1 / 16

Mutual Housing California and the Sacramento Housing Alliance

Rental Housing Inspection Programs: Improving Health and Safety in our Homes. Mutual Housing California and the Sacramento Housing Alliance. Home Health and Safety.

otto
Download Presentation

Mutual Housing California and the Sacramento Housing Alliance

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Rental Housing Inspection Programs: Improving Health and Safety in our Homes Mutual Housing California and the Sacramento Housing Alliance

  2. Home Health and Safety • California and local laws set forth standards for renters’ rights, requiring landlords to keep housing sufficiently safe and healthy for their tenants. • However, there is no consistent process for enforcing these standards across all the various jurisdictions in the state. • In many locales, it is up to the tenant to complain if they believe there are unsafe or unhealthy conditions in their home. This is called a reactive enforcement system.

  3. Proactive Inspection • Problems with reactive enforcement: • Fear of retaliation/eviction • Lack of familiarity with or fear of public agencies • Language barriers • To address these issues, some jurisdictions have taken the lead by creating proactive enforcement programs, through which inspectors check on all local rental units over a specified period of time.

  4. Scope of issue: City of Sacramento • During its 2008-2009 fiscal year, the City of Sacramento conducted inspections at 2,943 rental housing units. • Inspectors found one or more violations in 69 percent of the units they inspected. • There were a total of 9,892 individual violations; often multiple violations in a unit. • What are the most common things they find? Let’s take a look.

  5. Top Ten Violations in the City • Faulty electrical service • Missing smoke detectors

  6. Top Ten continued • Lack of weather protection • Lack of GFCI protection

  7. Top Ten continued • Faulty water heater installations • Lack of door viewer at front entry

  8. Top ten continued • Faulty plumbing • Improper venting systems

  9. Top ten continued • Inadequate heating • Hazardous wiring

  10. Individual/Family/Community impact • Health • Asthma • Infection • Safety • Fires • Shocks • Community Character and Property Values

  11. Proactive policies are working • The earlier-cited numbers from the City of Sacramento were for the first year of its proactive rental housing inspection policy. • For the 2011-12 fiscal year, the City inspected 6,847 rental units. • Only 30 percent had health and/or safety violations, down from 69 in 2008-09. • There were 9,223 violations found, less than in 2008-09 in over twice as many units inspected.

  12. City RHIP overview • City adopted the program thanks in part to a strong advocacy effort among groups that represent diverse low-income renters • Key policy/program points: • All rentals inspected once every five years • Mandatory registration, $28/unit annual fee • 30 days to correct violations • Re-inspection fees if non-compliant • Self-certification for landlords who pass, with some audits even for those units

  13. County of Sacramento overview • In the unincorporated areas of Sacrament County, there are approximately 41,000 parcels with rental units. • 13,754 of these 41,000 parcels have been entered into the county’s RHIP database. • There are approximately 92,000 total rental units in the unincorporated County. • The County receives approximately 1,000 rental housing complaint calls each year and responds to all. • Approximately 12,000 rental units have been proactively inspected for the RHIP program over the last three years.

  14. County of Sacramento - 2012 • Approximately 6,600 multi-family rental unit inspections conducted. • 90% of inspected units had at least 1 violation • 2,600 were initial inspections • 2,500 units required re-inspections for compliance • 1,500 were still in violation after the first re-inspection • Approximately 500 single family rental inspections conducted. • 90 percent of units had at least 1 violation • Upon re-inspection, 80% were in compliance

  15. County of Sacramento policy • Self-certification system by owners • $12 per unit annual fee • Still basically a reactive system, with burden on renters • Some indication that the county may follow the city’s example and overhaul their program • Communities must be vigilant to make sure the County adopts a proactive policy

  16. Next Steps: What Can You Do? • Full list of best policy/program practices available on request. • To report unsafe or unhealthy living conditions, call: • City of Sacramento: 311 • County of Sacramento: 916-876-9020 • Call or write your elected officials • To get involved with promoting best policy/program practice, contact Rachel Iskow of Mutual Housing California at rachel@mutualhousing.com

More Related