RAHB and the Hamilton & District Apartment Association were requested by the City of Hamilton Planning Committee to provide a solution to rental property licensing.
A joint task force has been meeting over several months and has prepared an alternative to licensing. The task force, chaired by RAHB Director Donna Bacher, will present its solution to the City of Hamilton Planning Committee on Tuesday, June 18. A copy of the submission will be available as of Friday, June 7 – watch Message of the Day (MOD) or RAHB social media pages for links to the document and details about the Planning Committee meeting.
Before a solution can be presented the problem has to be defined.
For some parts of the city, the problem is unkempt property and inappropriate behavior. Licensing will not solve those problems any better than enforcement of current by-laws.
There are other “problems” but only one serious difficulty and that is the safety of renters. My personal question is “why does the city feel it needs to protect renters more than homeowners?” If there is to be a safety audit of rental properties does the City want to take on the onerous, expensive, and frankly impossible job of intervening in every transfer of a home to ensure it is safe?
Why an apartment in a home but not a duplex? Are apartments inherently a bigger problem than duplexes or triplexes? Should we not expect our city’s regulations to be fair to all and not more onerous to renters than owners? (I can’t imagine an investor absorbing a cost rather than passing it on.)
There is a further problem. In order to enforce a licensing by-law, some sort of inspection must be done. I suggested to a senior City employee that I would not welcome a city inspector into my home to see if the people living in my basement were relatives, friends down on their luck, children of friends or exchange students, or renters. If I would not let an inspector, or police officer in for that purpose would they be granted a search warrant?
Does any one imagine that a search warrant to ascertain the status of people living in my home would last thirty seconds in any court concerned with citizen’s rights and freedoms?
By the way – if this licensing by law will be enforceable why do crack houses stay open. Does anyone believe that the cops couldn’t find every crack house in Hamilton with the offer of a $50.00 reward through Crimestoppers? Does someone think it is ok to grant a search warrant for a residence more easily than a – shall we say business bringing people in and out all hours of the day and evening ?
So, what problem does the proposed bylaw solve? Not safety, not property maintenance, not zoning, not noise, not extra refuse – all of those already have by-laws covering them.
So if, heaven forbid, a licensing by law is passed, and fairly enforced there remains one more issue. Where do we as a community expect to house more than 10,000 students and upwards of 150,000 more people.
Should we ensure the safety of people? Absolutely! That is why our fire department has the right to inspect dwelling places. Should we expand that program – well I suppose I could ask for and pay for a safety inspection. I also suppose that in fire prone areas firefighters could be tasked to do inspections while their truck stood by to respond in case of need. So there are alternatives to a by-law for safety. In fact, I for one would support a requirement that fire and health inspectors be available to inspect unsafe properties at the request of an owner or tenant and appropriate fines be levied to cover the costs of inspections if warranted.
This response is already too long – but licensing is a solution looking for a problem to cover the ASSEtS of City Councillors.