In Detroit — where a majority of the housing stock is older and many are in need of maintenance and repairs — only 10% of rental homes have passed inspections that the city requires.
City officials want to amend the city's rental ordinance to make it easier for landlords to bring properties into compliance, crack down on landlords with repeat violations and revamp a program that allows tenants to put their rent payments into an escrow account if their home isn't safe.
The city of Detroit's Law Department prepared an ordinance amendment at the request of At Large Council Member Mary Waters. The proposal was referred to Detroit City Council's Public Health and Safety Standing Committee.
"The point here is to create more quality and safe housing for Detroit residents by making sure that we have more compliant landlords," said David Bowser, deputy director of the city of Detroit's Housing and Revitalization Department.
Bowser said the Detroit Housing Resource HelpLine, which allows people to report landlords, has seen residents "overwhelmingly" dealing with issues at their properties, forcing them to leave their homes. As of early July, the hotline received more than 970 callers concerned about property conditions. The city has been helping to relocate people while also looking into the policy side of rental conditions.
Here are some takeaways from the proposed changes:
Cracking down on negligent landlords
Over the past five years, the city has issued 100,000 blight tickets, but struggles to collect on those fines. According to a comprehensive March report from the national nonprofit Center for Community Progress, the city has collected less than 20% of blight violation fines owed.
"We collect on a very small fraction of the tickets and for tickets that aren't collected, there's not really an effective penalty," said Andrea Taverna, director of policy and implementation for the mayor’s office.
The proposed ordinance would increase some fines and add penalties to bolster enforcement.
For instance, it would increase the penalty for an owner who fails to obtain a certificate of compliance from $250 for the first offense to $400, from $500 to $650 for the second offense and from $1,000 to $1,150 for subsequent violations.
The draft ordinance would allow the city to file a lien on a property for unpaid tickets if a landlord doesn't get into compliance — a new provision officials hope will give more teeth to the ticketing process.
Revamping escrow program for tenants
The proposal would change the eligibility for Detroit's escrow program, which allows tenants to set aside rent money if a property doesn't meet safety and health standards, and doesn't have a certificate of compliance.
The current program is difficult to use, according to the city. Since it began in 2018, 138 renters in total have enrolled in the program with fewer than 20 using it each year. Only 12% of applicants were recently eligible.
The program currently requires an applicant to live in a single-family home or duplex and provide a written lease that is not month-to-month, proof of rental payments, identification card and utility bill. They must not have any pending litigation, such as an eviction case.
"It has to be adjusted for the realities that Detroit residents face," Bowser said. Many Detroiters may not have IDs or a written lease, he said. The amended ordinance would ease some eligibility requirements for residence type, written lease, proof of payment and ID policies.
Under the proposal, the program would move from the Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department (BSEED) to the Housing and Revitalization Department, shifting staff around to ramp up capacity to process applications and follow up with residents who apply to the escrow program.
Streamlining compliance pathway for landlords
Detroit Future City estimates that there are more than 82,000 rental properties. As of the end of last year, 8,731 properties had a certificate of compliance.
City officials want to make it easier for landlords to comply with inspections and provide safe and quality housing. The current process is cumbersome and expensive, particularly for "mom-and-pop" landlords — owners with one or two properties, who account for the vast majority of Detroit landlords.
"Those costs are either passed down to residents or compliance is never achieved at all," Bowser said.
The cost to bring a single family rental into compliance can range from $942 to $1,267 and can take up to a year, according to the Center for Community Progress report.
Currently, there are two separate property inspections — for the condition of the home and lead safety. The proposal would combine the inspections. It also seeks to reduce fees from more than $1,000 paid to the city and inspectors to an annual fee of less than $150 to the city for rental program costs.
The plan would also target 15 core health and safety inspection measures, including ensuring that the electrical system is working, that there is hot and cold running water and that plumbing fixtures don't leak. The current 37-point checklist takes into account cosmetic requirements not directly related to safety such as exterior grass or plant growth above 8 inches and graffiti violations.
"We are not jeopardizing people's health and safety by simplifying these measures," Bowser said. "We're making this certificate of compliance process more accessible to Detroit landlords, thereby making housing conditions safer for residents."
The city wants to bring rental compliance from the current 10% to 20% to 30% within the next year or two after the proposal is approved.
"We know landlords want to participate," Bowser.
Lead inspection changes
The current lead inspection takes four to seven hours. The proposal seeks to implement what officials regarded as a nationally recognized lead safety model targeting the most common cause of lead poisoning, such as damaged lead paint, which creates lead dust. Taverna cited lead inspection standards in Grand Rapids, Toledo, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and the states of Maryland and New Jersey.
Detroit's lead requirement is stringent for landlords and stands in the way of complying with rental requirements, the Center for Community Progress report found. The proposed changes to the inspections would include a visual assessment and dust wipe. It takes away the requirement for an initial lead inspection and risk assessment upon rental registration, referred to as LIRA, according to the draft ordinance.
But Lyke Thompson, a political science professor at Wayne State University, raised concerns about what he said are scaled-back lead testing requirements.
"This proposal will radically reduce the testing of lead in homes and this will lead to more children having elevated blood lead levels and that is the problem. And it will substitute a low quality of testing for a very rigorous testing that they have right now," he said.
In 2021, Detroit reduced how often landlords must check lead hazard levels in their properties, scaling back inspection requirements from every three years to annually, worrying activists and residents.
Free Press staff writer Dana Afana contributed to this report.
Contact Nushrat Rahman: nrahman@freepress.com. Follow her on X: @NushratR.
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