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<\/p>\nSt. Petersburg City Council member Corey Givens Jr. believes strongly that tenants should have the same rights as property owners. More so, the City has a responsibility to protect residents from slumlords.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At its Thursday meeting, the Council unanimously voted to explore the establishment of a voluntary rental registry. Givens submitted the new business item request.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The St. Petersburg government oversees a code violations database. However, the issue of neglected properties became even more evident to Givens after he had conversations with community members.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like we needed to do more,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is giving the City a little bit of accountability, making sure that we level the playing field and provide public and fair transparent tools for city-wide rentals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Givens explained that the registry would include information such as property owners, rental rates and availability, among other statistics.<\/p>\n
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St. Petersburg City Council member Corey Givens Jr. Photo: Facebook.<\/p>\n
\u201cCurrently, we show code violations but we aren\u2019t showing eviction history,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, if we were to provide that, I feel like it would prevent a lot of folks from finding themselves in situations where they end up homeless or unhoused.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cProperty owners can look up a tenant\u2019s eviction history, but a tenant can\u2019t look up a property owner\u2019s eviction history,\u201d Givens continued. \u201cSlumlords come up with these new LLCs and they try to hide and run away from their responsibilities. This is about making sure that people are able to live in habitable units.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Without corrective action plans in place, he explained, there is less code violation enforcement. These documents outline how a responsible party will correct an issue or multiple problems. Givens wants the registry to include corrective action plans as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re a tenant and your property owner has been issued a corrective action plan, you would want to know what that plan is and what the timeline is,\u201d he said. \u201cYou should be able to get immediate notice.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Givens hopes that a city-wide rental registry will give the City \u201ca little bit more teeth\u201d and lead to \u201ca conversation about increasing fines for these code violations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are connecting residents to the appropriate agencies that have the information to ensure that laws and tenant protections are followed,\u201d he said. \u201cAt this point, what happens is sometimes we\u2019re a day late and a dollar short with connecting these residents to programs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n