Code changes can help

It's a little late for Cedar Rapids landlords to start complaining about tougher rules on how they do business.

After all, city leaders and police have been working with neighborhood advocates for years to figure out how to deal with properties that are chronic sites of crime and nuisances.

They've been tossing around the specific ideas under consideration for more than a year, so I don't have much sympathy for property owners who say that increased fees, licenses and crime-free lease addenda are too heavy a burden for them to bear.

Changes to the city housing code, scheduled for a second reading next week, would require landlords to obtain a city landlord license (for a $50 fee), to register each rental property annually (and pay a fee), and add a “crime-free addendum” to every lease, making it grounds for eviction if a tenant or guest commits certain types of crimes in or near the person's rental unit.

That's too much, some landlords have said. They have called the changes a money grab, have vowed to drag their attorneys to the next City Council meeting in an effort to stop the move. If that doesn't work, they say, they'll sue the city for violating their rights.

But what about neighbor and renter's rights, I wonder. Where do they fit in all of this bluster?

Yes, changes under consideration by Cedar Rapids City Council will cost property owners more money. But those costs are nothing compared to the costs some Cedar Rapids neighborhoods have had to pay for the consistent negligence of some property owners.

The refusal of some property owners to take ownership seriously has cost neighbors sleep and security; it's negatively impacted the value of their homes and their ability to enjoy them.

For all of that, I'd be willing to bet the majority of Cedar Rapids' rental property owners are responsible. They take care of their properties, they mind who they're renting to. They take pride in their businesses. For them, changes in the city's housing ordinance will be an inconvenience and a few dollars out of pocket. That's unfortunate.

But changing the code will help bring those in line who aren't responsible. It will help clean up problem properties.

It will give some help to neighbors who have patiently worked for years on solutions to neighborhood problems - who have invested their time, energy, hearts and souls - only to watch their efforts splinter and crack like weathered paint on a ramshackle rental that an absentee landlord is too careless to fix.

Enough.

Comments: (319) 339-3154; jennifer.hemmingsen@gazcomm.com