BRATTLEBORO — To better meet the demands of inspecting the 3,000 rental housing units in town, Assistant Fire Chief Leonard Howard III has proposed a rental housing registration and inspection program.
Howard projects that the program, which will add $50,000 to the fiscal year 2020 budget, will also bring in $56,250 annually.
“This is a recognized need,” said Town Manager Peter B. Elwell at the Dec. 11 special meeting of the Selectboard, which heard the proposal but took no action.
During conversations at the Selectboard level, and in other meetings and informal talks, “problem properties” have been identified, Elwell said - problems that affect the quality and safety of housing for the town's lower-income residents.
“Providing decent housing is an important baseline to households, families, and individuals being able to live a healthy and productive life,” said Elwell.
But the town hasn't had the capacity to sufficiently enforce the rental housing codes, Elwell noted.
Howard's proposal echoes Elwell's observations.
“With the current process, we average 300 inspections annually,” the proposal says. “It will take 10 years to complete one cycle of the 3,000 units, and that is not an acceptable amount of time to make sure tenants are living in a safe and healthy environment.”
Howard has studied how other towns around Vermont - Burlington, Winooski, St. Albans, Barre City, and St. Johnsbury - manage rental-housing registrations and inspections.
Fire Chief Michael Bucossi pointed out how much work Howard did on this proposal.
“He really took this and ran with it,” said Bucossi, who added, “I want the Board to know how hard he worked.”
Howard's proposal noted some towns require an annual registration and inspection.
He recommends the “quadrant model,” where inspectors in other towns visit each rental home and apartment once every four years, which would require personnel to inspect 750 units every year.
Under this scenario, the town would schedule the inspections alphabetically by street name. The property owner would receive advance warning of the inspection.
Property owners would pay the town a rental registration fee of $75 for each unit after each four-year inspection, but in the alternating three years, the landlord would not pay.
Although there was some talk among town officials about creating a full-time housing inspector, this idea was scrapped because of high costs. Instead, firefighters, who are also certified inspectors, would be paid overtime to visit rental housing on days they are not on shift at the fire station.
The staffing model Howard proposed has him overseeing the inspections program and responding to rental housing complaints. Under this model, he would spend less time performing initial inspections.
Funding for the inspections would come from the registration fees. Elwell pointed out this program will “have no tax impact” on the general population.
If the Selectboard approves Howard's proposal, the program will begin with the new fiscal year, in July. Leading up to that, the Selectboard would have to change the town's ordinances to reflect the new registration and inspection program.
Selectboard member Tim Wessel offered his support for the program. He noted that he owns rental property in town and the units were recently inspected.
Even though he had a few violations, Wessel said it was a great and helpful experience that keeps his tenants safer. The funding method Howard proposed “is an elegant solution,” Wessel added.
Board member David Schoales pointed out the backlog in rental units in need of inspection and asked Howard if he could “double down” during the first few years.
Howard said that for such a plan to work, the fire department would have to reassign an active firefighter from emergency response on inspection days.
Selectboard Chair Kate O'Connor asked what would happen to fines the inspectors levy against landlords whose units are found in violation.
Howard and Bucossi agreed that this program is meant to be educational and not punitive. They said they would prefer landlords spend their money not on fines but on curing the violations and fixing up their buildings.
Early warning and detection of housing-code violations provides safety not only to tenants, but to his firefighters, Bucossi said.
And, he added, the new program would give landlords “peace of mind.”