Overview
- Council Member Letitia Plummer tagged the ordinance, postponing the vote for one week following pressure from the Houston Apartment Association.
- The proposal would create a High Risk Rental Buildings registry and an Apartment Standards Enforcement Committee to coordinate inspections and enforcement across city departments.
- Properties would be identified through high volumes of 311 complaints and at least 10 verified health and safety citations, with a rotating public list of the five worst complexes and six-month remediation windows, shorter for emergencies.
- Landlords would be required to complete training on safety, maintenance, and tenants’ rights, and persistent violations could bring added inspections and daily fines.
- Landlord groups object to duplicative registration, reliance on unverified 311 data, property-size fairness, and confidentiality issues, while tenant advocates say limiting the list to five properties is too narrow.