For too long, Aurora has been a destination for too many investors of rentals who, sadly, have neglected to maintain their properties. Their actions, or inactions, have created pockets of blight throughout much of our city with the problem being more concentrated in older Northwest Aurora where too many of our residents live in slum-like conditions.
To seek a solution to this problem, we are working on the development of a bold proposal that will create a rental licensing and inspection program to cover all rental housing in Aurora, whether it’s a single-family home, a condominium, a townhome, duplex, or an apartment building of any size.
PHOTO VIA CITY OF AURORA
Under our approach, all rental properties would be subject to being licensed and will undergo periodic inspections to make sure that are well-maintained, both the interior and the exterior, and meet the minimum standards of habitability.
Rental properties that are poorly maintained not only create blight but are a contagion for expanding into new areas. For example, if a rental single-family home is poorly maintained, the neighbors are unlikely to take pride in caring for their homes, and more houses are likely to become rentals as families relocate to better neighborhoods.
An important, albeit collateral issue, concerns what to do about failing condominiums and townhome associations that have mostly turned into rental properties and will also be addressed in this proposal.
In the late 1970s and early ’80s, the city of Aurora saw an explosion of new condominiums and townhomes. These were largely entry level homes for first time buyers. However, overtime, many of these initial homeowners have moved away and decided to rent their units or to sell them to investors who cared little beyond collecting rents.
With the complete dissolution of some of these boards, where there are no property managers to collect the monthly assessments and maintain the common area elements, such as budgeting for reserves to cover the inevitable costs of a new roof, painting, trash removal, or even paying for water and electricity, these buildings have fallen into complete disrepair.
One aspect of the program will go to support an outreach effort so these associations can reconstruct their boards, collect the dues or assessments, adopt a budget, and maintain their common area elements.
No doubt, there will be a cost to the city in terms of the increases in staff that will be necessary to execute all aspects of this ambitious program. That cost will be borne by the rental property owners who will pay fees associated with obtaining their rental license, the required periodic inspections, as well as fines for violations in failing to maintain their property.
We will start the process by forming a task force made up of rental property tenants and owners, a representative from a property management firm, and representatives from advocacy groups that focus on the rights of tenants and property owners in our city.
Once the individuals on the task force have been selected, we will begin a civic engagement process by holding public forums across our city to hear from concerned residents as well as from those who provide rental housing, to better understand how we can best achieve our objectives.
Once we have conducted our extensive civic outreach effort, then we will focus on drafting the final policy to take to our city council for a vote.
We are realistic in understanding that such a major policy initiative, as this one is, cannot be entirely implemented at once and will have to be phased in overtime.
Our goal is to have the policy adopted by our city council by May of 2027 and then begin the implementation with a phased approach that will involve the hiring and training of new staff members dedicated to this new program.
The intent of this program is to stop the blight in our city from rentals that are not properly maintained, and to be both fair to our rental property owners that provide much needed housing, and compassionate to our renters who should never have to live in squalor.
Mayor Mike Coffman
Mayor Pro Tem Alison Coombs
Ward IV Council Member Gianina Horton