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ECC UGENE ITY OUNCIL AIS GENDA TEM UMMARY Work Session: Rental Housing Code Meeting Date: April 18, 2012 Agenda Item Number: A Department: Planning and Development Staff Contact: Stuart Ramsing www.eugene-or.gov Contact Telephone Number: (541) 682-6801 ISSUE STATEMENT This work session provides an opportunity for the Mayor and City Council to review recommendations and changes to the administration of the Rental Housing Code and to provide direction to staff about the future of the program. The current ordinance is scheduled to sunset on September 30, 2012. BACKGROUND Rental housing accounts for nearly half of Eugene’s housing with nearly 30,000 units dispersed across the City. Approximately 80 percent of the housing stock was built before 1978. The current Rental Housing Code went into effect in 2005, with additional standards added in 2007 and 2009. The code was modeled on a Corvallis program and compliments existing Oregon landlord and tenant law. A $10 fee was established with the code adoption and remains unchanged to this date. Experience has shown the program costs less than anticipated and the extra funds have been held as a reserve dedicated to the program. Those reserves will be drawn down as expenses exceed revenues over the next several years or if revenue is reduced by lowering the fee. The work of the program is distributed across several employees whose time is charged to the program. The amount of time is equivalent to roughly two full-time staff. More information about the code history and funding is included in the attached staff report. Stakeholder Input Last fall, staff received over 600 responses to a survey that is summarized and detailed in the attached report. The survey was helpful in identifying areas for further inquiry and potential outreach. In February, staff heard a presentation by a subcommittee of the Rental Owner’s Association about their concerns and suggestions for the program. More recently, the Housing Policy Board (HPB) appointed a seven-member committee to review administration of the code and provide recommendations to the board. The HPB discussed, voted on, and passed its recommendations along to staff. The board’s recommendations are very similar to those reached by staff and will be explored over the course of the next few months. The membership of the subcommittee and their full recommendations are included in the attached staff report. Additionally, a group including Eugene staff, local rental owners and tenant advocates recently traveled to Corvallis and met with program staff there. The Corvallis program was the model on which the Eugene code is based. The visit confirmed the programs remain similar in scope and administration. A S:\CMO\2012 Council Agendas\M120418\S120418A.doc