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What Housing Codes Are and How They Are Enforced
Building Participation of Tenants and Community
Fair Housing Claims to Check Gentrification
Directing Ongoing Code Enforcement Efforts
Other Mechanisms to Increase Pressure on the Landlords
Residential housing codes exist in most jurisdictions and are intended to ensure that residents are safe in their dwellings. This laudable goal is crucial in the context of multi-family rental dwellings, where tenants have limited ability to correct health and safety problems.
In this tool, the term "housing code" is used as shorthand for a number of regulations. These requirements may not appear in the same regulatory codes and may be enforced by different agencies. They include:
Enforcement of these codes begins with inspections by various agencies, such as the building inspectors' office, the health department, and the fire department. Inspections are made by different levels of government, including state, county, and city. Some jurisdictions engage in regular inspections of multi-family residential dwellings. In New Jersey, all multi-family dwellings are registered and put on 3-5 year inspection cycles. More commonly, jurisdictions conduct inspections when they receive complaints. Inspections may be comprehensive or limited to one agency and the codes for which it is responsible.
When housing code violations are discovered that do not pose serious and imminent dangers, a notice is sent to the landlord, recording the violation and establishing a fixed period of time for correction. Typically, if not repaired within the timeframe, a fine is levied. Where the fine is not paid or the violation not remedied, further enforcement action can be taken. Actions vary by jurisdiction, but can be generally divided into three categories:
These enforcement categories are not mutually exclusive and can be pursued simultaneously. Where severe violations or imminent threats to the health and safety of residents or others exist, the inspectors and their agencies can close buildings. Different agencies have varying notice requirements, dependent on the severity of the violation, which must be met before closing the building.
Community engagement in housing code enforcement begins at different points in the process.
Tenants and community groups should first approach the relevant inspection and enforcement agencies and report the buildings with the housing code violations. Goals of the tenants and community groups should include:
Local authorities will resist
tenant/community participation where housing code 
enforcement
is being used to gentrify neighborhoods. Governments potentially assist
in neighborhood gentrification by using code violations as a basis for closing
buildings, thus displacing tenants. Vacant buildings producing
no income are attractive to developers. Where housing code enforcement
is driving gentrification, engaging the cooperation of the government may
be much more difficult.
Housing code enforcement is sometimes used in a discriminatory manner to displace a particular racial or ethnic group. Such action can form the basis for a claim under federal, state, and local antidiscrimination laws. Community advocates in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. successfully forced government cooperation through the initiation of fair housing claims. More.
Other mechanisms to reform code enforcement require mobilizing political pressure on elected officials who can redirect staff responsible for code enforcement. This requires engaging the media to call public attention to the local government's active complicity in encouraging and assisting in resident displacement and neighborhood gentrification. Strategic public relations can garner support for low-income tenants working to ensure a decent and affordable place to live.
When tenants, groups, and community organizations secure a place at the negotiating table with the government and the landlords, they can begin to redirect enforcement powers to community benefit. The tenants/community organizations should:
The redevelopment plan could call for elimination of debts incurred in rehabilitation, and past operating costs of the building. Such a plan must make the case that tenants and community organizations have the capacity to be responsible owners.
The basic operation of this tool is simple: Compel the entities responsible for enforcing housing code to make sure that enforcement produces maximum benefits for the community.
There are other ways tenants can induce landlords to provide benefits to tenants and community.
Where housing
code violations exist, most jurisdictions permit affirmative legal
claims alleging breach of contract, implied warranty of habitability
, and other tort claims.
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