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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1980 04-09 Maplewood renters back housing code THE REVIEW vUIUME 18,NUMBER 48, Publication#328680 Q,or 9 /9QO Maplewood, Minnesota " - Single Copy 30` Maplewood renters back housing code By MARY LEE HAGERT He said water trickled from another Mayor John Greavu and Anderson discuss the code.The council is planning AL SCHADT,Maplewood fire marshal, A small group of apartment dwellers bathroom above the apartment into the expressed concern about some of the to meet with the Maplewood Police said he and Embertson visited the voiced their support of a housing main- lower bathroom.He said the occupants wording in the proposed housing code. Reserve Unit at 7:30 p.m.that evening. apartment building Friday and told the tenance code proposal at the April 3 complained for four months about the They stated a desire to have the code In an interview after the April 3 complainant,Mm.Janet Flipp,that she meeting of the Maplewood city council. hole before the landlord partially protect both the tenants and the Ian- meeting, Dick Schaller, public safety should discuss the problem of the light "I would like to see the housing code repaired the problem. dlords. director,said his department had been fixture with the landlord. "The light passed,"said Dave Reynolds,an apart- Councilman Norman Anderson asked if In a memo, Eric Blank, Maplewood trying for over a year to get a housing fixture not working does not create a ment dweller at 315 E.Larpenteur Ave., the problems at the apartment complex Community Development director,said, code passed. public nuisance and so the department Maplewood. "The back door of my were created by the renters. the housing code is to protect the public "In the old days if the people had a cannot ask the landlord repair it,"Schadt apartment building has a broken latch. Reynolds responded,"I think the people health,safety and general welfare of the problem with the landlord not fixing said. Recently an animal wandered into the that live there don't destroy things." people of Maplewood by providing things,they would move out.Nowadays Schadt stated in October of 1976 his building and relieved itself on the car- Anderson said one of his relatives owns minimum or basic standards for all there is a housing shortage and people department took the landlord of the East pet." an apartment building.He said most of existing dwellings. can't move. Larpenteur complex,R and L Investment Reynolds told the council members that the renters respect the building.But,he The code was drafted and reviewed by "We really need a housing code so we Company to court for failure to comply under the housing code, city officials added,some of his relative's tenants have the city attorney,the Maplewood Housing can get landlords to fix up places that with an order issued under the Fire could force landlords to make repairs that been destructive. Redevelopment Authority, the building have railings falling off the wall or broken Prevention Code. endanger thehealth and safety of the "Don't you think the landlords should inspector,fire inspectors and other city windows,"Schaller said. tenants. also have laws protecting them so they departmental staff. "Right now without a code we can't do The council members had their first can get rid of troublemakers'?"Anderson Council member Fran Juker suggested much unless the places are creating a The courts ordered the company to reading of the proposed code at the asked. the city council review the code page by public nuisance." unblock some doors in one building in the meeting.City staff has been in the process Reynolds told the council the buildings page with the Housing and Redevelop- Last month, Jim Embertson, complex,to repair the self-closing door of drawing up a housing maintenance were in a generally rundown condition ment Authority. Maplewood deputy fire marshal,received mechanisms and to replace fire ex- code for the city during the past four because of their age and that the a complaint from an apartment dweller in tinguishers. months. Maplewood presently does not problems were not created by the tenants. COUNCIL MEMBERS decided to meet the complex where the Reynolds reside Schadt said the landlord complied with have a housing code. with that group at8:15 p.m.April 24 in the cogcemalfunctioning electric light the court order and his department has Reynolds said the tenants have tried to "RIGHT NOW what recourse do we council chambers at 1380 Frost Ave.,to fixture not had any more problems with him. get problems at their complex corrected, tenants have?Until the housing code is However,he stated,the landlord is slow to passed,what can we do?We have talked make the repairs or ignores their com- with the Tenants' Union, with plaints completely. Representative Dick Kostohryz and with Senator Jerry Hughes. They told us to REYNOLDS complained about a room come here,"Reynold's wife,Kim,told the in the building where mattresses are council members. stored.He believes the room is a fire "What concerns me is we have two hazard.He also stated there was a hole in children.I think there are fire hazards in the bathroom ceiling in one apartment. the building."