INC NEWS - New Program Would Establish Systematic Inspections of All Residential Rental Properties (Durham press release)

[John Schelp]

New Program Would Establish Systematic Inspections of
All Residential Rental Properties

How to eliminate shoddy rental properties will be the
focus of a new City of Durham program and task force
currently being designed to eradicate substandard
rental housing throughout the community.

The City’s Department of Neighborhood Improvement
Services is assessing the development of a new Rental
Occupancy Code Enforcement Program, a long-term,
multi-year strategy that would provide systematic
inspection of all single-family rental properties and
multi-family complexes in the City.   The program is
part of the department’s overall strategy to improve
and preserve the physical condition of housing and
commercial properties across the City.

According to Constance Stancil, the director of the
City’s Department of Neighborhood Improvement
Services, the goal behind developing this new program
is to proactively address substandard rental housing
in Durham .  “Two of our main goals are to reduce the
number of substandard rental housing units and promote
responsible management of rental housing properties,”
Stancil said.  “We feel that if we can focus our
efforts on these types of properties over the next
several years, we will reduce the likelihood that
rental housing will become unfit and uninhabitable as
well as reduce the likelihood that rental housing will
become a public nuisance.”

In addition to creating this new program, the
department is also developing a community-wide Rental
Housing Task Force, a key component of the program
that would focus on how to enforce the program’s
guidelines and procedures.  The task force, which met
for the first time last week, consists of City
employees, realtors and several community advocates. 
After its first meeting, the task force has formed
itself into subcommittees to tackle the feasibility of
such issues as examining other city programs
nationwide, identifying the problems of tenants and
landlords, pinpointing the impact of rental issues for
communities and neighborhoods, and focusing on the
legal aspects of the new program.

Durham residents interested in additional information
about the proposed Rental Occupancy Code Enforcement
Program and Rental Housing Task Force should contact
James Ragin, housing inspector with the City’s
Department of Neighborhood Improvement Services, at
560-4570 or via e-mail at james.ragin at durhamnc.gov.


About the Department of Neighborhood Improvement
Services

The City of Durham ’s Department of Neighborhood
Improvement Services is dedicated to improving the
quality of life for Durham ’s residents by increasing
access to safe, livable housing and by aesthetically
improving the City-built environment through its code
enforcement and impact teams. The department provides
community relations assistance to neighborhoods for
organizing communities, addressing neighborhood
challenges and forming neighborhood associations.  For
more information about this department, contact (919)
560-4570.