Council approved rental inspections in 2019 but Modesto never started program
A city-approved program to ensure residents in Modesto’s roughly 40,000 rental housing units have decent, safe homes has never gotten off the ground, The Bee has learned.
After several dozen poor people who had been living in a deplorable Modesto apartment building lost their housing in 2017, the city spent about a year developing a rental housing inspection program to protect tenants. The City Council in September 2019 approved the rental housing safety program intended to help residents in single-family homes, duplexes, apartments and condos.
The program was intended to remove fear of eviction and retaliation for reporting unsafe conditions and protect the city’s housing stock by tweaking how the city conducted rental housing inspections.
Instead of being entirely complaint driven, each year the city would inspect up to 10% of the rental housing stock randomly or based on data such as history of complaints at a property.
But the city apparently never started the program.
“Due to budget cuts, the pandemic, and staffing shortages, the City has not been able to do any proactive inspections but has been doing reactive or complaint-driven substandard housing inspections and will continue to do so,” Modesto spokesman Andrew Gonzales said in an email last month to The Bee.
Gonzales did not respond to several emails in the past few weeks requesting an interview with city officials.
Under the program, the city also would develop an inventory of Modesto’s rental housing by having owners register their properties with the city.
Property owners in good standing with the city could conduct their own annual inspections and certify their rental units meet program requirements. The city expected the majority of owners would do that. The program was designed to be self-supporting through the $100 the city would charge for inspections and reach that target in the program’s fifth year.
That, too, has not happened.
Councilman Eric Alvarez — who was elected in November — wants the program to start. He said he wants a briefing from city officials on how realistic it is to launch the program this year or a hard time line for when it could start.
‘Responsibility to mitigate’
Alvarez represents Council District 2, which includes south and west Modesto and some of the city’s poorest and most diverse neighborhoods. He said residents tell him that substandard rental housing is a top issue. Residents often have to deal with intimidating landlords, housing infested with cockroaches, and heating, ventilation and cooling systems that don’t work.
“I have a responsibility to mitigate that,” Alvarez said. “That is one of the top issues.”
Modesto worked with the California Apartment Association, the Modesto-based property management firm Sweet Properties and tenant advocates Faith in the Valley, Project Sentinel and California Rural Legal Assistance to come up with the program.
City officials have said Modesto worked to create a program that did not burden property owners but ensured tenants have decent, safe housing, including working plumbing and electrical systems and roofs without leaks.
A 2019 city report states Modesto has about 40,000 rental housing units and the program would exempt rental housing that is less than 10 years old or inspected through another government program.
Ben Sweet, owner of Sweet Properties, said his company managed about 250 residential properties — including 75 to 100 in Modesto — before selling the leases to another company effective this year. Sweet said he still manages about 10 rental properties in the city.
City did not notify property manager
Sweet said as far as he knows, the city never started the program. He said he never received anything from the city asking him to inspect his properties or register them. He added that other property managers have not contacted him, which he said he’d expect because of his role in helping the city.
“There was nothing in the mail, nothing emailed, nothing I saw in The Modesto Bee,” Sweet said. “It just ... never got implemented.”
Sweet said he believes that is good. He said the existing ordinances and laws with the city, county and state provide tenants with the means to complain about unsafe housing. He added the law is especially tough against landlords who retaliate against tenants.
While rental housing inspection programs may be well meaning, Sweet said, they actually can end up reducing the supply of lower-end rental housing by increasing costs and requirements for landlords. Sweet emphasized he is not advocating for substandard housing that does not meet basic health and safety standards.
But Marisol Aguilar — the CRLA’s community equity initiative director — offered an opposing perspective. She said the program is especially needed now because the pandemic has aggravated the affordable housing crisis and many pandemic programs that helped lower-income tenants have ended.
“This was a great thing that the city of Modesto did,” said Aguilar, who is based in the CRLA’s Modesto office. “They are taking steps that are proactive. ... I really want to make sure the city funds this program sufficiently to make it successful. ... We know the need is there. We want to make sure the program is set up for success.”
Tenants may not speak up
Advocates for the program have said lower-income tenants with few options can be reluctant to speak up when there is a problem with their housing and they may not know their rights.
Modesto started its efforts on an inspection program after the crisis at a two-story building of 28 studio apartments at 624 Ninth St. The building was in deplorable condition, including mold, rats and cockroaches, rotting bathroom floors and faulty plumbing and electrical.
But apartments rented for about $585 a month and provided housing for people who had no other alternatives. The city condemned the building after the owner failed to make repairs. The tenants were forced to leave, but the city worked with social service providers to help them find housing and other services.
The city had the building boarded up and secured in September 2017, but it caught fire a month later. The city then razed the property. Officials have said the city could not determine the cause of the fire.
Bee reporter Adam Echelman contributed to this report.
