Seaford changing 'family' definition to address overcrowding

SEAFORD — City leaders are changing the definition of “family” relative to code enforcement, with public safety in mind.

After an open hearing Tuesday, City Council changed the meaning for the word from “three unrelated adults, and minor children” to “five or fewer adults, and minor children in their care, living together in a dwelling unit.”

The alteration will take effect after a 30-day advertisement period.

“The genesis is it has been very difficult for our Code Department to prove relationships. We are experiencing a problem of overcrowding,” city manager Charles Anderson said prior to the public hearing.

Seaford building official Mike Bailey added, “Lately, we’ve been getting a numerous amount of calls for these areas all over town, these units that have a large amount of people in there. The current code only allows up to three unrelated persons per unit.

“So, we go in there, and we see eight or nine people in one two-bedroom apartment. They are related, so we can’t do anything about it because the code allows everybody that is related to stay there.”

In conjunction with this is a code update that will establish a square-footage minimum for rooms. It will determine how many people can live in a room based on size.

This change states that a room for sleeping by one occupant shall contain at least 70 square feet of floor area. Plus, every room for sleeping by more than one occupant shall contain not less than 50 square feet of floor area for each additional person.

The provision will allow enforcement staff to measure the rooms used for sleeping and then “assign an occupancy load based on that information,” Mr. Anderson said.

Councilman Michael Bradley explained that these rules are for the safety of the home’s inhabitants, adding, “It’s not like we are trying to be strong-armed.”

Mr. Bailey agreed.

“If these units are overcrowded, if an emergency or fire happens, they will be running over top of each other, trying to get out,” he said. “It’s not safe at all.”

Further, Mr. Anderson said this is not a proposed change to the landlord licensing fee.

“The idea of our staff is that, when (we) review the license this year — (at) the end of the year when we do our normal renewals — that is when we’ll work with the landlords and work with them to come into compliance,” Mr. Anderson said.

“We have more contact with people that rent their units because we are in there every year. The only time, typically, we would go into a single-family, owner-occupied home is when we received a complaint of overcrowding or something of that nature.”