REPORT TO THE CITY COUNCIL January 19, 2023 FROM: ANDREW JANZ, City Attorney City Attorney's Office BY: ERICA CAMARENA, Chief Assistant City Attorney City Attorney's Office, Code Enforcement SUBJECT ..Title Progress of Code Enforcement, including ASET Quarterly report. ..Body RECOMMENDATION Per Council Resolution, the City Attorney's Office is to provide an ASET quarterly report, which includes a Code Enforcement update. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Code Enforcement includes five divisions: Rental Housing, Community Compliance, Special Teams, Administrative Support, and Legal. Rental Housing includes the Anti-Slum Enforcement Team (ASET), Reactive Rental Housing, the Rental Housing Improvement Act (RHIA) Inspection Unit, Motel Inspections, and the Mobilehome Parks Team. Community Compliance teams are dedicated to each Council District. Special Teams oversees the School Area Team (SAT), and other teams dedicated to abatements, illegal dumping citations, tires, demolitions, and vacant lots. The Administrative Support Team includes the public facing counter, FresGO, Public Records Act (PRA) response, and accounting. Code Enforcement partners with the Legal Team on compliance agreements, inspection warrants, and court actions, such as petitions for receivership and injunctions. BACKGROUND Rental Housing ASET/Reactive ASET's goal is to increase the stock of affordable and habitable rental housing by pursuing and improving slum properties with substantial health and safety violations through enforcement, education, fines, receiverships, and compliance agreements. ASET currently has twelve open cases with properties containing 166 rental units. Since the last quarterly report in October 2022, ASET has opened three new cases in properties containing 41 units. The attached ASET Weekly Status Report is updated and posted on the City's website every Friday, and it has additional information regarding each open ASET case. Since the last quarterly report, the Reactive Unit has opened 311 cases, closed 330 cases, and has 289 active cases. Please see below for highlights related to three of the active cases. 1. Peacock, 937-945 F ST (approx. 229 violations) [Property owner: Wong Wilson, Wong Yolanda, District 3] This case was initially opened after several complaints were received by our office through the Eviction Protection Program. Once inspected, the case was referred to ASET due to the severely dilapidated condition of the property. This is a two-story building where the bottom floor is commercial and was found to be illegally used for habitation. The top floor consists of 18 rooms that are occupied and used as living spaces. A Notice of Violation was sent out September 2, 2022, to address the missing smoke alarms throughout the residential portion of the building. A Notice and Order is currently in the review process to address the 229 violations found at the location. The building is infested with cockroaches, has missing window screens, broken windows, damaged doors, missing bathroom fixtures, unpermitted work, mold on walls, unfinished and inoperable appliances in the community kitchen, graffiti, junk/rubbish, missing carbon monoxide detectors, and unapproved extension cords running throughout the building and units due to electrical issues. Since the ASET team inspected the property, the commercial portion of the building has been vacated and has remained secured. On November 8, 2022, an inspection was conducted and the 18 rooms on the top floor were vacated, cleaned out, and remain secured. 2. Calwa Hotel, 3978 E Calwa (181 violations) [Property owner: Space Place LLC, District 5] This case was initially opened as a Motel; however, once inspected, its status changed to an ASET case. A first Notice and Order was issued on August 13, 2021, to address dangerous building conditions and a reinspection reflected the immediate health and safety concerns had been addressed. A second Notice and Order addressing the remaining 181 violations was issued on September 13, 2021. A Compliance Agreement was signed on January 27, 2022. The entire complex is now vacant and is in the process of being registered as a vacant building. New plans were submitted and approved, and a permit was issued to allow construction of new staircases. The owner is currently seeking bids from contractors to complete the work. The owner has started cleaning out the long vacant bottom floor commercial units. On March 8, 2022, the owner submitted an application for a permit to the Planning Department to convert this existing 5,400 sq. ft. second floor hotel to 12 multi-family units with an office and lobby area. The 5,400 sq. ft. first floor would remain as is with a laundry mat, grocery store and storage with 12 parking stalls. The proposal is more than halfway through the review process. The building is being kept clean and secure. The interior of the property is inspected monthly to check progress. The last interior inspection was on August 31, 2022, and found the second floor is close to being completely cleaned out with a few units left with junk/rubbish inside of them. The exterior of the property is inspected once a week to ensure compliance with the Compliance Agreement. 3. 4726 E. Floradora (64 violations) [Property owner: Darrell Fenn, District 7] This is a two-story, four-unit property. This ASET case was opened due to the exterior conditions such as, rubbish/junk, farm animals, overgrown landscaping, peeling paint, dilapidated fences, damaged facia, damaged soffit, and damaged siding. The Initial ASET letter went out to the property owner on October 11, 2022. Upon receiving the letter, the property owner began working on the property. The first inspection was conducted on November 2, 2022, where 64 violations were found. A Notice and Order addressing the violations was issued on November 29, 2022. A reinspection occurred on January 5, 2023, and all violations were cured. RHIA Currently, there are 86,882 individual rental units registered in the Rental Housing Registry, which are located at 30,612 registered rental properties. Since the inception of the program, over 16,763 Baseline Health & Safety and Compliance Re-inspections have been performed. The virtual inspection program continues to be a viable alternative and are performed on an as needed basis. As of December 21, 2022, the Proactive Rental Housing Unit has billed $1,000,300 and collected $872,500 which is an 87.4% collection rate since the program's inception. The team has also focused on finding properties that should be registered. 204 Notice of Violations for non-registration have been issued, resulting in 137 citations. The Rental Housing Team is also tasked with enforcing and educating owners and tenants of the City's new Multiunit Housing Smoking Prohibition Ordinance, which went into effect on January 1, 2022. There are currently 5 open and 146 closed smoking cases. Mobilehome Parks There are 27 mobilehome parks with a total of 3,754 spaces in the City of Fresno. Since the last quarterly report, six parks have been inspected consisting of 791 spaces. These inspections resulted in 237 Notices of Violation addressing 599 violations. The team has hand delivered 2,381 brochures to individual lots. There have also been 16 complaint-based inspections. Community Compliance - Council District Teams As of December 20, 2022, there are 1,092 open and active cases in the City, and each Council district has the approximate caseload below: District 1 - 198 cases District 2 - 125 cases District 3 - 249 cases District 4 - 128 cases District 5 - 163 cases District 6 - 98 cases District 7 - 131 cases Community Compliance also has two Special Projects: Commercial Vacant Building Ordinance and the Blackstone Corridor. Commercial Vacant Building Ordinance Currently, there are 40 active Commercial Vacant Building (CVBO) cases and 33 Notices have been issued. Three Notice and Orders are pending, and the remainder have complied voluntarily with their Courtesy Notices. All commercial vacant properties are inspected at least once a month. The more problematic properties are inspected on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and are either maintained by the owner with Code's encouragement or via the abatement/administrative billing process. As of the last week in December 2022, all properties were secure. This quarter, nine formerly vacant and problematic properties have been removed from the list. Six of those properties were rehabilitated and are now occupied by new businesses. One property owner elected to demolish the structures on his property. The remainder have been maintained without additional violations for over a year. In addition, several properties are in the process of preparing plans or have begun renovations and are expected to fall off the list during the next quarter. The overall response to the CVBO process continues to be very positive, with many property owners now actively maintaining their properties free of blight with minimal supervision. Blackstone Corridor We have a dedicated inspector who focuses on code enforcement issues throughout the Blackstone Corridor. Since the last quarterly report, the area has improved in terms of security and blight. Many property owners and business owners have hired security to regularly patrol, which reduces encampments and crime. Our inspector actively works with the property owners to assess their needs in solving problems. For example, a restaurant recently opened, which eliminated one of the vacant buildings that was a target for criminal activity and vandalism. However, the restaurant owner expressed the need for marketing assistance, so our inspector connected the owner with the Economic Development Department. One ongoing issue is the vacant building at 3639 N Blackstone. There is an encampment on the vacant property, and the building has been a target for vandalism and crime. Our inspector has coordinated communication between the property owner, the HART Team, and the Central Blackstone Merchants Association. The property owner has hired additional security, and the HART Team has been providing resources to the occupants of the encampment. The encampment should be resolved this month. Special Teams School Area Team (SAT) The SAT provides pro-active code enforcement around schools. This team is focused on improving neighborhoods, providing pro-active code enforcement support to reduce blight, enhance safety, equip residents to become civically engaged, and connect low-income residents to housing resources to improve their quality of life. Since its inception in February of 2020, the SAT has provided its services in 45 school areas. Since the last quarterly report, the SAT has completed inspections and outreach in the following four school areas: Columbia (D3), Heaton (D1), Vang Pao/Sequoia (D5), and Wishon/McLane (D4). A small number of cases in these areas will continue as they require additional time and effort to reach compliance. SAT enforcement and outreach is now underway in the following four school areas: Leavenworth (D7), Jefferson (D3), Winchell (D5), and Ayer/Sunnyside (D5). SAT's community outreach currently includes virtual neighborhood improvement discussions, virtual landlord forums, and FresGO trailer events in each school area. The trailer events involve interaction with the community, providing useful information and resources to residents, and giveaways of SAT swag! In the last quarter, SAT also conducted pumpkin giveaways, presented to the Office of Community Affairs Civic Academy and Fresno Building Healthy Communities, and took part in various community events, including D1's Fall Festival at Inspiration Park. SAT also continues to reach the community via social media in several languages. Abatement Team The abatement team has completed 105 abatements since the last Code Enforcement report. This includes multiple board-ups, tall grass/weed abatements, and junk/rubbish clean-ups. The team also conducts abatements pursuant to warrants and cleans alleys throughout the City. In 2022, the team collected 2,072,780 pounds of waste, including abatements, tires, and other trash. Other Special Teams Highlights - The Demolition Team has facilitated five demolitions since the last Code Enforcement report; one completed directly by the City, and four completed by property owners with Code Enforcement oversight and motivation. Additionally, one property has been fully rehabilitated by property owner after Code Enforcement motivation. Further, three demolitions are in progress, five demolition applications are in progress, five rehabilitations by owner in lieu of demolition are in progress, and ten applications for rehabilitation by owner in lieu of demolition are in progress. - The Vacant Lots Team has achieved compliance on 91 cases since the last Code Enforcement report. Property owner compliance pursuant to enforcement and abatement by Code combined to account for these successes. The team also continues to work with Fire to prioritize and maintain a list of 120 high risk properties through fire season. - The Tire Team collected 2,584 waste tires from various locations throughout the City since the last Code Enforcement report. An additional 1,179 waste tires were collected during the Waste Tire Amnesty Day event held in District 7 on Saturday, October 8, 2022. The next Waste Tire Amnesty Day event will occur on February 25, 2023, in D3. Additionally, 52 waste tire facility inspections were conducted since the last Code Enforcement report to ensure compliance with state and local regulations. - The Illegal Dumping Team has issued 29 administrative citations since the last Code Enforcement report, and 93 in 2022. Seventeen covert camera units are now used to combat illegal dumping and address complaints received from residents and businesses. Administrative Team The Administrative Team is managed by the Business Manager who oversees the accounting and clerical staff assigned to code enforcement. Tire Grants Code Enforcement applies for, renews, and manages the following three CalRecycle Waste Tire grants: Tire Clean Up Grant, Tire Enforcement Grant, and the Tire Amnesty Grant, all of which comprise the Waste Tire Program. The Grants pay for equipment, some of the covert cameras, surveillance, enforcement, inspections, and Tire Amnesty events. Assessment Hearings Our Accounting Team, with help from Legal Staff, participates in quarterly assessment hearings. Most recently, these were held on November 15 and 16, 2022, and a total of $224,438.08 was assessed. These assessments are for past due fines, administrative costs, and abatement costs, and they are assessed on the property owner's property taxes. Legal Team The legal team continues to see success in obtaining inspection/abatement warrants and petitioning the court for receivership. The legal team also represents Code, Fire, and the Police Department at administrative hearings; and oversees the Eviction Protection Program. Eviction Protection Program As of December 30, 2022, legal staff has screened 1,428 tenants and 824 have been referred to outside counsel. Of those referred, many have had successful results, including sixty-seven cases where the unlawful detainer was prevented from moving forward, fifty-three cases where the tenant was able to remain in their home, thirty-nine cases resulting in reduction of amount owed, and five stopped lockouts. Our legal staff has also been mediating some cases between the landlord and tenant, and we are regularly in contact with the Emergency Rental Assistance Program to help tenants move their applications through that process. Attachments: Attachment A - ASET Weekly Status Report Attachment B - PowerPoint Presentation CAR:th 2