Feature

CEOP Brings Tenants and Landlords Together to Improve Housing

by Casey Mills

A crack in the window that lets in freezing cold air. A leak in the roof that ruins anything placed beneath it. A heater that has not worked in years. And a tenant who feels absolutely helpless to make her landlord fix any of it.

Situations like these prompted San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection (DBI) to create the Code Enforcement Outreach Program (CEOP), a multiorganizational coalition devoted to making sure property owners keep their tenants’ homes safe and habitable. Created eight years ago in response to San Francisco’s ineffectiveness at enforcing housing codes, the program has proven to be an essential resource for tenants and landlords alike.

CEOP helps link tenants with any of several housing-rights’ nonprofits and
property-owners’ organizations, like the San Francisco Apartment Association (SFAA). This unlikely alliance has worked together quite effectively. For example, a tenant has a problem in her home—anything from a leaky faucet to an infestation of mice. She calls DBI or one of the housing-rights’ nonprofits to complain. A housing inspector from DBI investigates. If the residence does not meet code, the inspector often contacts SFAA. The association then contacts the tenant’s landlord, who usually makes the repairs. However, if the landlord refuses, the case is sent back to DBI, which can then impose a fine against the landlord and prosecute him for his failure to meet code.

James Sanbonmatsu, the program’s supervisor at DBI, helped start the program. He explains that the idea evolved from the recognition of a missing link in San Francisco’s code enforcement policy between technically proficient housing-code enforcers and a more socially oriented outreach approach. “Sometimes you have these sticky situations where tenants are fearful of filing complaints,” notes Sanbonmatsu. “They need their hands held through the process.”

The program has been remarkably successful in keeping residences up to code, with estimates of a success rate that ranges from 80 to 90 percent. For many involved, this high rate can be traced to CEOP’s cooperative nature, one that emphasizes communication between landlords and tenants.

Greg Miller, education director at SFAA, has been working with the CEOP program for several years. He sees his role as providing a liaison between property owners and renters—two parties that he finds often suffer from a complete breakdown in communication. Miller contacts landlords and explains what they must do to reach code and the consequences if they do not.

“A lot of times, they would much rather hear it from me than have an inspector come by and explain it to them,” comments Miller, who keeps his strategy for communicating with landlords simple. “I try to tell them, ‘it’s like having pride in your own property.’ I then state, ‘It’s yours, not theirs.’ I ask them, ‘Don’t you want to have good property?’ ” Stephanie Brandon represents the Housing Rights Committee, a nonprofit that works with Miller frequently. The group recently worked with inspectors and tenants to gain a multimillion dollar settlement against America’s largest owner of subsidized housing, AIMCO. As a result of these efforts, last month the city announced a multimillion dollar settlement in the case, bringing improved living conditions for hundreds of low-income tenants.

A counselor and outreach coordinator, Brandon takes calls from tenants across the city complaining of housing problems and then faxes requests for repairs over to SFAA. She notes that the two organizations have a strong working relationship, one that benefits the city a great deal. “It really helps the community,” notes Brandon. “There are a lot of people out there whose units are really bad as far as habitability issues. We can help get repairs done fast that might never get done.” For Miller, the allegiance is a rare one. “This is about the only instance where a property and tenant organization work together for a common goal,” observes Miller. “The whole object is to maintain safe and habitable housing.”

In spite of CEOP’s high success rate, there remain some property owners who refuse to make repairs. These landlords are then referred to DBI, which begins a process of both proving negligence and imposing penalties on the landlords.

Sanbonmatsu, who besides serving as the program’s supervisor is also a housing inspector, has been extensively involved in this process. Part of his process in the prosecution of landlords is to take photos of tenants’ poor living conditions. In fact, his documentation of bad housing conditions recently resulted in his landing a spot in a major Boston art show, “Is This Our Country?”, an exhibit analyzing American society through art and poetry.

The photos reveal the awful conditions many tenants often endure before seeking help. Images include a chunk of roof that collapsed due to water damage, a shower with chunks of tile missing and exposed pipes, and children’s toys next to a wall of peeling lead paint. For Sanbonmatsu, one of the best aspects of the CEOP program is the increased speed and ability with which DBI can punish landlords for failing to comply.

Before CEOP, landlords had 30 to 90 days to comply with requests for repairs—now they have 7 to 30 days. The program has also eliminated several cumbersome steps between the director’s hearing (where fees topping $1,000 a day get assigned to landlords for failure to comply) and trial dates—should the case involve severe habitability issues. For Sanbonmatsu, DBI represents the last bastion that keeps landlords from refusing to make repairs. The department is the only city agency that regularly penalizes landlords for their behavior, a job that is not always easy. “Some people are really rude,” according to Sanbonmatsu. “They’re not afraid of calling you up at eight in morning and just screaming at you.” He finds that they take out all their frustrations on him. “There are a lot of landlords who are used to getting their way. They don’t like it when someone tells them what to do.” However, he adds, “I think most landlords try to be responsible. We don’t have a problem with most of them.”

The main obstacle CEOP currently faces involves making sure tenants know about its existence. All CEOP-affiliated organizations participate in extensive, multilingual outreach programs, including community workshops, leaflets, media appearances and more. Still, many tenants remain unaware of the program, a problem that concerns Brandon. While many would hope for less work, she hopes for more. The reason, she says, is simple. “I love my job. I love it because I feel like I’m really helping people.”

This article was originally published in Beyond Chron. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of SFAA or the San Francisco Apartment Magazine. Casey Mills is managing editor of Beyond Chron. Copyright © 2004 by Beyond Chron. All rights reserved.