Twilight Zoning in Bellingham: York Neighbrhood Joins in the Call for a Rental Safety Ordinance

Friday, June 27, 2014

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

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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.