FRESNO (KMJ) — An online register of every rental home in the City of Fresno is now being established.
“I made a promise to the people of Fresno to dramatically improve our housing stock and substantially reduce substandard housing,” said Mayor Lee Brand as he started Wednesday’s announcement inside Fresno City Hall.
That promise came in the shape of the Rental Housing Improvement Act. It stipulates that every one of residential rental units in the City of Fresno is “decent, safe, and sanitary.” The goal is to list every one of the over 90,000 rental homes in Fresno to improve overall quality.
“We are asking for property owners and managers with rentals in Fresno to work with the City to help us ensure that our residents have healthy and safe living opportunities by registering their properties as soon as possible,” explained Kelli Furtado with the Development and Resource Management Department.
Registration is the first part of a wider rental housing inspection effort. Every property owner and manager is required to submit details of the units in their control. Notices are being mailed out, and there are penalties for ignoring them. There are no fees for registration.
“Everybody has to register even though they may not be inspected,” added Mayor Brand.
“Certain complexes have government subsidized housing like Section 8. They’re going to be exempt.”
Properties less than 10 years old will also be exempt from inspections, but owners will still be required to sign up.
“Right now it’s really important that we make sure that property owners know we need them to register the properties, and if they’re hearing about this and have any concerns about their property not being in a habitable condition, that they need to start work now to make improvements to their property,” said Furtado.
“So that by the time the inspection rolls around there will be no issues with compliance.”
A link to register can be found clicking here.
Hear the report from KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew as it aired:
