Representatives of Springfield Tenants Unite (STUN) plan to speak at Monday night’s Springfield City Council meeting. They, along with the NAACP, Jenny Lind Tenants Union and League of Women Voters of Southwest Missouri, are planning to support residents of Jenny Lind Hall, which has been without an elevator for more than a year.
STUN met with residents of Jenny Lind Hall Sunday evening to write letters to council members – specifically, Callie Carroll. She expressed concern at the August 12 city council lunch about a requirement in the Healthy Homes Guarantee, a pilot program being considered by council, for landlords to either live in urban service area of Springfield or have a property manager who does. That’s after Mayor Jeff Schrag said the requirement “seems overreaching to me.”
Martin Gugel, director of Building Development Services for the City of Springfield, said they have a problem with absentee owners. “The idea is to have somebody local who can deal with the issues.”
The Healthy Homes Guarantee would require rental licenses and rental inspections. The goal is to improve the safety and quality of rental housing for tenants while helping landlords meet the minimum standards, according to Gugel. The 18-month pilot program would focus on the West Central Neighborhood, which has a high concentration of rental properties vs. owner-occupied and has had numerous blighted and nuisance cases…