Housing Commission Takes First Look at Proposed New Housing, Rental Ordinances
The East Lansing Housing Commission took a first look at the draft of proposed ordinance changes to the city’s housing and rental codes at its Thursday, Sept. 5 meeting.
The ordinance changes were first revealed at a City Council meeting last month. The revisions were written by Councilmember Mark Meadows, City Attorney Anthony Chubb and Planning, Building and Development Director Annette Irwin after residents expressed concern about the code in the wake of a rental restriction district being put in place in parts of the Glencairn neighborhood, and a proposed charter amendment that would impact the city’s housing and rental regulations.
Some residents have raised concerns about who they can have stay in their homes for an extended period of time without a rental license.
The current ordinances clearly allow for immediate family members like siblings and children of homeowners to stay in a home, along with a host of other individuals outlined in exemptions. However, the regulations for some distant family members, acquaintances and others are more ambiguous. This is one of the main issues the new ordinances aim to address.
The Housing Commission was the first city body to offer feedback on the proposed ordinance changes. The discussion was incomplete, as the commission made it through only some of the new ordinances, and raised questions to be answered at future meetings.
“Exceptional circumstances” clause, student protections among changes proposed.
At the meeting, Meadows spoke about what several of the amendments are and why he feels they are needed.
Meadows said that many of the changes being made are simply organizational, and parts of the expansive city code were moved around to have the relevant sections in one place, making the code easier to understand.
During previous discussions about the code at city meetings, it became clear that it would be impossible to capture everyone who may need to stay in a home in a list of exemptions and definitions. To address people who may have a unique situation, the proposed ordinance amendments include an “exceptional circumstances” clause.
The clause would allow homeowners to apply for someone who does not fit neatly within the family definition or an exemption to stay in their home for a year, with renewals available. The application would be reviewed by a designee of the city manager and if denied, the applicant could appeal the decision to the city manager.
Some commissioners said they believe the process should be changed to have a group of people review the exceptional circumstance applications. The point was raised that it takes more time for a committees to gather to do a review, but some commissioners felt bringing in multiple perspectives to review these applications is appropriate.
The Housing Commission discussed other possible processes, like having appeals go to City Council or having the Housing Commission itself review applications.
Ultimately, the Housing Commission requested that City Council look into processes that promote “equity and fairness” in the exceptional circumstances application process.
Another important change in the proposed new ordinances, Meadows said, is making requirements for some of the exemptions like childcare provider and healthcare provider less stringent.
“A childcare worker had to provide childcare for, I think, 40 weeks, or something out of a year… all this stuff,” Meadows said. “Our experience was, we don’t really need that. A childcare worker who lives with a family and takes care of a child, whether it’s five hours a day or just in the evening, is providing a service to a family.”
Additionally, Meadows said the largest renting group in the city is 18-24 year olds, who are mostly students. Meadows is hopeful one proposed change would help this group of renters, who are often exploited by bad landlords.
“If there is a complaint about a landlord under the current version of the code, the city may actually help the student,” he said. “Under the new version of the code, the city is obligated to help the student against the landlord.”
He said this might mean the city pressures the landlord to follow up on maintenance requests or do other things “they are supposed to be doing.”
Planning and Zoning Administrator Annette Irwin explains how ordinances are currently enforced.
To help the Housing Commission better understand what is currently happening, Irwin explained the process of how the city addresses renting without a license violations.
Irwin said her department receives complaints from “all corners of the community.” She said after her office receives a complaint, they will ask follow-up questions to the caller, like why they believe there has been a violation, to see if the situation is worthy of an investigation.
“If we do not have enough information… to have an inspector go out and knock on the door and see who is there, we don’t have enough to do even that part,” Irwin said. “We will make a note in our system, so that way if we get another call or more information, we have a record.”
Irwin said her office puts together a report with all its findings for the city attorney to review before issuing citations for renting without a license.
Chubb clarifies how ordinances, charter amendment interact if both pass.
One reason why the ordinance changes are being so closely watched is because they address some of the same topics that a proposed charter amendment would if approved by voters at the Nov. 5 General Election.
Members of the charter amendment group have said they do not want relationship-based criteria to determine who can live in a home. But a new citizen group and two members of City Council have expressed concern that the charter amendment would hurt the city’s ability to enforce its laws on renters and have rental restriction zones – claims the charter amendment group says are untrue.
The council members and residents against the charter amendment have said the ordinance changes are the correct way to address people’s concerns about the code.
In response to a question from one commissioner, Chubb explained that the city charter overrules city ordinances.
“Ordinance 1538 would still be adopted as amended and it would not be impacted, unless there was a challenge, which was likely the intent of the charter amendment, to say that it or any other portion of our code are invalid,” Chubb said. “Because it is [part of the] charter, it would reign supreme over our ordinances.”
Chubb said that reviewing the ordinance amendments is still “extremely worthwhile.”
Charter amendment group would like to see three revisions to new ordinance changes.
Patrick Rose, an attorney and one of the leaders of the charter amendment group. While he believes resident concerns are best addressed through the proposed charter amendment, he said at the meeting that he and core members of his group would support the ordinance amendments as well if three changes are made:
- Expand the definition of “family” to include cousins and some minors, like foster children or those under a guardianship.
- Make changes to the definitions of guest and tenant.
- Require a seven-day notice to homeowners who are out of compliance with the code to remedy the issue before fines are issued.
“I am coming today to ask that the minor, minor revisions we’ve asked for be considered seriously,” Rose said. “If made, we would support these ordinances.”
Despite Meadows’ opposition to the charter amendment, he seemed to mostly agree with Rose’s suggestions regarding the ordinance revisions. Commissioners were also mostly receptive to Rose’s ideas.
Rose said the current code protects fully adopted children, but some who may need to stay in a home like a child with a guardian or foster child are not. He also said “cousins” should be included in the family definition.
Meadows said it would be easy to add language that clearly protects homes with foster children and children under guardianships. However, he said he does not support adding cousins to the family definition because some people have many cousins. Multiple commissioners said they do not support adding cousins to the family definition.
The commission recommended adding language that includes foster children or children under guardianships to the family definition.
Rose said that almost all residents support the ability for homeowners to have long term, non-rent paying guests in their home. He said the new ordinances need a few word changes to make this the rule.
“Ordinance 1538 defines a guest as one who ‘occupies’ a dwelling,” Rose said. “But the word ‘occupy’ is then defined in ordinance 1538 as ‘Persons who live or sleep or possess a space in a dwelling who are not a guest.’
“A guest is not a guest, they take away what they’ve given,” Rose said, proposing the word “occupy” be omitted from the guest definition.
Meadows said striking the language about guests from the “occupant” definition would fix this problem. He called Rose’s recommended changes to these definitions “good suggestions” that should be looked at.
Rose said the definition of tenant needs to be made clear that a non-guest who is a tenant is a person who pays rent or consideration in exchange for the right to remain occupying a home.
Finally, Rose said there needs to be a seven-day period where residents can remedy most code violations. He said the current version of the ordinance amendments do not specify a time period residents must remedy a violation within.
“Every East Lansing resident we have met has told us they think the city should give at least a week’s notice and a chance to remedy most violations for failure to have a rental license before fines are issued,” he said. “It’s basic fairness, most people don’t even know they’re violating.”
Meadows said adding language to enshrine the seven-day notice is a “reasonable change that can be made.”
The Housing Commission recommended adding a seven-day period to remedy violations be included in the ordinance amendments.
Correction 9/19 6:22 p.m.: This story was corrected to state that Rose’s group has also like the definition of tenant to be changed, and what those changes should look like.