Crime Free Multi-Housing program workshop draws a crowd

The first of two workshops for Newton city staff and community landlords to discuss the proposed Crime-Free Housing program was held Monday with more than 30 landlords and community members filling the council chambers.

City Administrator Bob Knabel started the workshop by giving an overview of the program that was proposed and made it through two council readings. He localized the program with Newton’s approximately 2,000 rental properties and 347 landlords.

“The basis of this really came out of two items. A recent survey 65 percent of residents thought the condition/appearance of housing stock was fair or poor and 61 percent of residents thought that it was  essential or very important that city resources be dedicated to addressing neighborhood aesthetics,” Knabel said. “That was the part of the city’s action plan and served as a basis of the setting of the direction, mission and vision of the organization.”

Acting Newton Police Chief Wes Breckenridge then explained why the Crime-Free Housing program was selected by giving several cities that had up to 70 percent reductions in calls for service after implementing the program. The city also selected two apartment complexes in Newton to do an analysis on service calls during the past six months.

From Jan. 1 through June 30 of this year, a 72-unit complex had 129 calls for service. The second complex, which has 66 units, had 23 calls during the same time.

“The difference between the two units, one of the units, the second, is currently using principals of the Crime-Free Multi-Housing and has attended the courses in order to learn more about leases addendums, inspections, safety surveys and that is why you see such as positive impact in calls for service from the first complex,” Breckenridge said.

A similar analysis was done with a residential area of 350 single family houses versus the 72 unit apartment complex. The results of the study showed the residential area only had .3 calls per unit where the complex had 1.8 per unit.

Lt. Rob Burdess, of the NPD, then went through the three phases of the program, management training, surveys and inspection and community awareness, program requirements, consequences of failure to comply and benefits to property owners and the city.

The mayor then opened the floor to comments those in the audience had about the program. Nine people gave comments to city staff with reoccurring statements about police not responding or not following up on calls that were made at the properties.

“We’ve had items stolen on the property. I explained that I caught the person, nothing basically was done about it. They admitted they had them, they gave them back and admitted they had things in the apartment. No follow up was made, the officer didn’t go into the apartment,” Southtown Apartment representative Rich DeHeer said.

Another topic brought to the floor was the difference between single-family home rentals and multi-unit rentals. Several landlords spoke about how the two are very different and the issues that arise in multi-unit complexes often never occur in the single-family homes.

“How we see what is trying to be implemented is directed at, the problems are at the large multi-unit. All of ours are two unit or less except one that is three unit,” Landlord Laurie Yocom said. “The issue needs to be addressed to the multi-units where the problems are, not the landlords that have single-family dwellings.”

A brief question portion brought issues for the staff to answer or look into including what criteria there is for background checks, whether the new program gives any more backing to landlords to evict problem tenants and if there are any other options for paying for the program.

Further discussions of costs associated with the program and current costs to the property owners is planned for the second workshop at 7 p.m. July 27 at city hall. Answers to questions brought to city staff will also be presented to further the discussion and work toward a final program to enact.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com