Rental Housing Inspection Programs Improving Health and Safety

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

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.

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. � Before we get into that, let’s look at the scope of the issue locally.

Scope of issue: Sacramento County � [Tammy Derby is working on getting me numbers from 2012 to illustrate violations they find both through call investigations and their non-policy-dictated proactive inspections. ]

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.

Top Ten Violations in the City � Missing smoke detectors � Faulty electrical service

Top Ten continued � Lack of GFCI protection � Lack of weather protection

Top Ten continued � Lack of door viewer at front entry � Faulty water heater installations

Top ten continued � Improper systems venting � Faulty plumbing

Top ten continued � Hazardous wiring � Inadequate heating

Individual/Family/Community impact � Health ◦ Asthma ◦ Infection � Safety ◦ Fires ◦ Shocks � Community Character and Property Values

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.

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

County of Sacramento � Self-certification system by owners � $12 per unit annual fee � Still basically a reactive system, with burden on renters. Inspectors do proactive checks, but it is not institutionalized in policy. � 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

FAQs � FAQ’s [try to anticipate some q’s from community]- make brief

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 � To or write your elected officials get involved with promoting best policy/program practice, contact Rachel Iskow of Mutual Housing California at rachel@mutualhousing. com