THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 10, 1994 TAG: 9407080298
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
In seeking to clarify the authority of municipalities to inspect rental housing units between occupancies, the General Assembly so muddied the waters that Suffolk's inspection program is decimated. It's the very last thing the city needs as it struggles with an overstock of substandard housing.
The legislature restricted preoccupancy inspections to conservation and rehabilitation areas. Inspection requests will fall dramatically this year - from Suffolk's 1,332 in 1992, to perhaps the 200 of 1987, first year of Suffolk's inspections program.
Further complicating matters, Suffolk's rehabilitation areas are under review, so preoccupancy inspections are temporarily limited to its 12 conservation districts. The inspections became citywide in 1992, but that ended July 1 because of the last legislature.
A stroke of good fortune, many of Suffolk's newer, thus less troublesome, rental units are outside conservation or rehabilitation areas.
Vanessa Savage, city building inspector, said it's ``frustrating'' that the inspections can't continue citywide. However, tenants in rental units outside designated areas may file complaints that result in inspections. Just call 925-6399.
At first glimpse, this change might appear a victory for disgruntled landlords. It isn't. In fact, real estate owners backed Suffolk's citywide inspections. The inspections work in the favor of landlords, too, providing an official account of a dwelling's condition before and after a tenant's possession and discouraging destruction. At $25, this reinforcement that tenants also must respect property is a bargain.
The program certainly benefits the dwellers, assuring that minimum housing standards are met. Otherwise, the stock of substandard units will just increase, giving the city an unending headache.
The General Assembly acted because the law enabling such inspections did not stipulate whether they could be citywide - as some cities believe, based on responsibility of government to guard the health, safety and welfare of cities - or, as other cities held, only in designated districts.
Virginia is a Dillon Rule state, meaning that localities have only specified authority. It's practically certain that some cities, including Suffolk, will ask the General Assembly next year to specify that preoccupancy inspections may apply throughout a municipality. The legislature should honor the request.
While free choice generally makes it possible for renters to decide whether or not to occupy properties, economics clearly restrict some people to low-rent areas. Such properties should meet at least minimum standards, and that is a matter of health, safety and welfare.
That is, government does have a clear role. Slum properties' effects and costs reach far beyond the occupants - to schools, police and fire protection, social services and every other element of the community.
Slums inhibit business growth, which Suffolk must attract to address its already unacceptable level of inadequate housing and other longstanding needs. They breed defeatism, and they harbor crime.
If Suffolk is ever to solve those persistent problems, it must have reasonable tools. That includes inspecting every single rental property before it gets new tenants. MEMO: Comment? Call the editor at 446-2494. by CNB