Laura Teegarden
Daily Egyptian
Ironically enough, the duct work at 506 Beveridge St. is held together by duct tape.
"We all bought space heaters because there are so many holes in the
duct work," said resident Matt Braet, a senior from the Quad Cities
studying electrical engineering who lives in the building.
Among the long list of problems at the house are cracks in the siding,
basement leaks, electrical problems and bad floors, Braet said.
"It's definitely not up to code," he said.
Tom Grant, manager of Carbondale's building and neighborhood services
division, said students should first contact their landlords if they
believe there may be code violations. If a landlord is unresponsive,
the building and neighborhood services division will investigate the
complaint, Grant said.
When Carbondale adopted the Mandatory Rental Housing Inspection Program
in February 1996, the building and neighborhood services division
didn't have a clear idea of how much rental property existed in the
city.
"I think it's been helpful," Grant said. "But I think it has a long way to go because there wasn't a program for so long."
Carbondale has about 8,000 registered rental dwelling units. Out of the
2,200 units inspected last year, 700 had housing code violations.
"When the University was growing leaps and bounds overnight in the 60s,
there was a call for the community to open their homes and create
living spaces for the students, [because] the University didn't have
enough housing," Grant said. "So we had a lot of houses that got
converted into uses that they weren't necessarily designed or intended
to be."
Braet said a city inspector had visited his house just last week, but he has not received word on whether it had passed.
The manager of Home Rentals Property Management, which owns the
Beveridge houses and several apartment complexes, refused to comment on
the issue.
When an owner receives a notice of violation, they are given 30 days to
correct it if it is non-life threatening. However, if the problem
persists, the landlord is issued a citation ranging from $100 to $2,500
for each day the violation exists beyond the deadline.
"It's general maintenance for the most part," Grant said. "But when you
start getting a lot of properties and you have a lot of general
maintenance to do then that can become an issue."
Originally the program was intended to inspect each unit every three
years, but was changed to every four years because of the high amount
of rental housing.
"I think we want to do a thorough inspection and not just a walk through," Grant said.
Problems such as torn floors, leaking roofs, windows that don't operate
and faulty smoke detectors are considered code violations.
"The older homes that become more and more of a maintenance issue for
the landlords tend to get neglected a little more," Grant said.
Grant said he is aware of how rough students can be on housing because
they have rowdy parties, and he realizes it isn't always the landlord's
fault. Students are ultimately held responsible for the damage they
inflict on a property.
Braet acknowledged that some of the problems in the house occurred
while he lived there, but he said they fixed them and the house is
ultimately in better shape than it was when he moved in.
Reporter Laura Teegarden can be reached at
laura_teegarden@dailyegyptian.com
