The city of Dayton is in its second year of a program intended to identify and address issues in rental units before they become a problem for tenants, landlords — and the city.
The program, which city code enforcement staff developed, involves inspecting all rental units in the city every two years. The goal is to visit and inspect all 1,260 rental properties within the city limits. These include large apartment complexes behind the flood wall and about 900 mostly single—and two-family rentals.
The department has completed about 92% of the inspections, said Housing Inspector Bill Burns. The stragglers are mostly those units that are undergoing rehab or repair.
“There’s nobody living there, so there’s no health and safety violations or concerns at that point,” Burns said. “We’re just letting them finish up, and then we’ll go in and do the actual inspection before they rent them out.”
Keeping small concerns from becoming big issues
The program is going well, said Code Enforcement Officer Cassie Patterson. The goal is to find and address issues before they become bigger problems.
“We also do complaint inspections,” Patterson said. “And that’s kind of how our rental inspection program started. We were getting a lot of complaints. Tenants couldn’t get ahold of their landlords. Tenants had issues that had lingered on, and their landlord hadn’t fixed it, and so it just became a bigger issue.”
The situation led Patterson and others on city staff to come up with a plan. They agreed that taking a more proactive approach to rental housing across the city would be a good move.
“It would protect the tenants and the landlords,” Patterson said. “So, we just got started with that last year. Every other year we will do the inspections.”
Of course, she added, her department will continue to do inspections to address health and safety complaints.
“If somebody calls and says, my ceiling’s caving in, of course, we’re going go out and do an inspection,” Patterson said.
The program’s goal is to prevent a property from reaching that point. Landlords, in particular, were skeptical when the program started, Burns said. He explained to both parties how the program is not designed to find faults but to ensure issues can be addressed for all involved.
Overcoming skepticism
“The tenants were receptive to it. I think the owners were a little apprehensive, naturally — ‘What are you coming in looking for?’ — But we talk to them, explain the program,” Burns said. “We let them know that, hey, as much as this is a health and safety inspection for the tenants, we’re also looking out for your property. We’re making sure they’re not destroying it. It’s your investment. So we’re kind of looking out for you, too,” he said. “We are the eyes for the owners, but we’re the voice of the tenants.”
Burns works part-time but varies his hours to accommodate the tenants as much as he can.
“A lot of tenants can’t afford to take off work and whatnot. And I’d hate for somebody to take a full day off for a 20-minute inspection. I’ll send out two notices, the owner gets one and the tenant gets one,” Burns said.
Burns looks for safety issues such as missing or disabled smoke detectors, leaks, pests and other things that could be unsafe or turn into a hazard if left unaddressed. Because he is speaking directly to tenants in their homes, he said, he tries to keep an empathetic ear.
“I think sometimes the tenants are afraid to say something,” Burns said. “They’re prideful, or they’re scared. If they say something, then the landlord’s going to put them out. The last thing I want is for any family to be put out. I wouldn’t do this, if that was the case. So I carry resources with me.
“You get a sense, if somebody’s struggling. I keep a sheet of paper with me that has resources that help with rent, utilities, Brighton Center, the Welcome House, just different things like that. I have them highlighted. I don’t try to dwell on people’s business, but sometimes they’re forthcoming. They let you know, they are struggling, the heat was too much…So I’ll give information to the tenants.”
Connecting with the schools
In Dayton, about 90% of children in the school system are from families whose incomes qualify them for the federal free or reduced lunch program, and many of those families are renters. The Dayton Independent School District is part of the state program that provides for a Family Resource and Youth Services Center on site designed to support children and to remove non-academic barriers to learning. Unsafe housing or no housing at all is, of course, one of those barriers.
Tracy Gentrup recently took a grant-funded position as district director of the Community Schools Initiative for Dayton Schools but has been the director of the district’s family resource center. She initially contacted Patterson for help for some of her families facing housing crises.
“This past fall, I started having a lot of families reach out to me, saying that they were losing their housing,” Gentrup said. “And when I asked why, they kept saying it was because of the city. That didn’t sound right. So, I connected with Cassie, and she explained to me the program that was going on and what was happening. Unfortunately, we were having some landlords that weren’t wanting to fix what was asked to be fixed, and it was unsafe environment for our kiddos…So at that point, they were told that they would have to leave.”
Gentrup and Patterson put their heads together and reached out to the landlords and to the families involved.
“For one family with grandparents raising five children, we were able to extend their stay in the home so that they weren’t displaced during the holidays, until they were able to find housing, which they did,” Gentrup said. “We were able to do that by making some minor improvements to the property as far as helping with the roach and rodent problem and having proper smoke detectors installed.”
From there, the two began working more closely together, periodically checking in to identify families in need and helping them find and connect to resources.
Gentrup said she can connect families facing displacement with the school’s homeless liaison, Ericka Huff. Then, Huff can assist with possible hotel stays or connect families with Welcome House or help find subsidized housing nearby, such as the Jamestown Village located in Dayton.
Addressing the problems
When Burns finds a situation that needs immediate attention, his next step is to notify Patterson to make a visit to the property. He said he tries to keep track of what housing units in the city are unoccupied and might be available. He’ll share that information with the schools in case a family needs temporary or permanent housing.
“A lot of times the owner or the landlord already has somebody in mind, but I do keep their information,” Burns said. “I just tell them, give me a call if you do have an opening, because we want to keep the kids and families in town if we can.”
What if he discovers a property in very bad shape? Burns said he immediately notifies Patterson, and they look over the situation. He will send a notice letter to the landlord, but if the environment is determined to be unsafe, time is of the essence. Especially when children are involved, the city will step in and try to remedy the situation as quickly as possible, he said.
“It’s got to be a pretty bad situation for me to make that call to Cassie,” Burns said. “At that point, it’s just an unsafe, unhealthy environment. That could be roach infestation, that could be mold, that could be floors falling in. There’s just some issues. And I don’t want to see kids in that. I mean, I’ve got kids…I would never want them to be in that environment. And I don’t think any homeowner or landlord should expect children or even adults to live that way.”
The good news, he said, is there’s only been 20 properties that have truly failed. Seven have been fixed, and 13 are still outstanding.
“That number seems high, but those are situations where it wasn’t necessarily all the owners’ issue, some of it was tenant neglect,” Burns said. “The owners are in the process of fixing those properties, and then they will rent them out again. We will go back and do another inspection. The ones that are outstanding are in contact with us. They’re not avoiding us…We’re trying to stay on top of them, but it takes time to fix things.”
Burns said he would return to inspect the remaining properties once they are made available for rent again.
When tenants have issues, Gentrup said, she tries provide support, not judgement. She is talking to others in the school system about developing both resources and educational opportunities for families to help support them in efforts to keep their homes safe and healthy.
To reach Cassie Patterson or Bill Burns, call 859-491-1600 or email Patterson at cpatterson@daytonky.com. More information on code enforcement in Dayton is available on the Dayton city website. For information about the Family Resource and Youth Services Center, contact the Dayton Board of Education office at 859-491-6565.