HomeMy WebLinkAboutMemo - Mail Packet - 07/02/2024 - Memorandum from Alyssa Stephens re: Rental Registration 2024 Status Report
281 North College Avenue
P.O. Box 580
Fort Collins, CO 80522.0580
970.416.2305
RentalHousing@fcgov.com
cc: Marcy Yoder, Sr. Manager, Neighborhood Services
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Rental Housing Program Status Report – 2024
Community Development & Neighborhood Services
MEMORANDUM
DATE: June 25, 2024
TO: Mayor Arndt and City Councilmembers
THRU: Kelly DiMartino, City Manager
Tyler Marr, Deputy City Manager
Caryn Champine, Director, Planning, Development & Transportation
FROM: Alyssa Stephens, Rental Housing Manager, Neighborhood Services
RE: Rental Registration 2024 Status Report
This memo provides City Council members with a status report on the implementation of new
programs and requirements for rental housing.
BOTTOM LINE
Since the hiring of its first staff member in November of 2023, the Rental Housing program has
strengthened relationships between the City, housing providers, and tenants; targeted grant
funding to reduce habitability issues and improve the overall quality of rental housing stock; and
enhanced educational resources available to housing providers and tenants. Key milestones
include:
• Hiring first ever dedicated Rental Inspector. Rental inspections have been offered for
more than 20 years, but the creation of a dedicated position has allowed for extensive
support to both tenants and housing providers before, during, and after a complaint is
filed.
• Opening online rental registration system. Applications take about five minutes per
property to complete, and are processed within two business days.
• Awarding $130,000 in rental repair grants to improve rental housing stock by
addressing deferred maintenance, increasing safety, and bringing units up to minimum
code requirements.
• Identifying an additional $100,000 in grants for energy efficiency in rental units that
will be available over the summer.
• Establishing partnerships with key agencies to ensure that the City’s Rental
Programs are enhancing rather than duplicating services for the community.
Enforcement of registration requirements is being deferred for the remainder of 2024 to allow for
robust communication and education with housing providers on our minimum rental housing
standards and the registration process. Targeted outreach, grants, educational programs, and
incentives will continue throughout the remainder of the year to promote early registration,
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Rental Housing Program Status Report – Summer 2024
improve our community’s rental housing stock, and build a strong community of housing
providers and tenants committed to maintaining quality rental housing.
BACKGROUND
Safe, stable housing has a positive impact on health, economic security, and the overall well-
being of families and communities. Housing policy often focuses on community members who
rent by necessity and seeks to promote home ownership; yet, it is also important to
acknowledge that many choose to rent because of the flexibility, the amenities, the reduced
responsibility for maintenance tasks and costs, and for myriad other personal reasons. Our
diverse community needs quality housing of all types and housing providers of all types – from
those who own one property to those who own/manage hundreds of doors.
In summer of 2023, City Council passed an ordinance requiring annual registration of most
rental properties in Fort Collins and establishing a Rental Housing program to support healthy,
safe, stable, and affordable rental housing options across the community. Goals of the Rental
Housing program include fostering positive relations between housing providers and tenants,
providing educational programs to meet the needs of our diverse community, conducting
complaint-based rental inspections, and enforcing minimum housing standards.
Policies and programs that support quality, affordable rental housing are vital to meeting our
community housing and climate action goals. The program is currently structured around four
key elements: Registration, Complaint-Based Inspections, Education, and Capacity-
Building (including repair grants).
Registration
The online rental registration system went live in late April for “early registration” of rental
properties; enforcement of registration requirements will begin in 2025. This has been
announced on our website, in our newsletter, and at small educational events and
presentations. Since opening the registration system, we have received 57 applications.
Applications take about five minutes per property to complete, and are processed within two
business days. Registrants provide basic contact information for property owners and property
managers, and must certify that their property meets minimum rental housing standards. In-
person and telephone assistance are available.
Communication and outreach to encourage early registration will begin in July to give ample
time to reach owners/managers of the estimated 28,000 rental units in Fort Collins. Outreach
will include in-person visits, online and print advertisements, and events. There is currently only
1 FTE assigned to managing registration, but additional staff have been requested as part of the
2025-2026 BFO process.
Complaint-Based Inspections
Rental inspections are offered free of charge to the community to ensure that all rental
properties meet our minimum rental housing standards. These inspections ensure that renters
have working heat during winter, smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and windows that
open for safe exit in the case of emergency. The Lead Rental Inspector currently conducts 1-2
inspections and fields 10+ calls weekly about potential habitability issues. Rental violations
often take 60 days and multiple re-inspections to be fully resolved, and the Lead Rental
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Rental Housing Program Status Report – Summer 2024
Inspector works closely with the tenants, the housing provider, and Building Services staff
members to manage each case.
Recently, our Lead Rental Inspector worked with a tenant who was afraid to live in their unit due
to multiple electrical issues and fire safety concerns. There were broken outlets, and missing
smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in their unit. They had a mouse infestation and a
damaged wall in the tub. Once the inspection happened the owner took action to get these
items corrected. The tenant is very happy with the progress made.
Often, a complaint is a catalyst for action, regardless of whether an inspection actually occurs.
For example, over the winter one tenant had been without heat in their unit for multiple weeks.
After inspecting the property, the Lead Rental Inspector contacted the property owner, who had
no idea anything was wrong. The property management company and owner had experienced
a breakdown in communication, but once the owner was notified, the heat and other violations
corrected within the week.
Complaints are currently submitted through email and managed through a spreadsheet.
Beginning in mid-July, these will be managed through the same system as our rental
registration, allowing us to cross-check rental registration status when complaints are submitted
and manage complaints and inspections over time.
Though the inspection program has been around for 20+ years, many still do not know that this
is a free service available to all renters in our community. We expect requests to increase as
more community members learn about rental inspections, and have requested additional
staffing in the 2025-2026 BFO process to ensure that we can continue to provide timely
inspections and support housing providers and tenants through the inspection process.
Education
Educational programs and resources will be available for both tenants and housing providers.
This will include a new website with links and resources for housing providers and tenants, a
revitalized Landlord Tenant Handbook, a revamped Landlord Education Series, and a series of
other events focused on topics such as the repair and maintenance of rental properties, the
rights and responsibilities of tenants and housing providers, and resources available for housing
in our community. Work is ongoing to ensure that new educational programs are additive rather
than duplicative, as many community organizations are already working in this space,
particularly in tenant education.
Educational programs are being offered on a monthly basis, and are largely focusing on existing
City services/resources that housing providers may not be accessing, including the Healthy
Homes program and Efficiency Works. There is currently 1 FTE supporting the development of
new online, pre-recorded, and in-person educational resources and programs.
Capacity-Building
A key component of the City’s Rental Housing program is investing in grants and policies that
increase the capacity of tenants, housing providers, and community organizations. We have
already identified $230,000 in funds to invest in the long-term quality of rental properties, and
we will continue to partner with organizations to enhance resources available to support quality,
stable rental housing. This work stream is being managed by the Rental Housing Manager, with
the support of our Education and Outreach Specialist.
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Rental Repair Grants
The Rental Housing program recently awarded $130,000 in funding for repairs and upgrades to
improve the safety and habitability of rental units. The goals of the program were to:
• address deferred maintenance that accrued during the pandemic when many
community members lost income or felt uncomfortable with allowing maintenance
technicians into their homes;
• improve the long-term safety and quality of rental housing stock in Fort Collins by
investing in upgrades that last for 20-50+ years; and
• support property owners in meeting minimum rental housing standards, particularly in
older homes that were built under previous building codes, and in homes where rents
are below “Fair Market Rent.*”
During the three-week grant application period, we received 158 applications for over $1 million
dollars in necessary repairs and upgrades. We funded projects in 38 units across all six Council
districts, prioritizing projects that increased safety and brought units up to minimum
requirements. This included 23 projects to upgrade electrical wiring/panels to reduce fire
danger; 3 projects to repair unsafe decks; and 9 projects to install safer and more efficient
windows. More than half of the units receiving funding were either condominiums or detached
homes. A full breakdown of projects is available below.
Grant amounts ranged from $1100 to $7000. In some cases, the grant amount did not fund the
full cost of the work, and property owners covered the additional costs of improvements out of
pocket. All awardees are required to register their rental properties prior to final closeout of the
project.
The grants effectively targeted older units, affordable rental properties, and vulnerable
populations. The average age of units receiving awards was 52 years. Nearly all (89.5%) of
funded projects were in an “opportunity neighborhood” with one or more identified
vulnerabilities, and 35% of awarded units were affordable to someone making 60% of Area
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Median Income (AMI). Additional information on grantees is available at
fcgov.com/rentalhousing.
*Fair Market Rent as defined by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
NEXT STEPS
Although some impacts of COVID-19 have decreased over time, housing stability has not fully
recovered. Community partners and legal service providers report that eviction, landlord-tenant
conflicts, and the inability to pay rent or utilities remain more frequent than they were pre-
pandemic. Participation in services like the Eviction Legal Defense Fund’s “housing hotline” has
increased by 280% since the program’s first full year in 2021. Additionally, the 2024 state
legislative session resulted in several new laws for housing and housing providers that many
are still trying to understand and navigate. Support for both tenants and housing providers is
critical to the ongoing availability of quality, affordable rental housing.
Priorities for the remainder of the year include:
• Communicating Registration Requirements and Resources. With thousands of
rental properties throughout the City and a diverse body of housing providers, frequent
and varied communication will be necessary to assist housing providers with registration,
educate on minimum housing standards, and share opportunities available through the
Rental Housing program. This will include advertisements, mailings and flyers,
presentations, in-person visits, events, and more throughout the remainder of 2024 in
preparation for required registration in 2025.
• Maintaining Meaningful Incentives. We will continue to provide incentives to
properties who complete “early registration” in 2024. Dependent on funding, this could
include additional grants for safety upgrades, scholarship funds for property managers
working on their professional certifications, ongoing prize drawings for smoke detectors,
fire extinguishers, and other safety and habitability-related items, etc. We hope to
identify an additional $100,000 for additional safety grants in fall, but do not have a
funding source identified at this time.
• Developing Strong Partnerships. Many community partners are active in the housing
space. Continued partnership with CSU, Larimer County, City departments, housing
provider groups, and nonprofit organizations will be necessary to ensure we are creating
responsive programming, not duplicating services, and building community capacity.
• Preparing for Full Program Implementation. The Rental Housing program was
created under a cost-recovery model, with registration fees covering the cost of 6.5 FTE
and all services within 5 years. Staffing was scaled down to 4 FTE for the initial year to
allow data and community feedback to shape the remaining 2.5 positions. Increased
staffing is now needed to ensure the success of this program and see benefits in
housing quality and provider-tenant relationships. A BFO offer has been submitted to
bring staff in line with approved Council budget for the program and establish additional
funding for the repair of rental properties into 2025 and 2026.
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