually occupied by the owner for  a significant period of the year or licensed to operate as a transient rental, ought to fall under this ordinance.  It is not altogether clear that this is the case according to 6.15.020 V regarding transients.  For an idea regarding vacation rentals I refer you to [this] site that lists such homes.  (Note: some of the rentals listed are in Whatcom County)."

I encourage my readers to contact the city council at ccmail@cob.org to encourage them to pass an ordinance that calls for the inspection of all rental units.  We have already had several renters seriously burned in a preventable rental fire while nearly two dozen have lost their residences and belongings because of fire or contamination.