[ad_1]
Dear Readers and Metro Atlanta Readers:
Over the past year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has documented alarming and dangerous conditions in hundreds of apartment complexes in metropolitan areas. Against the backdrop of ongoing deadly violence in Atlanta and other communities, this investigative journalism makes it clear: You can’t solve the crime problem without addressing the horrifying conditions that attract crime and expose children to unimaginable amounts of violence.
As our journalists worked on the story, the tragedy of life in one of these complexes unfolded. was quoted in an article we published about her family’s suffering in The next day her youngest son was shot dead there.
It’s all too common.
As our year draws to a close, it’s time to recognize the damage these apartment complexes do to our communities.While our most vulnerable citizens struggle with a shortage of affordable and safe housing. So it’s time to recognize that this problem is costing us all.
It’s time to demand reasonable changes in the law to prevent absentee, irresponsible and opportunistic landlords from exploiting us.
Our investigative journalist work reveals a terrifying fact. A powerful combination of lax security, deferred maintenance, government inertia, and weak tenant protection laws in Georgia have made much of the area’s affordable housing nearly uninhabitable in the complexes we studied.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution analyzed records from local police, courts, law enforcement, state and federal sources to identify 273 continuously unsafe apartment complexes. We published the list earlier this month.
A quick summary:
- These complexes have been responsible for at least 281 murders and 20,000 serious crimes over the past five years.
- In Atlanta, Cobb, and DeKalb counties alone, more than 13,000 school-age children live in 144 complexes.
- Nearly three-quarters of the hazardous complexes are owned by out-of-state investors. Their business model relies on keeping security and maintenance costs as low as possible, and relies on collecting government subsidies for low-income housing. We’ve almost doubled our assets in a couple of years.
- Police are plagued by tens of thousands of calls to such complexes, and law enforcement is overwhelmed with complaints, depleting resources in both areas.
It’s time for a change. No one should tolerate a system that exploits the weak while taking advantage of taxpayers.
People face horrible living conditions: rats and garbage, leaky pipes and unmitigated mold.
For drug dealers, gang members and squatters, unguarded vacancies, inadequate lighting, broken doors and windows, and dilapidated fences indicate that no one is paying attention. They use it to victimize tenants.
And the people who live there are relatively helpless.
Georgia’s tenant protection laws are among the weakest in the country. Unlike 41 other states and the District of Columbia, renters cannot withhold rent to force repairs, no matter how dangerous or unsanitary the property is.
State law may offer few protections, but the standard leases used in many multifamily homes force tenants to waive their rights, leaving lessees with little bargaining power. Leaving the rental usually means losing the $150 application fee.
Georgia does not have minimum standards that require owners to maintain rental properties. As such, a patchwork of local ordinances has led to confusion, with enforcement left to local ordinance compliance officers, prosecutors and district courts.
You should contact state officials and demand reform. Find yours at openstates.org/find_your_legislator/.
You should contact your city or county official and request the same.
In the meantime, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is committed to continuing to focus on this issue. Expect us to report on our actions in Congress and ask questions on your behalf.
There is no reason to put up with this.
Sincerely,
Kevin G. Reilly
Editor
[ad_2]
Source link
