WESTBROOK, Maine – City Councilors here were expected to consider a proposal Monday night that would make landlords responsible for picking up the tab for emergency housing if their tenants are displaced because of building code violations.
Westbrook City Adminstrator Jerre Bryant says there have been four or five times in the past few months that inspectors have identified serious life-safety code violations. He says many of the families needed emergency housing.
"And when we're talking about code violations here we're not talking about, you know, the batteries in the smoke detector need to be changed or minor violations," he says. "We only took action in these cases as a last resort because we felt that the occupants of these residential structures were at risk."
Bryant says that in a couple of cases, the landlords voluntarily paid for the temporary housing. He says others weren't willing to do so and that the city doesn't feel taxpayers should be paying for emergency housing needed because a landlord has not maintained the property.
Bryant says while he hopes the council passes the ordinance, he also hopes it's never used. He'd rather see voluntary compliance. Bryant says the alternative is taking the alleged offender to court.
