By DAVID TELLER
Staff Reporter
Everybody needs a place to stay, especially if they're going to school. For many students, housing is a real challenge, not only in affording it, but also finding it.
Some of the housing concerns go beyond affordability and availability. Legality comes into play. Because of rising education costs, the way students are living pushes the limits of legality in terms of residential codes.
Jeff Smick, the deputy code enforcement officer for the city of Cheney said the problem is growing. He said he is regularly seeing four to five kids living in a house and with all of them having cars, Cheney's parking problems continue to mount.
The complaints come when parking gets to be a problem, especially when friends come to visit. Driveways are blocked, intersections are obscured and reserved parking is not observed.
Parties are another point. Loud music and loud conversations until late hours create more complaints. Even though the police deal with noise complaints, the information eventually comes to Smick.
The litter (empty cans and bottles) being scattered is another condition that will bring Smick to the house to address the complaint.
Smick said the residential code is based on occupant density.
According to the code, a residence that is zoned as R1 is a single-family type of dwelling on one property lot, which can have no more than three unrelated people in residence.
An R2 is a duplex where more than one family occupies the residence. The code mandates no more than four unrelated people, or a family plus two unrelated people can occupy it.
A multi-family dwelling is an R3, and Smick said that is the typical apartment building. No more than five unrelated people, or a family plus three unrelated people can live there without violating the residency code.
The most extreme case he said he has encountered was where a bunch of students rented an old house and later took in roommates. Smick said he could confirm there were at least eight people (none of whom were related) living in the house. Some of the bedrooms had large walk-in closets.
They had set a mattress on the floor and called it a bedroom.
Typically, he said the usual number of people living in a house is four or five people, which is still a code violation.
The first offense is a visit to the residence where the resident is informed of the complaint. It is then Smick inquires about the number of people living there. If the tenant is in violation of the zoning code, the management company or owner is notified. The incident is followed up in writing.
If there are too many people living at the residence they are given a reasonable amount to time to make adjustments.
“I'll give them until the end of the quarter,” Smick said.
In the event of a second offense, the tenant is usually given a 30-day notice of compliance, “Although there is a lot of other factors in there,” Smick said.
If the situation were to unfold without compliance, the city could ultimately file criminal charges and the offending people fines and jail.
Smick said there have been no situations where that has happened. “We don't want that to happen, either,” he said.
Efforts are being made to keep the peace and the law through education. Currently, Eastern Washington University is rewriting the student code of conduct that will be presented to new freshmen in the event they choose to live off campus.
Also more information about the housing code is being made available to landlords and real estate companies.
David Teller can be reached at [email protected]
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