Council revamps housing code

Following 18 months of discussion between apartment renters, the mayor's office, the City Council and the city's housing department, the Bloomington City Council updated the city's housing inspection process Wednesday night.\nThe code had been basically unchanged since 1978.\nThe new ordinance, which passed 9-0, adopts provisions in the 2000 International Property Maintenance Code with certain modifications tailored to Bloomington's housing market.\n"It's an overdue update to our property maintenance code. I believe the code we're bringing forward will protect the health and safety of our community," said Susie Johnson, director of Housing and Neighborhood Development.\nJohnson also outlined some of the changes to the code. The new legislation allows the city to demand removal of dangerous and dead trees from properties, requires that owners make trash containers available to their tenants, mandates one bathroom per four residents, rather than one per five, and allows alternative materials to be used for home construction.\nGiven that thousands of IU students enter into contracts for various forms of off-campus housing each year, more students attended this council debate, especially the second reading April 9. Some brought stories of terrible experiences with the apartments and houses they rented.\nRepresentatives from Student Legal Services, including John Irvine, the office's director, were also at the meeting on April 9, though not Wednesday's final discussion and passage of the bill. SLS had posted flyers around campus and a notice on their Web site about the ordinance exhorting students to attend the meeting.\n"The real problem is landlords shift their responsibility of property maintenance to tenants," Irvine said at the second reading of the ordinance April 9. "We need to make it clear that tenants have a certain duty to clean and maintain, and landlords have a certain duty to clean and maintain."\nAs an example, Irvine said some landlords use tenant security deposits for maintenance projects such as carpet shampooing or painting that the tenant should not be responsible for paying.\nTravis Vencel, of Vencel Properties, spoke at the April 9 meeting on behalf of the Monroe County Apartment Association. The MCAA represents 75 landlords who rent over 7,000 rental units throughout Monroe County. He praised the process that created the new ordinance but said further amendments were unnecessary.\n"We don't have a problem of landlord-tenant issues in our community," he said April 9. \nSeveral landlords cited statistics from a survey conducted by HAND. According to the survey, in 2002, for example, there were 156 complaints out of over 18,000 registered rental units. Even speakers from the public who brought experiences (and photographs) about miserable housing conditions agreed most landlords comply with the law. The cliché about a few bad apples spoiling the bunch was frequently invoked during council and public discussion about the ordinance.\nAt Wednesday's meeting, however, the council narrowly adopted one amendment to the ordinance that renters at the meeting overwhelmingly objected to. The amendment requires landlords to make hard copies of the move in/move out inspection forms available to HAND.\nThough landlords at the meeting were quick to say they rent to other people besides IU students, ensuring that student renters would be able to successfully rent was clearly the subtext of the discussion.