Staff editorial: Standardizing living

Picture this: Five students decide to rent a house together in College Park. Initially, they are excited about the prospect of living on their own, away from resident assistants and cramped dorm rooms with no air conditioning. However, after an exhausting search, the only house the five students can find falls far short of their expectations. Not only is the house located in an area that is notorious for crime, but the property is also in a state of disrepair and, to top it all off, it costs this group of students $5,000 a month.

Sound familiar?

It should. Horror stories about off-campus housing are so common at this university that many of us hardly take notice of them anymore. As a student body, we have become so accustomed to low-quality housing being offered to us at astronomical prices that we just pass it off as part of the "charm" of College Park and take out our checkbooks.

In 2005, the City of College Park attempted to address this issue by passing a rent stabilization ordinance that tied rental rates to the value of the property being rented. Specifically, it prohibited landlords who rented single-family homes from charging more than 0.6 percent of the property's assessed value in yearly rent. Duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes were also included in this ordinance, which capped the yearly rent on these types of homes at 1 percent of the property's value. But because landlords filed suit, contending that this ordinance was unconstitutional, the city declined to enforce its own law until the matter was settled in court.

On Aug. 25 — five years after the ordinance was originally enacted — the Maryland Court of Appeals declared the city's rent stabilization ordinance was wholly constitutional. And in doing so, the court effectively removed the last impediment toward the ordinance's enforcement.

Now, with the constitutionality of the ordinance firmly established by the state's highest court, city officials have declared they are beginning a crackdown on landlords. College Park City Council members have pledged to enforce the statute by informing landlords of how much rent they are legally allowed to charge. And, if landlords are found guilty of charging illegally high rent to tenants, officials have promised they will impose financial penalties— $500 for every 30 days rent is not corrected.

While building awareness of the law among landlords and enforcing sanctions will hopefully spark some changes among property owners in College Park, the city must do more to fulfill the promise of the rent control law. 

Working with renters, both students and non-students alike, to develop innovative tools for enforcement strategies and educating the public about what their landlords can and cannot do would enable the city to better protect and serve its citizens. Offering options such as a hotline or website where renters could report landlords who are violating the law would ensure the laws are being enforced while also reducing the amount of time and energy needed to track down negligent landlords.

As it stands now, city officials aren't prepared to undertake the crackdown they are promising. Not only are they not sure how many properties they'll have to target initially, but they also have yet to appoint anyone to the rent stabilization board, a decision-making body that is a critical part of this ordinance.

We hope many of these details will be decided upon soon. In order for this ordinance to have any effect at all, city officials must back up their statements with swift action. Not only must they constantly monitor rental rates, but they also must impose financial penalties where necessary and follow through on them.

College Park is a big place with a lot of renters. Enforcing a new law such as this will require considerable effort and innovation on the city's part. Students are up for the job. We certainly hope city officials are too.