City Council Orders Report on How to Improve Anti-Slum Enforcement

Alarmed that city enforcement of anti-slum codes for apartments has fallen years behind schedule, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday ordered a reform of the program to get it back on track.

Two years ago, city officials promised that every one of the city’s 750,000 apartments would be inspected once every three years, but only a quarter of the units have been inspected to date and officials say that, at the current rate, it may take six years or more to visit them all.

“I’m very disappointed we haven’t made better strides,” said City Councilwoman Laura Chick.

The council ordered Housing Department General Manager Garry Pinney to report back in the next two months on how to reorganize and improve the effectiveness of the Systematic Code Enforcement Program. It was launched two years ago after a task force charged that the city was not doing nearly enough to prevent the spread of slum conditions in multifamily housing.

“The program has a lot of flaws,” said Councilman Nate Holden. “I think it was wrong to have made the promise if they couldn’t do it.”

Pinney said he is drafting proposals to address some problems that have caused delays, such as the difficulty of gaining access to apartments for inspections. Despite posting notices in advance, inspectors often find no one to let them in, or residents who are not cooperative.

One proposal is to inspect only half the units in a building if there have been no complaints. The city attorney’s office is considering whether such a plan would be legal, given that the city has imposed a fee of $1 per month for all apartments to pay for the program.

Landlords challenged the fee in court after it was imposed two years ago. That case is on appeal.

Pinney told council members that his department is experimenting with hand-held computers to make input of inspection data more efficient.

“Can we make improvements? Of course,” he said.

Once inspections do take place, Pinney said, the city has been successful 96% of the time in getting repairs made.

But a recent study by a citizens task force headed by UCLA law professor Gary Blasi found that in a quarter of the cases it took an average of four months to gain compliance, with inspectors having to return to the property up to 12 times.

The Times recently reported on the housing and health care crises in the northeast San Fernando Valley, noting such situations as a Sun Valley apartment building where, after more than a year, much of the repair work ordered by the city still has not been done.

The northeast Valley has the city’s highest level of building code violations in apartments.

The Times found a proliferation of slum housing conditions, with many families doubling and tripling up in substandard housing, including illegally converted garages and old camping trailers.

Pinney said he will make recommendations to speed up action on properties that have foot-dragging landlords, including improved coordination with a city program that forces compliance earlier by impounding rents to pay for repairs.

Other city officials complained that the program has simply been underfunded.

One housing official said the city may have to triple the 55 inspectors now assigned to get the program on track.