City seen as lax on rental ordinance

Limiting number of tenants proves tough to enforce

In a sense, Lawrence landlord Mark Lehmann is relieved.

As a landlord with about 60 houses in the city, he used to pay close attention to ensure that no more than the maximum of four unrelated adults were living in his single-family homes. But about four years ago when the city passed an ordinance reducing the number to three unrelated adults and created a city inspection process to make sure the ordinance was being obeyed, Lehmann stopped paying attention.

“I don’t watch it anymore,” Lehmann said. “I figure it is the city’s job to do it now. I pay them $25 a year (registration fee) to do it, and they do a really bad job of doing it.”

Suffice it to say, Lehmann doesn’t spend many sleepless nights worrying that city officials will find one of his homes in violation, subjecting him to a fine of up to $500 per violation.

“I think they’ve known from day one that they can’t enforce this ordinance,” Lehmann said.

Tough case

Recently released numbers by the city indicate that it is a difficult ordinance to enforce. Since the program began in February 2002, the city has taken only one case to a Municipal Court trial. That was about two years ago. The city lost the case because it did not meet the burden of proof that more than three people actually lived at the home.

“It almost takes an inspector talking to the residents about who is living there,” said City Prosecutor Jerry Little. “You can’t just rely on neighbors saying they’ve seen a lot of cars there.”

Little said other indirect evidence, such as more than three names on a mailbox also was difficult to use in court because the names didn’t prove whether the person was currently living in the house. Subpoenaing a copy of a lease often is not effective either because many leases are only between a landlord and one tenant, with other roommates paying the person who signed the lease.

Absent an interview with a tenant, Little said, to win a case it likely would take an inspector finding many smaller pieces of indirect evidence – everything from seeing four beds in a home to piles of clothes belonging to four separate people – that would add up to a strong case.

City Commissioner David Schauner, who also is a lawyer, said the ordinance wasn’t easy to enforce.

“I think it has not been as effective as people wanted it to be when it was approved,” Schauner said.

But there have been successes. In a report to city commissioners, Victor Torres, the city’s director of neighborhood resources, said his inspectors had identified 38 properties – of 2,320 inspected – that had more than three tenants. He said those properties were brought into compliance.

Torres said in many of those cases, a tenant was given a few weeks to move to another location and no fine was issued. In other cases, the complaint was turned over to the city prosecutor, where Little said a plea bargain was reached that led to at least one tenant moving. He said he was not certain whether any of the cases had ever produced a fine, which would be assessed to the landlord.

“We’re more interested in compliance as opposed to citations,” said David Corliss, assistant city manager and director of legal services.

Becoming a slum

Whatever success the city has had, it hasn’t been enough for Arly Allen. Allen was among a group of residents in the city’s older neighborhoods who pushed for the ordinance.

They argued that inner city neighborhoods like Centennial, Schwegler and University Place were being transformed into rental districts that made the areas unattractive to families with young children.

Allen, who is a 35-year resident of the Centennial neighborhood, said the area still suffers from typical rental problems of noisy parties, trash and crowded on-street parking.

“Essentially, there is no will here to deal with this,” Allen said. “They are waiting for the city to collapse.”

Allen said city officials are not entirely to blame. He said a state law that prohibits cities from forcing landlords to produce a list of tenant names makes it difficult for the city to gather concrete evidence. Corliss agreed that law has been an impediment.

Allen and others have said closing Centennial Elementary largely was caused by the conversion of surrounding neighborhoods into rental districts that no longer had families with children. He said he fears there will be more school closings in the future. He predicted that Central Junior High, which serves many of the inner city neighborhoods, will close in five years because of a lack of enrollment.

“Mark my words, it will happen,” Allen said. “The school board isn’t going to say that now, but the demography is such that it has to happen.

“But as all this happens, hopefully, somebody will say ‘what is happening to Lawrence?’ It has happened in many cities where the center of the city has become a slum. It can happen here.”

‘Open to suggestions’

Lawrence isn’t alone in struggling to efficiently enforce such an ordinance. Fort Collins, Colo., home to Colorado State University, also has an ordinance making it illegal for more than three unrelated adults to live in a single-family home.

Fort Collins leaders commissioned a report on enforcing the issue. Corliss and Lawrence leaders have reviewed its findings.

“We learned it is a difficult ordinance to enforce, and they didn’t have any particularly new strategies to enforce it,” Corliss said.

Schauner said it may be time for city commissioners to begin discussing how the ordinance could be improved.

“In my view, it is an ordinance worth having,” Schauner said.

But Schauner said the ordinance may need to be complemented with some sort of incentive program that would make it more likely for young families to move back into the older neighborhoods. He said he would like to explore the idea of designating some neighborhoods as being eligible for property tax rebates, if the homes were being used as true single-family residences.

“I think we need to be thinking outside the box here,” Schauner said.

Corliss said city staff members were interested in ways to make the ordinance better.

“We’re open to suggestions,” Corliss said. “We’re continuing to look for ways to enforce the law and protect and preserve neighbors.”