A housing bill meant to avoid the kind of situations that led to the condemnation of a Newport News apartment building last year failed for a second time.
This year the bill, introduced by Del. Marcia Price, D-Newport News, didn’t even make it out of committee. Last year, Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed it after it made it through the General Assembly.
No one spoke against the bill at a subcommittee meeting last week. Del. Roxann Robinson, R-Chesterfield, asked Price if she had spoken with the administration after Youngkin’s veto.
Youngkin maintained that the powers of enforcement through the state building code are enough and the new law would be duplicitous, as well that the tenant and landlord are both responsible for the quality of a rental unit and the bill would only allow for legal action against property owners, according to the Virginia legislative information system.
Del. William Wampler, a southwest Virginia Republican, also asked about the potential of a combative locality “weaponizing” it against specific property owners during the discussion.
Price said the bill addresses that because the complaints have to be a serious threat to life or a fire hazard and would result in a waste of resources if a locality tried to target a property owner without adequate cause.
The current tenant laws don’t give landlords much an incentive to maintain their housing units, Price said.
“What is readily available right now without this bill are fines, which are often less than the cost of the repairs, so it disincentives someone to actually do the repairs if they are already a slumlord or if the situations are so bad, the building can be condemned,” Price said. “Neither of those options help keep families in healthy and safe homes.”
One such example was condemnation of Seaview Lofts over the summer, Price said. The Newport News apartment block was condemned after a variety of fire safety issues, including issues with the elevators, were not fixed in a timely manner. The closing resulted in the more than 100 residents having to leave the building, the city paying $142,000 to temporarily house them, a $14.5 million lawsuit by residents against the property owner and the city seeking reimbursement for housing the displaced residents.
As of Jan. 3, both of the elevators in the 15-story complex were up to code, issues with the chiller, lightning and fire alarm system had previously been brought up to code and repairs to the boiler were set to be scheduled once repair plans were signed off by the city, according to court documents.
“What my argument is this (bill) could’ve helped (the city) intervene sooner before the building got to the point it needed to be condemned,” Price said.
Price said there is an even greater need for the legislation this year as more properties across the state were condemned due to negligence, and the residents of such properties often don’t have the time or resources to take their own legal action against property owners.
All but one Republican, Del. Carrie Coyner of the Hopewell area, voted against the bill in the larger committee, including local Republicans Del. James Leftwich of Chesapeake and Del. Barry Knight of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach.
Ten Democrats, including Price and Del. Clinton Jenkins, of Chesapeake and Suffolk, and Coyner voted in favor.
Last year, the same legislation passed the committee with the same members, with only Knight voting against. The bill would continue with bipartisan support in the House of Delegates and the Senate before being vetoed April 11 by Youngkin.
Ian Munro, 757-447-4097, ian.munro@virginiamedia.com
