I found an article titled “Apartment Walkway collapse could lead to tougher code enforcement” in the Statesman on November 1, 2012 written
by Jasmine Ulloa very informative. I think the city of Austin has let the
slumlords get by with below minimum standards in low income housing for way
too long. Attention needs to be paid to ensure that the City of Austin increases their enforcement of code violations that fall below
minimum standards.
As Ulloa states in her article, “But some community leaders say the city’s plans to improve code enforcement aren’t strong enough and could meet roadblocks. The city and taxpayers have to decide whether they want to pay for the repair incentives, they said, and the city hasn’t discussed consequences for those not willing to participate in a restoration program”
What allow a property to fall below the minimum includes: backed up sewers, severe cockroach infestation, rats, faulty wiring, leaky roof, or not having hot water. Dirty carpet and faulty appliances (malfunctioning dishwasher) are not violations. This information can be found in the Texas Constitution Tex. Prop. Code SS 92.052(a). It is legal to rent an apartment that has dirty carpets and has cockroaches, just not severe infestation,to someone. What is wrong is that City Council thinks that because someone is low income means that they are second class citizens and thus not deserving of adequate housing regulated properly by the City. Tenants of the apartment complexes described in this article as well as many other complexes around the Austin area were built before 1985.Those code standards do not meet today's standards. Not to mention the number of absentee landlord/owners who live out of state or in a different country that are almost impossible to contact for any reason.
What will it take for the Austin and local taxpayers to see that people suffer in substandard apartments and there is no solution to these problems? The tenants complain to the city about the problems with their apartments and what repairs need to be made and are evicted. Instead of getting support from the city for reporting the code violations, they have to move. The places that are available for low- income citizens who have been evicted are worse in most cases. This is a vicious cycle. No one sees the elephant in the room. Do you truly think that people choose to be poor? Life happens. What ever happened to love thy neighbor? I researched this topic for over three hours to find out what the minimum standards were and discovered that we are one of the few cities in Texas that does not have health housing information available for public viewing online. Is it an oversight that Austin is not included on this website? I think not.
As Ulloa states in her article, “But some community leaders say the city’s plans to improve code enforcement aren’t strong enough and could meet roadblocks. The city and taxpayers have to decide whether they want to pay for the repair incentives, they said, and the city hasn’t discussed consequences for those not willing to participate in a restoration program”
What allow a property to fall below the minimum includes: backed up sewers, severe cockroach infestation, rats, faulty wiring, leaky roof, or not having hot water. Dirty carpet and faulty appliances (malfunctioning dishwasher) are not violations. This information can be found in the Texas Constitution Tex. Prop. Code SS 92.052(a). It is legal to rent an apartment that has dirty carpets and has cockroaches, just not severe infestation,to someone. What is wrong is that City Council thinks that because someone is low income means that they are second class citizens and thus not deserving of adequate housing regulated properly by the City. Tenants of the apartment complexes described in this article as well as many other complexes around the Austin area were built before 1985.Those code standards do not meet today's standards. Not to mention the number of absentee landlord/owners who live out of state or in a different country that are almost impossible to contact for any reason.
What will it take for the Austin and local taxpayers to see that people suffer in substandard apartments and there is no solution to these problems? The tenants complain to the city about the problems with their apartments and what repairs need to be made and are evicted. Instead of getting support from the city for reporting the code violations, they have to move. The places that are available for low- income citizens who have been evicted are worse in most cases. This is a vicious cycle. No one sees the elephant in the room. Do you truly think that people choose to be poor? Life happens. What ever happened to love thy neighbor? I researched this topic for over three hours to find out what the minimum standards were and discovered that we are one of the few cities in Texas that does not have health housing information available for public viewing online. Is it an oversight that Austin is not included on this website? I think not.
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