Houston Chronicle: Deal Boosts Odds on Apartment Bill

By MATT STILES, AUSTIN BUREAU
matt.stiles@chron.com

AUSTIN — With a legislative deadline looming, state lawmakers struck a deal Wednesday to pass a bill requiring the city of Houston to regularly inspect apartments and ensure safe living conditions for roughly a million renters.

The legislation, which city officials sought in order to clarify their authority, had seemed in jeopardy amid concerns about its scope and effect on poor residents until the Senate approved a compromise version of the bill .

“Regular inspections are important because owners of these properties will now know that an inspection is coming and will not be able to shirk their responsibilities by simply relying on a complaint from a resident,” said a co-author, state Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston.

The bill requires the city to craft an ordinance by December 2010 that details standards for habitability and health and safety at multifamily properties. A key provision, already passed by the House, would also require a proactive inspections program by the city’s building, fire and health officials, rather than the current system that largely is driven by resident complaints.

The bill still needs House approval and the signature of Gov. Rick Perry to become law.

The city has increased its focus on apartments in recent years, but decided last year to spend more money on inspectors after three children died at apartments and a series of stories in the Houston Chronicle exposed substandard conditions.

In the last several months, the city has hired an additional eight inspectors to work for a new apartment safety coordinator.

City officials hope the new ordinance will make it clear to landlords what standards are required and give the city the legal cover to go after non-complying properties in both criminal and civil courts.

“This is an unequivocal definition of our authority,” said Andy Icken, the city’s deputy public works director and a key policy aide to Mayor Bill White.

The compromise plan, brokered between two Houston Democrats — state Sens. Rodney Ellis, the co-author, and John Whitmire — removed specifics, such as required water and air temperatures and structural rules. Instead, the bill requires the city to write the standards into law.

The new version also requires the city to “make a good faith effort” to help any displaced residents find housing with comparable rent, preferably in the same school district. Whitmire also argued that the city already had authority to keep residents safe without legislation.

“This amendment will still give the ordinance the full backing of state law, and also not make this body another Houston City Council,” said Whitmire.

View this article at Chron.com.