HOUSTON \u2014 The Houston City Council passed an ordinance 12-2 last week that requires landlords to provide a functioning air conditioning system in all rental properties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Landlords must comply within 120 days, and the ordinance does not require the installation of central air. Window units or portable AC units are acceptable, as long as the space is kept at 80 degrees or below, or at least 20 degrees cooler than the outside temperature.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis ordinance is asking for the bare minimum for livability in this city,\u201d said Council Member Joe Panzarella.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new measure eliminates what the city calls a loophole that previously allowed rental units to provide screens on windows or doors instead of air conditioning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd opening your windows or vents to let in the air. You\u2019re only letting in hot air, so it doesn\u2019t cool you off,\u201d said Dr. Inyang Uwak, director of Air Alliance Houston.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Houston Health Department reports that there have been at least 2,500 heat-related emergency visits since April. Uwak says that the number may not capture the full impact of the extreme heat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely several that have been missed because not everyone goes to the ER,\u201d Uwak said.<\/p>\n
The Houston area has recorded 47 days classified as extreme heat this season, which is more than double the 23 days recorded at this point last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some residents say the extreme heat is also putting an added strain on their air conditioning systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the latest U.S. Census data shows that over 20,000 rental households within the city of Houston have reported not having air conditioning at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Council members say the new requirement is about protecting people who are vulnerable to extreme heat.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom our youth to our elderly and those with chronic conditions and our codes and our regulations are designed primarily to keep people safe. That is why we have them,\u201d said Council member Julian Ramirez.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Houston now joins other major Texas cities, including Dallas and Austin, that require air conditioning in rental housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 The Houston City Council passed an ordinance 12-2 last week that requires landlords to provide a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[132,144990,1570,102,138,24280,56,58,57,223,82,27,1569,835],"class_list":["post-416287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-austin","tag-barbara-campos","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-extreme-heat","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}