The West University Neighborhood Association Executive Board unanimously agreed Thursday to become part of a growing coalition of housing-standards supporters.
The board’s decision made it the second Eugene neighborhood organization to join the Eugene Citizens for Housing Standards coalition, which includes the Jefferson West Neighborhood Association, along with the University and Lane Community College student governments.
ECHS staff member Brett Rowlett said 98 percent of the housing units in the neighborhood are rentals. Rowlett and ASUO President Maddy Melton presented the request for support to the neighborhood association.
Melton said Eugene, with more than 54,000 renters, remains the largest city in Oregon without a locally enforceable housing code. Instead, residents rely on the Oregon Landlord-Tenant Act, which requires that tenants go through small claims court if they have grievances against their landlords. Melton said the current process is inefficient and costly.
“The problem we’re finding is that this both takes a lot of time to go through small claims court and also it costs folks money,” Melton said. “I think that we can all agree that our low-income community members and students as well don’t have much time or money.”
Rowlett said civil cases can also bring slow resolution to tenant-landlord disputes. Following Measure 28’s defeat in 2003, for instance, smalls claims court cases were not a high priority for four months. Therefore, renters were not able to get out of their leases without being evicted, he said.
“We all know what it’s like being a renter,” he said. “With an eviction on your record, you’re not going to be able to get a new place to live.”
Rowlett said the proposed Eugene code would not be a “landlords vs. renters type issue” but would provide a consistent code to prevent situations like those that occurred after Measure 28’s failure.
“All we’re trying to do is take laws currently in place and make them enforceable,” Rowlett said.
Melton said the coalition has incorporated only the basic habitability standards in its proposed code, noting that previous attempts to create housing standards were rejected by the Eugene City Council because they were too broad.
The code, modeled after a similar program recently implemented in Corvallis, would ensure structural integrity, heating, plumbing and weatherproofing for all renters, Melton said.
“We believe all citizens of this city should have access to a system (of standards) and should be able to enforce this code,” Melton said.
The plan also calls for the creation of a housing office that would oversee enforcement of the standards. Melton said the program would be self-sustaining and funded by a small per-rental-unit fee.
University senior Caroline O’Leary, an Executive Board member in the West University Neighborhood Association, said joining the coalition demonstrates residents’ concerns with the housing situations in their neighborhoods. She added that a code will put pressure on owners to maintain their properties.
“I think that it shows we understand the demographic of the neighborhood — that the quality of housing is not always maintained to the extent that it needs to be,” O’Leary said.
Executive Board Chairman Drix Rixmann said that the association’s support of the standards is vital.
“We’re leaving a legacy to kids not yet born,” Rixmann said.
However, Larry von Klein of von Klein Property Management expressed his concerns about a housing code. Von Klein, who said he has sold many units in the West University Neighborhood, indicated that a per-unit fee will penalize landlords who maintain their properties and already pay for insurance, utilities and other costs.
“There’s a very fine line at the end of the year on (rental) properties,” he said. “There’s not a big cash flow thing.”
He said some landlords do not adequately keep up their properties, but community pressure should be enough to force them to meet the standards set by the Landlord-Tenant Act. Landlords must satisfy tenants to gain repeat business, von Klein added.
Melton said making presentations to neighborhood associations will raise awareness and support among the people who are affected by the lack of housing standards.
The West University Neighborhood Association’s next meeting will be held May 6 at 7:30 p.m. in the Sacred Heart Auditorium.