02-25-19 Health and Public Safety

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CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF TH E CLERK That is a Baltimore-based Healthy Homes Network that has pioneered the approach,used first(Pt) in Baltimore and then in Rochester. They achieved a ninety-nine percent (99%)reduction in child lead poisoning through a combination of grants and regulatory approaches. Tracy Skibins, Director of Code Enforcement with offices located on the 13th floor of the County- City Building, stated, To be respectful of everyone's time, I took a lot of slides we had from the first(1St)reading and tried to condense them into one(1)slide(referencing the presentation).These are examples of what we are looking for. The first (1St) example is a phone call we received in Code Enforcement about a leaky roof Once the inspector went inside the property, they found many things. They found ninety-eight percent (98%) humidity in January, mold growth was everywhere, peeling paint with the likelihood of it being lead-based as well as other issues. The second (2nd) example was a simple phone call for no heat. Once the inspector went into the apartment, she found there was water damage, falling ceiling tiles, and the temperature was forty- five-point-three (45.3) degrees in the house. Had someone not reached out to us, these are all examples of things that might be going on behind closed doors that inspectors passing by on the street might not be aware of. Cosmetic issues,I want to highlight,are not something we are looking for. So, it's ok if the property is not pretty or the property doesn't look great. Cosmetic issues are something we are steering clear of. We are going to focus on health and safety. Ms. Fritzberg stated, Rental housing is handled through either one (1) of two (2) methods. Those are either complaint-based inspection or proactive inspection. The proposal we are making today is really a process change. Rather than addressing housing safety complaints on a case by case basis and relying on tenants to report issues,we are actually going to conduct proactive inspections to ensure compliance with existing basic safety standards. To really drive this point home, this does not create any new safety requirements for property owners. The safety standards required for compliance with this program already exist in the International Property Maintenance Code and the Unsafe Building Law. Proactive rental inspection is a policy tool used in cities across the United States. This is not groundbreaking policy. It is implemented in the two (2) other major college towns, Bloomington and West Lafayette. Again, the basic analogy here is a restaurant safety inspection. We don't eat in restaurants that haven't received a satisfactory health inspection. But housing, naturally, has a far more detrimental impact on long-term health than a bad meal in a restaurant that gives you food poisoning. So,just as we've proactively enforced those standards and we found a way to do it that supports efficient business practices, that is what we propose to do in the case of rental housing. She continued, In the last presentation, I don't think I actually pulled this out on a slide for you (referencing a slide in the presentation), so I wanted to make sure I did that here. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development outlines eight (8) things, eight (8) principles, as part of healthy housing. They are keeping the home dry, clean, safe, well-ventilated, pest-free, contaminant-free,maintained and thermally controlled.These are basic safety standards,and these form the foundation of the requirements that are already in the International Property Maintenance Code and the Unsafe Building Law. Our goal is to ensure that these standards are uniformly followed and that tenants across South Bend can access safe and healthy housing. Ms. Skibins stated, The Rental Safety Verification Program will promote, like Suzanna touched on, the health and safety of renters in the City of South Bend. Basically, a highly-trained Code Enforcement Inspector, will look at the conditions of the property. They will go in and check off items they have, in advance, on a list. Everything on the list will be something the tenants and the EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION INCLUSION , EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574 235 9221 f 574.235.9173 TTD 574.235.5567 vwvw.southbendin.gov 3