PROCEED CAUTIOUSLY WITH NEW MAINTENANCE CODE

Cape Girardeau's city council embarks soon on a study of whether this community should adopt a minimum property maintenance code. Other cities of similar size to Cape Girardeau (as reported in a recent series by this newspaper) have implemented such a code, with the results being mixed. While it is our hope that all citizens of Cape Girardeau have dwellings that are safe and well-maintained, we see many flaws in the concept of establishing and enforcing a set of standards that can not easily be met by persons in all income ranges. We lament conditions of substandard housing, yet do not believe the community is best served by pulling government into a circumstance which market forces might better determine.

Surface opposition to such a code can not be expressed without coming off as callous or elitist. It is true that persons of limited incomes too often must occupy properties that would not meet the minimum set of standards proposed for Cape Girardeau. However, an examination of the facts suggests that lower-income individuals might indeed be made to suffer more with the code in place.

Property owners faced with code violations face two options: 1. make the improvements (and pass the cost along to tenants, possibly putting the price beyond the means of the occupant), or, 2. decline to meet the standards and remove the property from the housing market. In either case, standards are satisfied, but are renters? If housing for citizens with low incomes becomes scarce, where do they turn? To public housing? Do you enact property codes and accompany them with rent controls? In both cases, the government steps in with overbearing regulations to stifle the free market system.

In the past, there has been a government program that has taken positive steps toward upgrading substandard housing conditions. Community Development Block Grants have been awarded and utilized in various neighborhoods to improve properties in significant ways; plumbing, wiring, roofs and structural problems were brought up to snuff with this program. Admittedly, this money was limited, but during the handful of times the city was awarded these grants, efforts had to be repeatedly extended to get participants.

If the council would adopt a strict set of standards, City Hall must be prepared to enforce the new code. Good, even-handed, informed inspectors are key. And finding a means of enforcement proves tricky. Complaint-based inspections put a burden on some while exempting others. Periodic inspections can be arbitrary, and those initiated by a change of occupancy can slow real estate transactions. Also, citizens must be prepared for more of their tax dollars to go for inspection services; that municipal department will grow if codes are to be enforced.

Our feeling is the marketplace should be allowed to work where housing is concerned; if landlords put a miserable piece of property on the market, they should suffer from vacancies or a high turnover of occupants. While this might not work in every case, putting government in the middle to enact a cure that is worse than the disease doesn't serve the public interest. We urge the council to look closely before it leaps into a minimum property maintenance code.