Batavia still interested in crime-free housing law

With the unofficial blessing of a city council committee, Batavia police will proceed working on a crime-free housing law.

Chief Gary Schira sought direction from the city services committee Tuesday before doing anything more.

Some Batavia officials, including Mayor Jeff Schielke, anxiously awaited the city receiving home-rule powers so it could adopt regulations on rental properties. The city has grown large enough that it now has that legal power.

Schira said the department is concentrating on apartment rentals, not house rentals. And it has dropped the issue of internal inspections for now. Some residents and council members have raised concerns such inspections would violate the rights of tenants and landlords regarding unreasonable searches.

Police have met with managers representing several apartment complexes, including those of the largest, Batavia Apartments, to discuss what can be done about problem tenants and how to avoid them. One idea is having tenants sign a crime-free housing addendum on their leases, which would point out they could be evicted for conducting or allowing criminal activity in their homes. The Housing and Urban Development Department requires such an addendum on leases for housing it subsidizes, Schira said. At Batavia Apartments, about 80 percent of the units are HUD-subsidized.

Schira also wants to license landlords and require them or their agents to attend training in crime-free housing. The police department would conduct such training.

Landlord Kathy Sauer of St. Charles, who owns several rental houses in Batavia, questioned how licensing landlords would prevent crime.

“I do everything and anything short of blood typing to screen tenants. It’s a crapshoot who you get,” she said.

Schira said licensing is a leverage to get negligent or absentee landlords to monitor their properties closely. He won’t pursue the program unless licensing is mandatory, because if it is voluntary, he suspects only good landlords who already police themselves will sign up.

City administrator Bill McGrath suggested if the program is ever expanded to single-family homes, the police may want to come up with a measure such as responses-per-unit to judge whether a property is a problem. “I’d be happy to burden the ones with high call volumes,” Alderman Vic Dietz said.

Alderman Susan Stark — who is not on the committee — owned property in Elgin, which has a crime-free housing law. She favors the law, saying it made her a better, more involved landlord.

The committee directed Schira to draft a proposed ordinance and bring it, along with a cost estimate, to the committee in June.