CARLTON FLETCHER: Albany should have rental property codes

This is what you’re all about: Treat poor people just like trash, Turn around and make big cash.

— Living Colour

Albany is a town of renters. Statistics show that well more than half of the residents within the city limits live in rental property.

Unfortunately, many of the rental units in the city are substandard, offering little more than the bare essentials: a (sometimes leaking) roof overhead and (often poorly hooked up) electricity. The dirty walls, worn carpeting, lack of insulation, shoddy materials and workmanship? Well, what do you expect for $200 or $300 a month?

Actually, renters in the city should be able to expect structures that they can relax in without worrying about walls falling down around them. Or their kids being electrocuted by faulty wiring. Or appliances that work only irregularly and play havok on grocery storage.

Or, in the case of Tiffany Walker, Jontobivous Daniels and their two small children, who live in a trailer in the east Albany Cardinal Court neighborhood, the renters should not have to find out from an Albany Utility Board auditor that the air conditioning ductwork underneath their residence is not even hooked up to vents that should be distributing cooled (or heated) air throughout the trailer.

Sadly, property owners who rent in Albany — and, let’s be honest, a lot of them certainly qualify for “slumlord” designation — are not held to any standards when it comes to the condition of their property. Under city code, enforcement officers are allowed to investigate rental property only if a complaint is lodged by a resident.

That leaves renters in a precarious position. Should they make a complaint and risk being ejected from their residence (or having monthly rental rates increase) or should they just be quiet and deal with the inconvenience of substandard living conditions?

That’s not a choice people should have to make.

When Tom Berry came to Albany as interim Water, Gas & Light Commission general manager, we had a conversation about this issue. Berry said then his wish list for the city included development of a rental code that would require owners of rental property to bring their property up to accepted standards.

And while Berry’s proposal would indeed benefit renters who are currently having to make the no-win choices above, his reason for suggesting such a program was not completely altruistic.

“First of all, it would improve the appearance of the community,” Berry said. “And it would reduce the energy we use drastically. There’s no way in the world some of the residences in this community should be generating $400, $500 and $600 electric bills.

“With some, all it would take is some insulation and the renter would see a significant difference.”

But Berry’s been here long enough now to know that many landlords or rental property owners aren’t interested in the living conditions or the comfort of their renters. Their concern centers on a singleness of purpose: Collect the rent every month, on time and paid in full. If you don’t have it, get out and we’ll find someone else who does.

In that months-ago discussion, Berry suggested that the city, rather than dropping the citation hammer on landlords, would be better served — and would better serve its citizens — by offering grants from a specific pool of money (perhaps even savings in what had once been uncollectible utility bills) that would help defray the costs of bringing substandard property up to code.

Berry suggested in a recent conversation that he’s still mulling over the idea, trying to find a way that it would work locally. And while I can’t think of anyone who believes slumlords should be rewarded for maintaining substandard rental property, surely the logic in creating some type of enforcable property standards is clear.

No one should have to live in slum housing just because property owners are too cheap or too inhumane to meet minimal standards of decency. Unfortunately, way too many here are.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected].