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CITY OF SOUTH BEND OFFICE OF THE CLERK <br /> She went on, That is kind of a high level of overview of the conditions that lead us to what we <br /> would like to talk about today. Tracy and I will do a little bit of back and forth. She will take us <br /> through some examples of what Code sees when it comes to rental housing. <br /> Tracy Skibins, Director of Code Enforcement with offices located on the 13th floor of the County- <br /> City Building, stated, I first (1St) would like to echo everything Suzanna just said. I appreciate <br /> everyone being here today. As you can see from the map right here(referencing the presentation), <br /> in 2018 we had approximately eight hundred and twenty-five(825)new housing cases.As Suzanna <br /> mentioned before, we have approximately 16,000 rental properties in the City. Eight hundred and <br /> twenty-five (825) is such a small number that we know there are other concerns out there that we <br /> are just not aware of yet. The dots on the map indicate where those kinds of Code violations were <br /> located. <br /> She continued, Here (referencing a slide in the presentation) is an example of what we will be <br /> looking for. This right here was an initial call to our office with the tenant saying they had no heat. <br /> It was forty-five(45)degrees inside the house. Once the inspector went inside the house to inspect, <br /> these (referencing the slide in the presentation) are some of the things they found while they were <br /> in there. Had we not been going to the house in the first (1st) place, we would never have known <br /> anything about the conditions you see right here.As you can see,there is water damage,the ceiling <br /> is caving in, the next one (1) has ceiling tiles that are falling. Here is another example of a water <br /> heater rusted out and past its normal life expectancy with water leaking out of the bottom. Right <br /> here we have a burst pipe which resulted in a flooded basement. Here we have a missing cover on <br /> an electrical outlet and right there is a fuse box without a cover on it. These are some of the things <br /> we are concerned about. Had we not been invited to the homes in the first (Pt) place, we would <br /> have never seen these concerns. This is what we want to try and prevent. Right here you can see a <br /> dangling light fixture as well as a missing smoke detector. Outside the house, you see the <br /> possibility of lead paint along the window sill. Cosmetic issues are not something we will be <br /> looking for,however. We are looking for issues that contribute to bare minimum health and safety <br /> standards. <br /> Ms. Fritzberg stated, I'm going to provide an overview of the policy perspective. I want to start by <br /> talking a little bit about how rental housing inspection generally works. There are two (2) main <br /> mechanisms for housing inspection. Either it is a complaint-based inspection, which is what we <br /> operate now, or it is a proactive inspection, which is what we are proposing. So really, what we <br /> are here to advocate for today and to propose to Council is a process change. Rather than reviewing <br /> housing safety complaints on a case by case basis and relying on tenants to report issues, we want <br /> to proactively conduct inspections to ensure compliance with basic safety standards. I want to <br /> really emphasize that these are existing safety standards. We are not creating any new safety <br /> requirements for property owners. The standards required for compliance with rental inspection <br /> already exist in the International Property Maintenance Code and the Unsafe Building Law. This <br /> is really about a process change and not about a new set of safety standards. <br /> She went on, Proactive rental inspection is a tool that is used in cities across the United States <br /> including both of the two (2) other major college towns in Indiana, Bloomington and West <br /> Lafayette. I know the materials we circulated to Council previously (which are available in the <br /> City Clerk's Office)include some detailed case studies from a few other cities including Rochester, <br /> New York, Kansas City, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. and it is fairly wide- <br /> spread as a policy tool. The major benefit is it allows for greater efficiency because it is a <br /> EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION I INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT <br /> 455 County-City Building 227 W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov <br /> 3 <br />