City officials have a duty to uphold basic livability standards for San Antonio tenants

Tenants of Seven Oaks Apartments protested poor living conditions this past summer, during the hottest summer on record. They expressed worries about air conditioning, sewage, and pest infestation. The Proactive Apartment Inspection Task Force was established in October as a result of tenant organising, which prompted the San Antonio City Council to take action against "bad actors" landlords.

The task team is still divided on how to best make sure that property owners are held responsible for failing to achieve basic livability standards after 12 open sessions. We need to prioritise tenant concerns in order to achieve that.

We were all formerly residents in apartment buildings where there were significant maintenance problems. Sylvia Flores moved into Seven Oaks in 2019, but as soon as she did, her air conditioner would frequently break down. Before submitting legal complaints starting in March 2022, she repeatedly begged the property management to resolve the problem. Although code enforcement got involved, the problem wasn't fully remedied until November. There is no way of knowing how many more tenants might have endured hardship if code enforcement had not taken action.

After moving into Seven Oaks in 2017, Deborah Watts had dealt with a number of problems due to electrical outages. As there was no air conditioning due to a lack of energy, the old woman's health—which was already compromised by diabetes and high blood pressure—was seriously jeopardised. Watts also has sleep apnea, so the loss of electricity suddenly turned into a life-or-death situation. Despite earlier code enforcement action, she was given little choice but to abandon her home in October 2022. This raises the question of whether the task committee will develop a regulation that gives code enforcers the means to hold careless landlords accountable.

Angela Beckham was having a lot of problems in the Spanish Oaks Apartments across town. The maintenance crew punched holes in her bedroom and bathroom walls in an ill-advised attempt to address a pre-existing sewage backup. This caused a swarm of mosquitoes to invade her apartment, worsening the pest problem. She saw firsthand how maintenance problems may become life-threatening when rodents chewed through her high blood pressure and asthma medicines. She contacted code enforcement in the beginning of October, but the property manager did nothing, so she fled her apartment.

The circumstances under which we had to live are only an example of the bigger problem in our city. Maintenance problems are left unattended by property owners, putting our neighbours' health, safety, and lives in danger. The systems in place just don't go far enough to handle tenants' maintenance complaints, even with code intervention.

The option to decide how the city will react to these careless property owners and work towards livability requirements for all San Antonio tenants has been given to city officials. Healthy tenancy circumstances and penalties for careless property owners are the task force's and the city's stated goals.

On Thursday, February 23 at 10 a.m. at City Hall, the Planning and Community Development Committee will meet again to discuss the Proactive Apartment Inspection Task Force. We invite you to acknowledge the value of fundamental livability criteria with us.

Source: https://sanantonioreport.org/san-antonio-proactive-apartment-inspection-task-force-tenant-rights/