Thomas Breen photo
150 West St. after the May 5 fire.
Alders unanimously approved a months-in-the-works revamp of the city’s residential rental licensing program with the hope that targeting the worst-offending landlords will go a long way towards protecting local tenants.
That vote took place Tuesday night during the regular monthly meeting of the full Board of Alders in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.
Alders unanimously signed off on a proposed ordinance amendment to Chapter 17, Article XIV of the city’s Code of Ordinances, governing the New Haven Residential Rental Business License Program.
The city’s anti-blight Livable City Initiative (LCI) had put forward the proposed changes this May following a lethal fire at an illegal rooming house in the Hill that killed two tenants and displaced 14. That fire led to heightened public scrutiny of a rental property inspection program struggling under thousands of eligible apartments, few available inspectors, evasive landlords unwilling to participate in the voluntary program, and miscommunication between different city departments charged with housing code compliance.
Tuesday night’s full Board of Alders meeting.
“This ordinance amendment will help improve the quality of our existing housing stock,” said Newhallville/Prospect Hill Alder Steve Winter, who worked with Room for All coalition tenant advocates to support the law change, “by targeting inspection and enforcement where it is needed most.”
The key changes to the residential licensing program include:
• The creating a three-tiered system whereby landlords whose properties present five or more serious, life-threatening housing code violations, such as defunct smoke detectors, no lights in the hallway, and persistent rodent infestations, must register and be inspected by LCI on an annual basis. Those landlords will receive a “Tier III” license. Landlords with properties with fewer than five non-life-threatening housing code violations would qualify for a two-year “Tier II” license, while the landlords with properties in the best conditions would receive a three-year “Tier I” license.
• The removal of the $1,000 maximum registration fee for buildings with over 25 rental apartments. All landlords in the program will now have to pay a unit-based registration fee of $200 for the first two rental units and $50 for every unit after that.
• The requirement that the City Clerk’s office document a landlord’s non-compliance with housing code inspections on the property title itself, so that municipal agencies don’t lose track of a property’s status in the licensing program with the sale of that property.
"The program remains voluntary for landlords to participate in." Maybe I am misunderstanding, but how will a voluntary program improve the quality of rental housing stock?
[Reporter's Note: Correction. The program is actually mandatory, not voluntary. That was my mistake! All fixed in the article. Thanks for pointing that out.]