Council discusses rental standards

Published 3:12 pm Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Councilwoman Deedy Johnson-Reid questioned the state of several rental properties in District 5 and possible solutions to them at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. 

Johnson-Reid provided several statistics in regards to the rate of low income renters in her district who often have little means of mobility or options in what homes they can choose to rent. 

Many of the tenants in her district, Johnson-Reid said, rent homes whose owners have invested little to no money into the homes. 

“These houses have been paid for 50 years,” Johnson-Reid said. “Anybody renting these houses are making pure profit. I would venture to say these houses don’t have any insurance.”

The councilwoman said that many of these landlords are charging for homes that are not habitable, or at the very least not up to the standards of section 8 programs. 

“Some of these people qualify for Section 8, the people who actually get the voucher luck out because Section 8 requires you to be in a house that’s decent, safe and sanitary,” she said. 

Additionally, Johnson-Reid said that tenants who live in these homes may not be calling out the unsanitary conditions of the homes they rent because they fear facing eviction by a landlord. 

“Can we adopt some ordinance that requires landlords to get a permit that requires it to be habitable before people rent,” she asked. “I don’t know if we can but I would like to discuss it.”

Some council members said that forcing the standards to be raised on these homes could eventually push out the tenants who are living in these homes. 

Others, like Mayor Pro Tem Ricky Gonsoulin, said that the government could only play a marginal role in these types of private business issues. 

 “When you sign a contract with Section 8 you sign a contract with the federal government,” Gonsoulin said. “In a private business mentality, you’re looking at your revenue versus your expenses and it’s insecure with tenants. I don’t think that’s a way to go about your business, but unfortunately people operate how they see fit.” 

Legal counsel Jeff Simon said enforcing standards on tenants would likely require some kind of occupancy permit when a new renter comes into a home. 

“If you’ve got people who don’t have a choice and don’t want to upset the landlord, unless you have a change of occupancy permit, I don’t know how you’re going to catch this kind of thing,” Simon said.

Mayor Freddie DeCourt said one of the solutions that could be pushed for is promoting the city’s Section 8 program for landlords to contract with, which would have them comply with federal standards of living. 

“One thing that has to happen, we need more HUD housing,” DeCourt said. “That’s something we can all try to promote to get into the Section 8 housing business.”