A long-awaited rental inspection program will finally launch as a pilot come next spring. Springfield City Council unanimously voted in favor of creating a pilot rental inspection program in the West Central neighborhood on Monday, Nov. 3.
While several landlords and members of the Springfield Apartment & Housing Association opposed such a program, arguing the current complaint-based system is sufficient, council ultimately backed the pilot, emphasizing that it will provide a trial period to gather data that can then be used to inform future decisions.
Council has been under increasing pressure from local renters and the tenants’ union, Springfield Tenants Unite or STUN, for more than a year to take steps to address rental housing conditions. Councilman Brandon Jenson, prior to voting in support of the program Monday night, acknowledged that it has taken far too long to regulate negligent rental housing owners, and said taking a targeted approach to the bad landlords has likely been so difficult because of the money and influence some of those individuals have in the community…