Portage Township Trustee Jason Critchlow on Monday announced the formation of a new task force aiming to improve living conditions in rental housing in South Bend.
Critchlow and the nonprofit faith-based advocacy group We Make Indiana have been urging the city to better enforce its Rental Safety & Verification Program enacted in 2019.
The task force will include Judy Fox, the retired Notre Dame law professor and longtime tenant rights advocate. Fox helped write that 2019 ordinance but she says it hasn’t done what she’d hoped.
Fox says she learned from public records requests that the city was fining the most problematic apartment complexes but not filing lawsuits to collect on the fines.
“They seemed to be very willing to sue homeowners who don’t mow their lawn and not willing to sue apartment complexes that owe them $100,000," Fox says. "To me that sends a clear message that you can go for years, decades, whatever and never really have to address the problem.”
Fox says she doesn’t know why but in February the city started filing those lawsuits, filing 209 of them in February and March, totalling over $1.2 million in fines.
“I think this is a good sign," Fox says. "Let’s see if they keep it up or if it was just a one-time thing.”
Fox and Critchlow say the task force is still needed. They’ll travel to some Indiana cities where rental standards have been enforced more, like Hammond and Bloomington, and potentially Fort Wayne and Elkhart, and then deliver a report with police recommendations to the city in October.
A city spokeswoman declined WVPE’s interview request.
