Baltimore City Council introduces bill to crack down on neglected apartment buildings
BALTIMORE — A new bill in the Baltimore City Council aims to crackdown on apartment buildings rife with issues; like mold, mice infestations, and more.
The goal is to get these buildings ahead of the line for inspections, which in turn can hopefully get issues fixed.
Joi Miles has been living in the Temple Gardens apartment building in Reservoir Hill for five years. It's been less than ideal.
"They won't help fill holes, they won't fix the properties up," Miles said. "They're letting us live in mess, basically. I found two dead mice and I know where they're coming from."
She's not alone, she's heard several of her neighbors having a hard time getting help as well.
Elaine Nichols is one of them.
"[On] Nov. 26, my apartment caught on fire from the stove. I have been asking, calling over and over again to get another stove," Nichols said. "My apartment's infested with mice, running like ants through my apartment...they never done anything about it."
To help people like Nichols and Milkes, Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen introduced the Strengthening Renters' Safety Act.
As it is now, it would create a priority category for 20-plus unit apartment buildings with repeated issues like Miles and Nichols have seen. These buildings would be subject to two inspections a year until the problems are fixed.
If there's no evidence of improvement, then the building could lose its rental license. That would have to be disclosed to current and prospective tenants, which isn't required in the city right now.
"This is not an anti-landlord bill, this is an anti-slumlord bill," Cohen said. "The vast majority of property owners in Baltimore operate responsibly. They take care of their tenants and do not neglect their property."
Nichols said she's had a number of health issues living in Temple Gardens. She just wants a safe place for her and her granddaughter to live.
"A doctor told me and my granddaughter both, not to go back in that apartment, [but] we're still in there right now today," she said. "I know some place in this world, there's got to be an apartment, a townhouse, someway for somebody to come and help me and get me a place for me and my granddaughter to move in."
WJZ reached out to Temple Gardens for comment, but we haven't heard back yet.
Cohen understands the strain this could put on the city's Department of Housing & Community Development. However, he hopes with the extra federal funding on the table -- like ARPA money -- that the department will try and hire more inspectors this coming budget season.
After being introduced, this bill will now go to the Economic and Community Development committee, where it'll go through a series of readings and possible amendments before it goes back to city council for a vote.