City votes to hire inspectors to police ‘bad actor’ landlords
Licensing rental housing was rejected in a 5-4 recorded vote late Monday night, but councillors then approved hiring three new inspectors to improve the sometimes deplorable conditions provided by “bad actor” landlords.
The hiring of two temporary building inspectors and one fire prevention officer is a two-year pilot project and part of a motion passed by a 6-3 vote that also includes limiting the number of bedrooms that can be squeezed into a single-family home by converting dining and living rooms. Though the new inspectors will cost about $714,032 over two years, they are supposed to pay for themselves with the hundreds of orders they write for fire and building infractions.
“You’ll have three dedicated people who’ll be able to respond,” Mayor Drew Dilkens said at the end of a prolonged council debate and 20 delegations making passionate and divergent arguments.
About half the speakers — including tenants, their advocates and university-area residents tired of the proliferation of dumpy rental homes — claimed licensing would save lives. The other half — mostly landlords — said it would drive investment out of the city.
A licensing system would exact fees from rental property owners, which would pay for regular fire and building inspections. But the mayor said the “bad actor” landlords would fly under the radar and not sign up.
“The alternative that’s put forward here ... I think it is a good step, I think it ‘s a reasonable step forward.”
The motion from Coun. Ed Sleiman was supported in a recorded vote by councillors Fred Francis, Irek Kusmierczyk, Bill Marra, Paul Borrelli and Dilkens. Minutes earlier, a vote on rental residential licensing was defeated by a 5-4 vote. Voting for licensing was Sleiman, Chris Holt, Rino Bortolin and JoAnne Gignac, who said it was time to try something new after more than a decade of failing to solve the problem.
“I know we have good operators (landlords), I know that, but I also know we have some pretty lousy operators,” Gignac said, pointing out that the city licenses 42 different types of businesses including tow trucks and food stores.
“Make no mistake, rental housing is a business, it’s a business,” she said, adding that without using the rule of law, bad landlords will continue to operate. “We’ve seen some horrible consequences.”
She referred to University of Windsor student Andrew Kraayenbrink, 19, who was killed on Oct. 26, 2016 when a fire ripped through the house he was sharing with five other university students.
An Ontario Fire Marshal’s report concluded there was “no evidence” of a working smoke alarm near the front bedroom on the main floor and called this a contravention of a section of the Ontario Fire Code. This was “significant,” because “it contributed to the delay in detection of the fire by the home’s occupants,” and the delayed detection “resulted in the advanced fire conditions faced by the occupants as they considered their escape from their home.”
Three of his family members made presentations Monday, pleading with council to approve a licensing system which they say would have prevented Kraayenbrink’s death.
Dilkens said Kraayenbrink’s death was “unfortunate, very unfortunate.”
But he added he doesn’t believe a licensing system would have prevented what happened. He said if he believed it would have changed the circumstances of Kraayenbrink’s death, “I would have been the one championing that regime.”
The new strategy also calls for more education for tenants. City staff have been directed to create a city-wide zoning bylaw that sets a maximum number of bedrooms based on total floor area in a house.
“This is better than the status quo and better than nothing, but I think we had a chance to do something full out,” said Coun. Rino Bortolin. bcross@postmedia.com