{"id":442840,"date":"2026-09-21T11:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T11:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/442840\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T11:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T11:06:08","slug":"austin-is-drafting-new-rules-to-address-mold-in-rental-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/442840\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin is drafting new rules to address mold in rental housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time, Austin is updating its city code with rules around testing for and addressing mold. <\/p>\n

The Austin City Council passed a resolution<\/a> in August that kickstarts the months-long process. Council Member Vanessa Fuentes authored the measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we talk about healthy homes, mold often comes up as an issue of concern,\u201d Fuentes said. \u201cAnd there just wasn\u2019t strong enough enforcement mechanisms for the city, for our code officers, to really lean in and to be able to have these unsafe situations addressed more quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

A renter’s story <\/p>\n

Until last summer, Larry Phelps was living at an apartment in South Austin. He liked that the complex was close to his job, had first floor access and was affordable. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until I started noticing water coming up from my bathroom floor,\u201d Phelps said.<\/p>\n

He thought it was odd, but he cleaned the water up and went about about his day. But the issue got worse.<\/p>\n

Phelps said he asked his apartment maintenance team to come take a look. At first, they chalked it up to water splashing from the tub. So they installed floor-drying equipment and barriers to prevent splashing.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Phelps said he started to experience dizziness and other health issues. He said months passed before the maintenance team decided to cut open the wall behind the toilet. <\/p>\n

They found a busted pipe. The leaking water had eroded the wood structure and created mold.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe frustrating thing about it was it was like my voice was not being heard,\u201d Phelps said. \u201cLike I was not taken seriously when I kept reporting, \u2018hey, there\u2019s an issue.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Phelps ended up breaking his lease and moved to San Marcos. <\/p>\n

Austin currently relies on state rules<\/a> that require landlords to address mold when it exceeds a total surface area of “25 contiguous square feet” \u2013 equivalent to a small walk-in closet. The affected property also has to include 10 or more units.<\/p>\n

Fuentes said those rules don\u2019t go far enough, and they leave people renting in smaller complexes or single-family homes vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is going to be a process, and it is going to be something that we develop along the way,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I hope that we can set a standard for how we want our homes to be for Austinites here in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mold enforcement complications<\/p>\n

\u201cMold has been a perennial issue in housing both in Austin and the larger U.S. and is a very, very hard issue to tackle,\u201d said Shoshana Krieger, project director of Building and Strengthening Tenant Action, or BASTA. <\/p>\n

The Austin-based group helps tenants organize and advocate for stronger protections. Krieger said normally when mold becomes visible, there are underlying structural issues, and trying to understand the root of that problem can be expensive. <\/p>\n

Krieger said updated local regulations could help landlords and homeowners find safe ways to remediate mold and keep it from coming back.<\/p>\n

Over the next several months, the city manager and his staff will work with housing providers, mold experts and tenants rights groups to figure out how the city can step in.<\/p>\n

The city manager is set to come back in May with potential changes for the City Council to consider. <\/p>\n

Support for KUT’s reporting on housing news comes from the\u00a0Austin Community Foundation<\/a>. Sponsors do not influence KUT’s editorial decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time, Austin is updating its city code with rules around testing for and addressing mold.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,153065,134,153066,133,1223,10533,47789,153067,3759,17895,153068,18771],"class_list":["post-442840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-city-code","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-mold-remediation","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-texas","tag-austin-tx","tag-basta","tag-building-and-strengthening-tenant-action","tag-city-of-austin","tag-mold","tag-mold-rules-texas","tag-vanessa-fuentes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442840","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=442840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}