South Tucson targets slumlords

Officials are pursuing a number of ordinances that would require landlords to use crime-free lease addenda while also forcing absentee landlords to maintain their properties.

" 'Crime-free' is paramount, because all it takes is one house to tarnish" a neighborhood, said Enrique Serna, South Tucson's city manager. "That is one of the most important considerations."

Essentially, the planned ordinances are modeled after the landlord-accountability initiative that the city of Tucson passed in February.

To that end, other planned ordinances include allowing South Tucson to notify absentee slumlords about building code violations through the newspaper as a way to streamline the court process.

Officials also plan to broaden the number of city employees to include health inspectors and public works staffers, among others, who can cite properties for building code violations.

It will also, in turn, go after liens on properties.

Dubbed "the Pueblo Within a City," South Tucson encompasses all of 1.2 square miles and has a population of about 5,400. It is cash-strapped, with an operating budget of about $5.4 million, and many residents live on low incomes. About 60 percent of its residents rent, U.S. census statistics show.

To give the planned landlord initiative teeth, Serna said the city is looking for bond money.

The funds would be used to make repairs on homes, and the city would then "take these landlords and property managers into court, making them come into compliance."

Such initiatives likely will have unanimous support from the city's council.

Mayor Jennifer Eckstrom said they have been a long time coming and can be used as part of the city's greater plans for neighborhood revitalization and increased homeownership.

"Like anything else, once we educate our residents to show them that we want to take pride in where we live, it's a domino effect," she said. "It's just getting the ball rolling that's difficult."

Eckstrom said she would like to see the initiatives in place by October or November.

And Councilman Ildefonso Green, who often votes alone on the council, said he also supports the plan.

"I think it's a long-overdue idea, because there are a lot of people who are living here that are hardworking but have no skills, and they are living in these toolsheds, basically," he said. "As a city, we are responsible to try to help these people."

While crime-free housing is a common path toward addressing crime in neighborhoods, it also has been criticized for limiting housing opportunities for people with criminal records.

Many templates for crime-free housing leases require applicants to check a box if they have a criminal history, and often what happens is the applications for people with backgrounds are denied, said Peggy Hutchison, executive director of the Primavera Foundation.

But Hutchison said landlords should realize that crime-free housing and prospective tenants with background issues are not mutually exclusive.

"It's great to be in crime-free housing, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't rent to people with felony convictions who are getting their lives back together," she said.

Primavera participates in crime-free housing, and it also has an ongoing homeownership project in South Tucson.

That project helps homeowners with major home repairs, but if the work is too great, Primavera helps homeowners to build a new home on their properties.

The idea of landlord accountability fits right in with Primavera's goal of revitalizing South Tucson's neighborhoods, Hutchison said.

"We really want to be a part of investing in South Tucson," she said, "and I think that cleaning up housing that is unsafe is critically important."