Representatives of the Central Pennsylvania Landlords Association Wednesday pleaded with Altoona City Council for more aggressive enforcement of the new student housing ordinance.
City officials said they're enforcing the ordinance better than the landlords realize, showing a chart to prove it, even while admitting enforcement has serious limitations.
Ironically, the landlords opposed the ordinance last fall because they regarded it as discriminatory infringement on free enterprise, but now that it's in place, they want it enforced.
Otherwise, their compliance puts them at a disadvantage against landlords who haven't paid the license fee or met other requirements of the ordinance.
The ordinance also has encouraged renegade housing because it has led Penn State Altoona to discontinue an off-campus housing Web site, "due to risk-management reasons," association President Adam Conrad told council.
The university has contracted instead with PlaceFinder.com, where there's "no validation or verification" of listed properties, in contrast to the university-run site last year, Conrad said.
"It's the wild, wild west," said J. Kerry Weathersbee, a member of an association committee working on the issue.
There are a dozen or more properties on this year's list that lack city licenses, according to the association.
The association hopes to tame the situation through an agreement with the campus by which it will manage a Web site starting in October that would include only properties licensed by the city, Weathersbee and Conrad said.
City officials objected to the charge that they're not enforcing the ordinance as they should.
"I would dispute hotly that the city is not enforcing the ordinance," Mayor Wayne Hippo said.
Of 15 allegedly problem properties, one is in Logan Township; one was "grandfathered" as pre-existing; two are slated for appeal to obtain "grandfather" status; one was ruled eligible for a new student-house license; two are exempt because the owners live there; and one's owner agreed not to rent to students. Three other owners have been sent violation notices; one owner was sent a first violation notice that was undeliverable; one's owner was denied grandfather status Wednesday; and the city didn't know about one.
Being unaware of just one property on the list "isn't bad," said Slusser, who drew up a chart listing the status of the properties identified by the association.
Slusser has been nothing but cooperative, Conrad and Weathersbee said.
Officials plan to move against landlords violating the ordinance, but when they've entered into leases, the city's power is limited.
Magisterial district judges can impose fines, up to $500 a day, but can't go beyond "money" penalties, solicitor Larry Clapper said.
It isn't until cases reach county court that judges have "equity" power to force subjects to do things - or to prohibit them from doing things - directly, as with injunctions, Clapper said.
The city will handle the cases "one-by-one," he said.
