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South Bend lawmakers will again push tenant rights bill after fire

The house at 222 North La Porte Avenue. On Sunday, Jan. 21, five children were killed in a fire there while an adult man and an 11-year-old girl survived.
Marek Mazurek, WVPE
The house at 222 North La Porte Avenue. On Sunday, Jan. 21, five children were killed in a fire there while an adult man and an 11-year-old girl survived.

On Wednesday fire investigators announced that they can't pinpoint the cause of a South Bend house fire last year that killed six children. But Mayor James Mueller says the tragedy underscores the need for more tenant rights in Indiana.

With no cause of the fire identified, the focus at Wednesday’s press conference turned to how to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.

Mueller says the Smith family’s landlord previously rented the home to tenants with federal housing vouchers. But the house was disqualified from the program after a federal inspector found problems with electrical wiring.

So the Texas-based landlord simply started renting to tenants without vouchers. The city has a rental inspection program but it can only act on complaints.

Democratic South Bend area lawmakers, Rep. Maureen Bauer and Sen. David Niezgodski, this year signed on to a bill allowing tenants to pay rent to a third party. The entity withholds part of their money in escrow for maintenance and repairs when needed.

This is not uncommon. Indiana is one of only five states that doesn’t allow it.

But the bill ultimately died.

"Other states have a lot more tenant protections than we do in the state of Indiana," Mueller said. "This is a very, in terms of policy at the state level, very much weighted toward the landlord."

Still, Mueller says he’s glad that Bauer and Niezgodski plan again in the session that starts in January to push for a tenant escrow bill.

Parrott, a longtime public radio fan, comes to WVPE with about 25 years of journalism experience at newspapers in Indiana and Michigan, including 13 years at The South Bend Tribune. He and Kristi have two children currently attending Indiana University in Bloomington. In his free time he enjoys fixing up their home, following his favorite college and professional sports teams, and watching TV (yes that's an acceptable hobby).