Tales of squalor, slumlords prompt LB Council to adopt new rental inspection

CJ Dablo
Staff Writer
At the June 2 Long Beach City Council meeting, protestors dressed in bright-orange shirts stood in a long queue during a public-comment session to tell their stories of slumlords who didn’t care about the vermin that had infested their homes.

Michael Cairncross told the Council that at his previous residence, the roof leaked and there were cockroaches. He described the mold on the walls and how doctors determined that the yeast found in his lung during a biopsy came from that mold. His wife was also recovering from mold-related problems with her esophagus, he added. He said after he complained to the code-enforcement authorities, he was evicted and later found himself living in a motel that had equally squalid conditions.
First District Councilmember Lena Gonzalez acknowledged that the renters’ struggles are real.
“Some of our residents are living in very bad situations, conditions that affect the health and lives of children in their families,” Gonzalez said. “And housing needs to be healthy and safe for everybody. Renters should not fear retaliation from voicing their!basic needs.”

In a first-reading vote, the Council unanimously voted in favor of an ordinance that would adopt a new program that aims to seek out the slumlords and take initiatives to inspect rental properties on a regular basis. The program currently applies to rental properties that have four or more units, but the Council has asked for the staff to report back on the possibility of having proactive inspections for triplexes.
Gonzalez added a few key components to the ordinance before it was passed, including adding an outreach program for both tenants and landlords that will cost $75,000. They will be informed of their basic rights. More significantly, the State Franchise Tax Board Housing Program does allow local agencies like the City of Long Beach to determine if a property is substandard, according to Amy Bodek, who serves as the director of business development for Long Beach.
She explained Tuesday that, after a 120-day period and a subsequent appeals process has taken place, the City can take the action to submit the address of the substandard property, and the California Franchise Tax Board can withhold any deductions for a property owner. Bodek added that property owners aren’t able to apply for an income-tax deduction until they are released from the program. That won’t happen until they are determined by local agencies to be in compliance.
By establishing the proposed Proactive Rental Housing Inspection Program, or PRHIP, the Council rejected the Rent Escrow Account Program, or REAP, which was adopted by the City of Los Angeles. Under REAP, in the event that a rental property owner receives a notice that their building is substandard or otherwise is out of compliance, tenants are given a rent reduction and the ability to pay their rent either to the landlord or to an escrow account, according to LA’s website for its housing and community investment department. Buildings must be found by several city agencies to be in compliance before they are released from the program and the property owner can collect the rent from an escrow account.
Third District City Councilmember Suzie Price acknowledged that she had spoken to stakeholders about the possibility of adopting REAP for Long Beach, but she ultimately didn’t favor LA’s program.
“My personal viewpoint!is that REAP is not warranted in Long Beach,” Price said. “It’s not fiscally or legally feasible for us, given the information that I have and that we have received from our staff.”
Long Beach’s new program was praised by a number of apartment owners who were present. Dozens of them stood after Paul Bonner, president of the Apartment Association, California Southern Cities, spoke before the Council.

“The proposed ordinance is a balanced work product,” Bonner said. “In the best interests of the city, inspections should continue. In particular, inspections should focus on slumlord properties, a term that is defined in law, and properties where serious code violations exist. There is no room for us to allow serious code violations. City inspectors have not turned their head the other way, and we believe in a zero-tolerance policy.”
Fifth District Councilmember Stacy Mungo and many of the councilmembers acknowledged that the program is aimed toward the “bad landlords” and that most of the property owners in Long Beach are not in this category.
“I want to make it so difficult to be a bad landlord in Long Beach that it’s easier to just be a good landlord or to put their property up for sale,” Mungo said.
Eighth District Councilmember Al Austin was among several councilmembers who acknowledged that the program was not perfect.
“I don’t think the action tonight will solve the problems of bad landlords and substandard housing,” he told the Council, “but we will, I think, take a step in the right direction this evening.”
Many of the councilmembers acknowledged the hard work and efforts to collaborate with the advocates from Housing Long Beach and, particularly, the property owners. Dozens of advocates on both sides of the issue filled the Council Chamber that Tuesday evening. The property owners were largely on the east side of the meeting hall. The advocates for the tenants filled the west side of the Chamber.
Most of these proponents dressed in orange shirts and identified themselves as volunteers for Housing Long Beach, which advocated loudly in favor of REAP.
Retaliation against tenants who filed complaints against slumlords was especially on Vanessa Davis’s mind when she spoke to the Council just before they voted on the ordinance.
She filed a complaint with the code-enforcement department and said she felt intimidated by and was eventually evicted by her landlord. She said that she couldn’t fight the 60-day notice because the property owner insisted that the notice to vacate had nothing to do with her complaint to code enforcement. She said she eventually became homeless and had to live in her car for 19 months.
“And I love this city. I’ve been here for 12 years,” she said, adding that she graduated from a neighborhood leadership program.
“I’ve volunteered so many ways in the city. I’ve cleaned up the beach. I plant trees, and you guys have failed me,” Davis’s voice broke. “This program? Please. Show me REAP.”