Overcrowding? What overcrowding?
[After reading this post, you may want to mosey on over to this week's poll and cast your vote (the white box in the right-hand column).]
The Courier led with a front-page story Sunday ("Central Jersey towns consider tougher rules for overcrowding") surveying the concern among Central Jersey towns about overcrowding and the unsafe and unhealthy conditions it spawns. North Plainfield, Raritan Borough and Bound Brook, among others, are mentioned.
As is Plainfield. But our RESCINDED ordinance -- the heart of the abandoned Safe Homes initiative -- gets a backhanded slap ("When initially adopted, some residents felt it unfairly targeted the City's Hispanic population."). No backup to the statement, no quotation from former Mayor Al McWilliams, whose initiative it was, no citation of the 'residents' referred to.
Helpfully, the story includes an online reference to ordinances throughout the state addressing the matter of overcrowding. This is a real resource, citing the text of ordinances -- including Hillside (Dem chair deFilippos' stomping ground), East Orange and others from Allendale to West New York. PT has archived them here.
Under Mayor McWilliams, Plainfield adopted the 'Safe Homes' initiative aimed at inspecting rental units throughout the city and attempting to root out overcrowding -- conditions which pose a threat to the health and safety of tenants, although VERY HEALTHY to the landlord's bottom line. (PT is sure McWilliams would heartily agree with Raritan's Mayor Liptak that such measures are not anti-immigrant, they are 'anti-greedy landlord'.)
Inspection professionals refer to purposeful overcrowding as 'stacking', and if you read between the lines of the sales prices and neighborhoods in the Friday real estate section, you can begin to get an idea of what might be going on to make the presumptive mortgage payments. Stacking can generate MANY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS PER WEEK TO LANDLORDS where running unchecked.
Though, of course, we're not likely to ever know -- as the Administration abandoned the Safe Homes initiative early in 2006, under pressure from real estate investors and the owners of multi-family properties subject to the scrutiny contemplated by the ordinance.
A fire on Johnston Avenue earlier this month (Courier, Plainfield Today) revealed an ILLEGAL BASEMENT APARTMENT -- a key indicator of overcrowding. We have heard nary a further word about it.
Days ago, a fire at 1003 Park Avenue left more than 30 people homeless(Courier, Plainfield Today, Ledger). Though overcrowding may or may not be an issue in this building, in PT's conversations with residents, he was told the landlord only provided heat for a few hours a day, and that the electrical and plumbing conditions in the building are substandard. These are conditions that often go hand in hand with overcrowding -- it's a greedy-landlord-attitude thing, you know. Would mandatory inspections have turned anything up? You mean as opposed to NO inspections?
Meanwhile, DPWUD Director Jenny Wenson-Maier proudly pointed out to a Chamber of Commerce meeting last week that inspectors were busy making external inspection assessments of every property in the city. (Read: sidewalks, paint condition, overgrown lawns, etc.) Nary a mention of overcrowding.
Maybe it's time to reconsider.
Not likely though, dear reader, without a push from the public.
FURTHER READING
Overcrowding - CN: "Central Jersey towns consider tougher rules for overcrowding"
..... - Online reference: "Some occupancy ordinances from around the state"
Johnston Avenue Fire - CN: "House fire leaves 13 homeless in Plainfield"
..... - PT: "Illegal basement apartment fire raises questions"
Park Avenue Fire - CN: "Blaze uproots 10 city families, 37 homeless"
..... - PT: "Fire leaves 34 homeless"
..... - SL: "Fires rout 48 families in Elizabeth, Plainfield"
Plainfield Today:
April 28, 2006 - "An illegal rooming house?..."Plaintalker:
September 13, 2005 - "Anti-Overcrowding Ordinance To Be Enforced"
May 2, 2006 - "City Council Seeks Repeal Of Anti-Overcrowding Ordinance"
January 26, 2007 - "Tenants Deserve Safe Housing"
View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.
http://plainfieldtoday.blogspot.com/
Posts
2 comments:
The issue of "safe homes" is not limited to towns mentioned in the news articles. And the question of "what is 'overcrowding'?" has almost as many different answers as you have readers. Most property maintenance codes allocate a certain amount of square footage (100)in each bedroom to the first occupant, and then fifty more for each additional occupant. In larger homes, this can amount to quite a few residents, depending on the number and size of the "bedrooms".
Summit has had a "Safe Homes" initiative for the past 8 years or so. It was started as a component of the regular administration of building, property, and zoning codes and ordinances. An inspector responds to citizen complaints and makes neighborhood surveys to discover visible signs of unsafe conditions. It has been very effective in reducing overcrowding and eliminating illegal apartments or rooming units, no matter where they are found.
For every "greedy landlord" that simply doesn't bother to keep his building in good repair, there are 10 landlords who simply are not making any money, and cannot afford to do better. Some of them should lose their certificates of compliance (if they ever had one) and be forced to close or sell their buildings, but that will not produce better living conditions.
Post a Comment