Politics & Government

High-Crime Rental Properties Targeted by City, Sheriff's Department

The Crime Free Multi-Housing program is voluntary in IB for now, but could become mandatory and cost thousands of dollars if property owners do not comply.

Roughly one-third of Imperial Beach residents are renters, said Tom Clark, Imperial Beach Fire Department chief and Public Safety Department director.

Among them, properties with a high crime rate have been identified and are being asked to voluntarily enter a program to reduce illegal activity.

“There’s 1,700 rental properties and 11 problem ones. It’s not as bad as we thought,” he said at a workshop meeting last Wednesday.

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In workshop meetings, the City Council, city department heads and staff discussed a set of issues deemed important to IB’s future by City Manager Gary Brown.

Crime in rental properties was one on a list of seven issues discussed Oct. 12.
Eleven “problem” properties identified by the Public Safety Department and Sheriff's Department had 10 or more calls for service from the Sheriff’s Department over a 90-day period for drug-related crimes, violence, auto theft or other serious crimes.

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As a result, property owners and management are being asked to voluntarily enter the Crime Free Multi-Housing program.

With 38 calls for service from July to September, the highest crime rate for a single rental property in a three-month period in IB was at Sierra Vista Trailer Park at the corner of Fourth Street and Palm Avenue.

The second property with the highest calls for service is an apartment building on 14th Street.

Sierra Vista has not been asked to enter the program yet, Clark said, but two of the 11 have been contacted. In the case of an apartment complex on the 1400 block of Grove Avenue, a property manager was fired and two tenants were evicted “for practice in relation to drugs and suspicious activity” as a result of the program.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors made it a requirement for high-crime rentals last year.

For the county program, properties required to enter Crime Free Multi-Housing must pay a $150 application fee.

Those who do not comply can be charged $2,500 a day or up to $6,000 a day until the issue is resolved.

The city may also work with property owners to put anti-crime language in renter's agreements or contracts as the county ordinance requires, he said.
Ten problem properties are not enough to enact an ordinance, but if property owners do not comply, an ordinance may be enacted to make participation mandatory.

“They will be asked to come into the program if you choose not to then you will be getting a lot of notices of violations and citations that will encourage you to participate and that program exists in the county and the unincorporated parts of the county,” Clark said.

In Imperial Beach, Crime Free Multi-Housing is a partnership between the Public Safety Department, the Sheriff’s Department and the city's Code Compliance officer David Garcias.

A property goes through three phases to be declared a certified crime free multi-family housing, said Julio Garcia, a crime prevention specialist for the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

First the property owner is contacted and managers go through an eight-hour training class. Then Garcia surveys the area to see if improvements can be made in lighting, locks and windows. After those steps are completed, people who live there will receive guidebooks listing what they can do to make where they live safer.

When a first attempt to have a program like Crime Free Multi-Housing was made in 2008, fliers were distributed, the event was advertised in the Imperial Beach Eagle and Times and Garcia made visits to properties beforehand. A little more than 20 landlords or managers attended training, he said.

Following the training, Garcia conducted inspections, but none of the property owners made prescribed changes to make it to the second stage of the process, he said.

The chief reason changes weren't made, he was told, is because they didn't want to spend the money or didn't have the personnel available to carry out the improvements. Others just didn't care. "Somebody has to do it," he said, because crime can be more prevalent at rental properties.

"I know we have problems on different beats in different areas," he said. "There may be one or two more problems in areas where there are apartments. That may be the case but not all the time.

"There are more victims from apartment buildings because there’s more people in one place in one area," he said.


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