City of Charlotte won't require all Landlords to Register
After nearly two hours of debate, the Charlotte City Council passed a limited landlord registration ordinance Monday night, which requires only property owners of the most crime-ridden properties to identify themselves to the police.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police proposed more than a year ago that all landlords register with the city, and be subject to fines if their rental units don't improve.
Police have said it's often difficult to identify problem landlords because property records list corporations or don't have current addresses.
The proposal was based on similar measures in cities such as Raleigh, Minneapolis and Houston.
But a number of landlords, as well as industry groups, such as the Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition, opposed the blanket registration. The compromise approved Monday requires only landlords who are in the top 4 percent of highest crime calls to register.
"We think we are targeting crime," said Elizabeth Barnhardt of the Charlotte Regional Realtors Association. "We think it holds landlords accountable."
The vote was 7-3. Mayor-elect Anthony Foxx and council members Michael Barnes and Warren Turner, all Democrats, voted against it. They wanted to expand the ordinance to require all landlords to register.
Council member James Mitchell was absent.
Mayor Pro Tem Susan Burgess, and Democratic colleagues Nancy Carter and Patsy Kinsey, joined the Republican minority in supporting the 4 percent compromise.
Council member Warren Cooksey, a Republican, said requiring all landlords to register would be like holding a principal accountable for a crime a student committed on school property.
But there were dozens of residents who attended Monday's debate, holding "FULL REGISTRATION" signs.
One was John Autry of the Coventry Woods homeowner's association in east Charlotte. He said his neighborhood is plagued by crime at nearby apartments, and said it made sense to give police the most accurate information.
"How can police chase all that down?" Autry said, referring to following a paper trail to identify a property owner. "There is no need to put a partial ordinance in place."
The ordinance calls for police to set up meetings with problem landlords to develop plans to improve their properties.
Failure to comply could result in fines of $50 a day for the first 30 days, $100 a day for the next 30 days and $500 a day for each subsequent day.
The ultimate penalty would be the city moving to revoke the landlord's ability to rent the property and collect rent.
City of Charlotte's Landlord Registry could be a useful tool
Most landlords aren't, but let's face it, some are do-nothing slobs. They don't care if tenants are nuisances or drug dealers or criminals who make the neighborhood a miserable place to live. Sometimes, especially if the property owner is an out-of-state corporation, a responsible party is tough to find and slow to act.
So the city's on the right track in studying a proposal to register landlords, so that police can find them more quickly and easily, set deadlines for improvement and issue fines if landlords don't clean up their act. The City Council heard a briefing on the proposal Monday.
Several council members were forthrightly in favor of such a measure, but others expressed concerns.
To be sure, there is reason to move carefully. For instance, the final ordinance should take care not to be punitive against landlords for crimes or police calls that occur on public sidewalks or streets that happen to be in front of, but not part of, a rental property in a high-traffic area. It's in no one's interest if the result is closing down – instead of cleaning up – affordable housing options for low-income Charlotteans.
Some question whether registering all landlords is needed, since only a small proportion cause problems. Mayor Pat McCrory said he wants to make sure the new registry is truly needed and that ownership information isn't already easily available through online databases. While that's a fair point, we suspect police investigators and attorneys have already checked that out. Certainly, it's not hard to find neighborhood activists all over the city to vouch for how hard it can be to find a property owner who doesn't want to be found.
Council members have rightly said they want more information from cities such as Houston, Raleigh and Pittsburgh that have successfully used the registries to reduce crime and disorder at rental properties.
But in the end, it's important, in dealing with multiple concerns from council members, not to let the proposal be so watered down that it becomes ineffectual.
Charlotte's had problems with rental housing for years. This ordinance won't be a silver bullet to vanquish all those problems. But, if crafted smartly, it could become an important weapon to help the city make a positive difference.
Desperate tenants living without heat in Bronx put out banners begging for help
Bronx tenants who haven't had heat or hot water for three months took the dramatic step of hanging giant banners out of their windows this week, begging for relief.
The residents of 2285 Sedgwick Ave. are forced to use crock pots to heat bathing water, shiver beside space heaters and face sky-high electric bills since a July fire knocked out their gas service.
"I don't know if I can keep taking it," said Jonathan Rodriguez, 26, who is wheelchair-bound and needs hours to get ready in the morning because of the lack of heat.
Tenants of the 54-unit building have repeatedly called the city's 311 hotline to report the problem, but gas service cannot be restored until the gas line to the building's boiler and hot water heater is repaired.
Following a tenants' press conference on Tuesday, the city Department of Housing and Preservation Development now has a contractor working to run a new gas line to the boiler. A spokesman said the Department of Buildings and Con Edison will need to inspect the repair before turning the gas back on.
"HPD will work to help expedite that process," a spokesman said in a statement.
Residents said the building's owner has had friends try to make the repairs, but their attempts haven't been successful. Phone numbers for Juan Romero, president of 2285 Sedgwick Realty Corp., which owns the building, had been disconnected.
State Sen. Pedro Espada (D-West Bronx) came to the building to support the tenants, who made sure their banners - including ones that read, "No Heat For Our Children. No Thanksgiving This Year" - can be seen by motorists speeding past on the nearby Major Deegan Expressway.
"I want to have a Thanksgiving dinner with all of you and all your families," Espada told them.
Socorro Ramos, 63, a recent widow who has lived in 2285 Sedgwick for 30 years, is one of the many residents hoping for a resolution - and quickly.
"You complain, you complain, you complain," she said, exasperated.
Miriam Agostini, 54, has lived in the building for 35 years and cares for her husband, who is diabetic and in remission for cancer. Without her stove, she struggles to cook healthy meals for him.
"It's pretty hard right now," she said. "I'm stressed."
Agostini keeps two crock pots going all the time to boil water for baths and dishwashing. She also frequently uses her George Foreman grill and hot plate, pushing her monthly electric bill to $700, she said.
"Sometimes I just go out and buy Chinese," she acknowledged.
Other problems in 2285 Sedgwick, including a broken elevator, predate the fire. According to HPD, 320 complaints have been made about the building in the past year.
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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, Charmeck.org, NY Daily News, Huffington Post, Google Maps
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