It's been a while since we have visited the topic of rental inspections, however it is something that the Housing Subcommittee (the only one actually meeting at this point) has been discussing. They have no timeline at the moment, just keep talking for now. They did ask other municipalities what their thoughts were, and have finally uploaded this info onto the city website for the general public to be able to review. Link to where you can find this info; https://www.cityofmeadville.org/index.asp?SEC=3D9C756A-5BD8-459C-ADB6-60D4CE238890&Type=B_BASIC . It's listed right above the climate action plan draft.
Down to business. The 7 municipalities questioned were Corry, Erie, Greenville, Titusville, Saegertown, Sharon, and Washington. They (city staff) asked relevant questions such as what the fees are, how often they inspect, standards used, among other questions.
We won't get into all of the fees, because quite frankly those are more for insight purpose. We won't have any indication on fees until they start to form this program around Meadville and what they claim is best for our city. We'll be anxious to see if at this next meeting Joe Tompkins has his draft ready to go, seeing as he's been working on this since before Jaime even thought of campaigning for Mayor. In case you weren't aware, Joe Tompkins does work at Allegheny College.
An interesting thing to note, is that 5 of the 7 municipalities use what they call IPMC for their standards, which is international property maintenance code. 4 of the 5 use the 2018 version, the 5th does not specify which version they utilize. Titusville created their own standards and Washington apparently didn't provide a reply to this question.
The concern with going based on the IPMC, would be that older housing stock would not meet some of the parameters. So, what happens then? Example;
Changing ceiling height could be rather costly. We don't know what the ceiling height is in some of these homes, but it's possible that it's less than 7 feet. What happens then?
Another interesting thing we would like to make note of, is that requiring taxes to be paid and insurance to be carried is only required by 2 of the 7 municipalities.
Onto the brass tacks now. How do they begin this program?
Determine rentals, right?
Aside from Sharon, all of these things would likely utilize staff time. Time=Money, does it not? Does that city currently have expendable money to pursue this?
What about buildings that don't meet the standards?
Mind you, Erie was the only one who stated they had a plan in place to assist families who are displaced during this program. In Saegertown, you can see that they stated some property owners decided to tear down buildings, instead of bringing them up to code. What happened to those individuals who may have resided within those structures? What were the exact code violations? We don't know exactly, but one could argue that if it were something such as ceiling height or something trivial, they would rather have a home with low ceilings, than no home at all.
Of all the municipalities that were asked, 6 of the 7 stated that they were not sure the impact the program had on rent costs. Greenville however stated that they felt rents increased as a result of the program.
Other insight that was shared;
"Rents are too low for property owners to invest in non-health/safety improvements". We also see that there was a lawsuit, did this cost the city of Erie money? Possibly, depending on staff time involved and whether there was back and forth occurring. They also state they are dealing with unpaid fees. So, there is a cost to implement this program, we know that. But, how much is the city of Erie paying to chase down unpaid fees?
Saegertown had this to say;
Jaime's name is not on the tax bill for the property that she has an "article of agreement" on. That would mean that in Saegertown, her property would also be included in this program. Will Meadville follow this? We don't know, we'll just have to keep waiting to hear what they discuss during their monthly meetings. Which happen at noon on the fourth Wednesday of every month.
Quick look at some of the code violations that Meadville has reported;
2077 instances of "junk", lets define junk. Per Titusville's code they define it as such;
In in the Meadville property maintenance code that is currently in place, junk is defined as such;
And, for even more fun;
From CURRENT property maintenance code in Meadville;
Oh, and yet another thing to consider. Why are we not utilizing the current code?
"establish recognized minimal standards for minimal standards for maintenance of property to protect the HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OCCUPANTS AND THE PUBLIC". So, does this cover what the rental program is proposed to cover? A bit of it is overlapping. Arguably, they could amend further sections to include other items, without starting yet another program that would cost the city money and utilize staff time to implement.
The next housing subcommittee meeting will be on April 27, 2022. Here is the agenda;
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