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Rental Housing Quality in Marion County:

Moving Beyond Complaints and Canaries

Report by IKE’s Tom Neltner on November 22, 2005

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Fact Sheet in pdf

According to the 2000 Census, Marion County has 133,901 rental units – 41.3% of all homes.  Most of these rental units are in excellent shape.  Thousands of good landlords who care about their customers and their properties exceed the minimum standards set by the Marion County housing code and comply with Indiana’s landlord-tenant law. 

Unfortunately, Marion County has no systematic method to ensure that all landlords meet the minimum legal requirements.  Marion County Health Department (MCHD) – the agency that enforces the housing code – relies on complaints, lead poisoning investigations, and occasional systematic enforcement of specific apartment complexes to identify compliance problems.  This reactive approach has serious shortcomings that research by IKE has made clear threatens the health and well-being of Marion County renters, especially children.

The vast majority of MCHD’s housing code enforcement resources are invested in rental and contract sales property.  IKE analyzed MCHD’s housing code orders from January 1, 2000 to June 10, 2004.  See the table below for the results.  IKE found that MCHD took action against 3,282 unique address (including individual rental/contract sale units and hotel rooms).  85% of those addresses were rental or contract sale properties.  Since 2002 the percentage increased to 89% as enforcement against motels and hotels dropped dramatically.   

The burden of problem landlords and contract sale situations on MCHD is made worse since 95% of the appeals to the environmental court are by landlords or contract sellers & buyers.  They challenge 12.3% of the repair orders.   It is their right to do so, but it is still a drain on MCHD’s limited resources and our tax dollars.

Regarding the lead-based paint and lead hazards, MCHD identified lead hazards on 296 of the homes – 9% of the total.  Surprisingly, 99% of these homes with lead hazards were rental and contract sales property.  This is far worse than national estimates. 

Most of the homes with lead hazards were identified through investigations of lead poisoned children to identify how they were poisoned.  This approach uses our children as lead hazard detectors – essentially treating them in the same way that miners used canaries centuries ago.

In June 2004, IKE began filing complaints about the apartment buildings along Meridian Street between 30^th and 38^th Streets to MCHD.  Thousands of Marion County’s rental properties are along this nine-block corridor.  The results of MCHD’s investigations are described in the table on the right.  24 of the 25 apartment buildings had lead hazards – primarily deteriorated lead-based paint – and were ordered to eliminate the hazards.  

Lead dust on the floor is the most likely way children are lead poisoned.  The highest lead dust level measured was 639 µg/ft² – almost 16 times the EPA standard.  The average highest level of lead dust on the floors in each building was 57 µg/ft² – well over the EPA standard of 40 µg/ft².  The highest level of lead in the soil was 8610 ppm.  This means that the soil around that apartment building was 0.86% lead!  MCHD previously identified lead hazards in only five of these 25 apartment buildings. 

Clearly renters are being unwittingly and unknowingly being exposed to lead hazards.  Lead causes permanent brain damage in children lowering IQ levels and contributing to violent behavior and learning problems such as attention deficit hyperactive disorders. 

In cooperation with the Concerned Clergy and the Citizen’s Multi-Service Center, IKE coordinated the Citizen’s Healthy Homes Initiative (CHHI).  As part of CHHI, the partners prepared 25 community residents to take samples for a variety of environmental threats to children.  Most of these residents where youth from the Kennedy-King Park Neighborhood.

The residents evaluated 108 homes from January 2003 to April 2004.  The results of the evaluation are described below.  Cockroaches and rodents pose many threats but their debris triggers asthma attacks.  Similarly, the National Academy of Sciences recently found that dampness in homes contributes to asthma attacks.  Mold, mildew and a strong musty smell are symptoms of dampness.  Unvented gas appliances generate carbon monoxide that

makes residents sick at levels when the CO alarm does not sound.  The CO alarm only goes off under life-threatening conditions. 

The CHHI team also evaluated a entire neighborhood to determine how many housing code violations could be see from the street.  It evaluated every one of 446 homes in the Kennedy-King Park neighborhood.  The results are described below.

The most common serious problems were:

·        Windows – 25% of the homes have broken or seriously damaged windows that allow water get into the home and the walls.  Water rots the wood and plaster, peels paint (including lead-based paint), and leads to mold and cockroaches.  An additional 29% are in poor condition.

·        Gutter – 20% of the homes have hanging or missing gutters or downspouts that let water get into the home or can damage the roof.  An additional 17% are in poor condition.

·        Paint – 17% of the homes have extensive amounts of exterior peeling paint with bare wood exposed.  Since most of the homes were built before 1960, the exterior paint is probably lead-based paint that contaminates the soil and the home to poison children.  An additional 28% of the homes have significant amounts of peeling paint.

·        Siding – 17% of the homes have extensive damaged or missing siding that is most likely letting water get into the home and walls.  An additional 22% of the homes have some damaged siding that will get worse if not repaired.

·        Roofing – 10% of the homes have a roof that is damaged or sagging.  This problem will let water gets into the home and walls.  An additional 15% have damaged shingles or facing boards.  

Early and proactive intervention can fix the little housing code violations before they become overwhelming and threaten the integrity of the home.  This approach could keep these homes safer, healthier, and more affordable – and prevent them from being abandoned.

MCHD as a Property Manager:  Finally, IKE has found that 20 landlords owned more than 20% of the rental or contract sales property that was subject to housing code enforcement.  These landlords were essentially using MCHD as its property manager.  As one landlord told IKE’s Tom Neltner, if there are no investigations there are no problems. 

This approach puts the good landlords who actively manage their property at a serious competitive disadvantage to the problem landlords that rely on MCHD and taxpayer money to keep the property in proper condition – when those conditions get bad enough to be the subject of a complaint or a lead poisoning investigation.

What Marion County Needs Now?

IKE does not believe we need stronger standards at this time.  Marion County’s housing code sets standards that are generally sufficient to protect the health and safety of residents.  And Indiana adopted a landlord-tenant law (see box on previous page) in 2002 that established sufficient requirements for landlords and tenants. 

What is missing is a proactive system to identify rental contract sales property and ensure that landlords comply with the housing code and landlord-tenant law. 

Our current system relies on

·        Complaints – Unfortunately tenants often don’t complain to MCHD until the problem has gotten severe or they are giving up and moving out.  Many low-income or immigrant tenants are unlikely to complain out of fear of retaliation by the landlord.  In addition, complaints are of little help on hidden hazards such as lead dust and carbon monoxide.

·        Lead Poisoning Investigations – MCHD investigates each residence of a lead poisoned child for lead hazards and orders those hazards eliminated when they find them.  Unfortunately, this approach relies on children to detect the lead hazards.  Children become our modern equivalent of a miner’s canary alerting miners to dangers.  While an essential public health activity, lead poisoning investigation react to rather than prevent a poisoning.

·        Systematic Inspections – When MCHD gets many complaints about a particular apartment complex, it conducts a thorough inspection of all units.  This approach is important but still relies on complaints to initiate the process. 

This system essentially puts MCHD in the position of being a de facto property manager for the problem landlords that do not care for their tenants or their property. 

IKE believes that Marion County needs a proactive system with the following features:

·        Allows MCHD to readily identify rental and contract sales properties and who to contact if problems arise;

·        Requires landlords to certify to MCHD that they are in compliance with the existing housing code and landlord-tenant law;

·        Ensures that both landlords and tenants as well as contract sellers and buyers know their rights and responsibilities by requiring landlords and contract sellers to give tenants a door hanger prepared by MCHD that concisely and clearly describes the law;

·        Gives MCHD the right to charge landlords a fair fee for the second complaint about a rental property when housing code violations are found;

·        Protects tenants from retaliation for reasonable complaints about housing code violations to MCHD or enforcement of the landlord-tenant law; and

·        Assigns a portion of any fees and fines to the Indianapolis Housing Trust Fund to help landlords improve the quality of their rental property to the benefit of their tenants.