Landlords

I strongly agree with Baltimore Neighborhoods Inc. director Robert J. Strupp that all Marylanders should have an equal opportunity to live in decent, safe housing with "access to transportation, jobs and safe, academically achieving schools" ("State shouldn't let landlords discriminate," May 5). Having studied the bill, I can see that the provisions of the Home Act, with its source-of-income protection, would simply compel landlords to treat all tenant applicants fairly and would in no way prevent landlords from using criteria to ensure they are getting responsible, reliable tenants.

On most days in landlord-tenant court in Baltimore City District Court, the only issue is: "Did you pay your rent?" If not, you are on the street. No defense is allowed, such as "I was sick and lost time from work," "My benefit check did not arrive," or even, "We have no hot water and there is mold growing in the apartment because of the leaky roof. " The tenant must be able to pay the full amount to even raise a legal claim that the housing is posing a health danger. If rent due has not been paid, and the tenant cannot pay the full amount, the tenant is summarily evicted.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke proposed changes to the city charter yesterday that would open up confidential landlord registration files, giving tenants in run-down Baltimore properties an opportunity to locate and confront their landlords.After touring a West Baltimore rowhouse described by the mayor as not fit for habitation, he held a press conference to make his proposals. The changes in the city housing code would enable tenants to obtain their landlords' telephone numbers and could speed up prosecution of those who are negligent.

Recent letters to the editor have focused on the reality that people deserving of Section 8 assistance need more landlords to open up their homes and apartments to Section 8 so that the housing poor will more quickly and easily obtain the housing that they need. Yes, deserving people need more quality housing to be available. Landlords have the housing. Responsible landlords appreciate stable sources of income. Section 8 has housing money. Just why shouldn't we encourage Section 8 personnel to be neutral, helpful and just honestly follow the regulations and always work fairly with honest landlords?

A neighbor called us, one of the few ''good'' neighbors left on this crumbling block in this crumbling southwest Baltimore neighborhood of abandoned houses and crack dealers scattered about like so many cockroaches. Squatters had moved into one of our vacant houses and were using it as a base for their drug operation.The house is among several we own and manage in Baltimore's Pratt-Monroe area. Once a respectable lower-middle-class, blue-collar community sustained economically by low-skilled but decent-paying factory jobs, Pratt-Monroe has become another inner-city relic of the post-industrial age, another blemish on an urban landscape plagued with teen pregnancy, drug use, drug dealing and deteriorating housing.

Recent letters to the editor have focused on the reality that people deserving of Section 8 assistance need more landlords to open up their homes and apartments to Section 8 so that the housing poor will more quickly and easily obtain the housing that they need. Yes, deserving people need more quality housing to be available. Landlords have the housing. Responsible landlords appreciate stable sources of income. Section 8 has housing money. Just why shouldn't we encourage Section 8 personnel to be neutral, helpful and just honestly follow the regulations and always work fairly with honest landlords?

In a recent letter to the editor, Johns Hopkins professor Stefanie DeLuca recently suggested that many landlords refuse to rent to people with Section 8 housing vouchers because they are unfairly prejudiced against those prospective tenants ("Mossburg misrepresents research on vouchers," May 8). My guess is that Ms. DeLuca has never dealt with Section 8 as a landlord. The prejudice of landlords is directed not against the people but against the nightmare bureaucracy that Section 8 rentals entail.

Bonnie Celmer had been on the waiting list for Section 8 housing since July when she finally got a voucher three weeks ago. She's still living in a Baltimore County homeless shelter, unable to find an apartment. "I've been looking for a place, but I can't get anybody to accept the voucher," the 59-year-old said. Celmer spoke to a crowd of more than 100 gathered Wednesday evening at Towson United Methodist Church to support a proposal that would prohibit landlords from discriminating against potential tenants based on their sources of income.

As we recently celebrated the 45th anniversary of the federal Fair Housing Act, it is significant to note that the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metropolitan regions are among the most segregated in America. Last month, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law recently reported on a study showing that Maryland's public school system is among the most segregated in the nation. The report, conducted by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, revealed that more than half of the state's black students attended schools with minority enrollments between 90 percent and 100 percent during the 2010-2011 school year, up from 33 percent in 1989.

In the heart of the east-side "hot zone" lies the 1200 block of N. Montford. Nine children who called it home have been poisoned by lead -- including Jevonte Sanders, 4. He breathed the invisible lead dust generated by the opening and closing of old windows in his mother's rented rowhouse. He crawled in it. The stuff stuck to his clothes and bedding. In 1996, he was diagnosed. "When the doctors first told me he had the lead, they said he could be brain damaged," recalls his mother, Delba Jones, 34. "Somebody tells you your baby could be handicapped for life, it's real scary."

Faika Shaaban developed an itchy rash the day she moved into an Annapolis apartment in the fall of 2011. The hundreds of bites, the lesions and the resulting scarring were from bedbugs. She had no idea that she'd rented an apartment whose landlord had been notified of a potential bedbug infestation only weeks earlier, according to her lawsuit against the landlord. An Anne Arundel County jury awarded the 69-year-old woman $800,000 this week, an amount that lawyers familiar with such cases said was the highest they have seen.

I recently read the letter James Gatton wrote to The Sun in response to Stefanie Deluca's letter to the editor. Mr . Gatton's letter ("Section 8 housing is a nightmare for landlords," May 12) could be no further from the truth. First, it does not take two months for a landlord to get the necessary Section 8 approvals. Usually from the time you turn in the Request for Tenancy Approval (RFTA), have the inspection and then have a signed lease is a total of 14-to-20 days. This process only take this long to prevent fraud - the Housing Authority of Baltimore City (HABC)

I strongly agree with Baltimore Neighborhoods Inc. director Robert J. Strupp that all Marylanders should have an equal opportunity to live in decent, safe housing with "access to transportation, jobs and safe, academically achieving schools" ("State shouldn't let landlords discriminate," May 5). Having studied the bill, I can see that the provisions of the Home Act, with its source-of-income protection, would simply compel landlords to treat all tenant applicants fairly and would in no way prevent landlords from using criteria to ensure they are getting responsible, reliable tenants.

In a recent letter to the editor, Johns Hopkins professor Stefanie DeLuca recently suggested that many landlords refuse to rent to people with Section 8 housing vouchers because they are unfairly prejudiced against those prospective tenants ("Mossburg misrepresents research on vouchers," May 8). My guess is that Ms. DeLuca has never dealt with Section 8 as a landlord. The prejudice of landlords is directed not against the people but against the nightmare bureaucracy that Section 8 rentals entail.

As we recently celebrated the 45th anniversary of the federal Fair Housing Act, it is significant to note that the Baltimore and Washington, D.C. metropolitan regions are among the most segregated in America. Last month, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law recently reported on a study showing that Maryland's public school system is among the most segregated in the nation. The report, conducted by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, revealed that more than half of the state's black students attended schools with minority enrollments between 90 percent and 100 percent during the 2010-2011 school year, up from 33 percent in 1989.

Human nature frequently disproves theories. Conventional wisdom, for example, says that open office space plans with workers grouped like cattle encourage creativity and collaboration. But study after study shows that people are more inventive, productive and healthy with more privacy. Susan Cain writes about this eloquently in "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. " But examples are legion of experience trumping ideology. Would that legislators, like state Sen. Jamie Raskin, keep this in mind when trying to help people.

I read in Sunday's paper that city officials in the Housing Authority outright refuse to pay financial damages to plaintiffs who have won financial awards against due to damages their children endured while residing in public housing ( "Baltimore housing authority says it won't pay millions in lead poisoning judgments," April 3). It was noted chipped paint containing lead was all over the window sills in the public housing units. How is it acceptable that the city will not pay financial damages when they hold city landlords to a totally different standard?

Tenants in many New Windsor rental units are tolerating the intolerable to keep the only homes they can afford. Mayor Jack A. Gullo Jr. says he has heard complaints, ranging from rat infestation to missing windows, from tenants and their neighbors.With the council's approval, Mr. Gullo has appointed resident Tony Ferace as a volunteer to help enforce the county's Minimum Livability Code, which New Windsor adopted several years ago."New Windsor needs to crack down on landlords," Mr. Gullo said.

In October 2011, the Court of Appeals, Maryland's highest court, struck down provisions of the Reduction of Lead Risk in Housing Act that gave landlords immunity from being sued in some circumstances when children were poisoned by lead based paint in their properties. The court left intact the safety provisions of the act that require landlords statewide to meet certain minimum safety standards with respect to lead based-paint hazards. The court said that the immunity provisions were unconstitutional because they denied brain-damaged children their day in court and denied them a remedy for their injuries.

Pat and Henry Bradley say their landlord decided to suddenly kick them out of his waterfront Dundalk house, changing the locks while they were still frantically trying to remove their belongings. The couple, who didn't have a lease, are to testify about their experience in Annapolis this week when House and Senate members convene hearings to decide whether to stop landlords and property owners from locking out residents without court orders and sheriff's deputies on standby to evict them.