The Burien City Council on Monday, Sept. 16, 2019 approved the city’s first rental housing inspection program, as well as the hiring of a rental housing inspection coordinator who will manage the program and work with residents who need assistance with rental housing issues.
Here’s more from the city:
The new program will be designed to help the City of Burien proactively monitor housing conditions in rental units, and help prevent habitability issues that have occurred in buildings in the past. Burien is the one of the few cities in Washington state to implement this type of program. Establishing proactive rental inspection policies is a strategy recommended by the Regional Affordable Housing Task Force.
Details of the program will be developed over the next year, in time for inspections to begin in 2021. The City will conduct extensive outreach to landlords, property managers, and renters in 2020 to prepare them for the new program. Information about the new program and other renter housing policies will be added to the City of Burien website in 2020.
The program is a component of several pieces of new legislation the Council is considering in the fall that is designed to improve the relationship between renters and landlords, and protect renters in Burien. Council will discuss more legislation during their October 7, 2019 meeting, including a possible just cause ordinance.
The draft legislation presented to Council reflects input received during extensive public engagement conducted in early 2019.
More information:
