Some students living in College Park rental properties find themselves literally living in squalor, with overcrowding or smoke detectors that haven’t worked in years — if ever. Property landlords are all too frequently to blame but aren’t taken to task for their oversight and violation of city codes. The College Park City Council unanimously approved adding a new inspector and a part-time administrator to the code enforcement department at its meeting Tuesday night — a change they had considered doing since December 2004.
The change, though slow in coming, is more than welcome. Currently, the department consists of four inspectors who conduct about 4,600 inspections per year, including 950 single-family home inspections, 2,265 apartment inspections and 450 commercial inspections. More and more properties, such as University View Apartments on Route 1, are being built in the area, spreading the small staff even thinner. The department needs a new inspector not only to keep up with existing properties, but with the slew of new ones cropping up within the next few years.
The city is right to beef up its inspections of rental properties, and students should take this opportunity to address any and all concerns with their living conditions. Interim City Manager Joe Nagro encouraged students to contact the city if they think their properties violate city codes. Students would do well to heed his advice. Too many students who undoubtedly live in substandard housing have been silent too long. We’re being fleeced by these landlords with their high rents and poor service. Properties with code violations are not only unpleasant places to be forced to live in, but they can be dangerous as well.
In addition, students should not consider inspections to be a violation of their privacy. The inspection teams, however, should realize that they’re most valuable as housing quality inspectors — not party police. If landlords are too negligent or indifferent to properly keep up with the maintenance of their properties, students should welcome inspectors with open arms. It is inspectors’ job to ensure rental housing is as safe, clean and livable as possible, and it is the tenants’ responsibility to communicate with them and allow them to help improve their living conditions.
