The Syracuse Common Council passed a code of enforcement Oct. 24 to begin inspecting one and two-family rental homes in the Special Neighborhood District. The following day, Mayor Matthew Driscoll signed the bill.

The Special Neighborhood District, located east of Syracuse University, encompasses one and two-family homes occupied mostly by SU students.

Harry Lewis, Southeast University Neighborhood Association treasurer, said the district was selected because it houses the highest concentration of people in all of Syracuse.

‘Neighborhoods were jealous the Special Neighborhood District was first to get the inspections,’ said Michael Stanton, SEUNA president.

SEUNA, now in its 34th year, is a volunteer organization of homeowners in the university area and was the main advocate for the bill for over two years.

‘Our basic policies are to create better living conditions and having an active interest in city politics for students and people who live in the area,’ Lewis said. ‘Passing the law is helping the students by providing them a better living experience.’

Rental homes pass inspection by obtaining both a certificate of suitability and a certificate of sufficiency. If the rental home does not pass inspection, the house may not be rented to anyone.

The certificate of suitability requires the rental home to have sufficient common space for up to five residents, Lewis said.

‘Unless there is a change to the building’s structure, the certificate of suitability will not expire,’ Stanton said.

In contrast, the certificate of sufficiency must be renewed every three years. It can be obtained by complying with standards within the neighborhood.

Although the inspections are a victory for SEUNA, the organization wanted the Syracuse Fire Department to play a more active role in the inspections, Lewis said.

‘We are disappointed the firemen will not be inspecting homes with the code enforcer unless the enforcer feels there are fire concerns,’ he said. ‘We wanted the firemen with the code enforcer on all inspections. This was not allowed.’

It would have been impossible for the fire department to accompany the code enforcers at every inspection because it does not have enough personnel to inspect all rental properties, Stanton said.

In the past, city inspectors could inspect any house at the request of the resident. At any time, a resident could call code enforcement and complain, triggering the inspection visit, said Ben Tupper, owner of Tupper Property Management.

The new policy is based more on hostility towards students rather than maintaining a quality neighborhood, he said.

‘Non-student owner occupant residents have been aggressively campaigning to limit the student presence in the neighborhood since I was an SU student,’ Tupper said. ‘Their goal is to remove students from the neighborhood or to push them back onto campus.’

Tupper said he feels the new policy is discriminatory towards SU students because it only targets the Special Neighborhood District, the neighborhood around campus with a high number of students.

‘The neighborhood has less problems of health and safety than many other parts of the city,’ he said. ‘If the true goal was to show concern for renters in Syracuse, then the policy would have been city wide. Its not about concern for safety of renters, it’s about a broader agenda to reduce and remove students from the neighborhood.’

Code enforcers will begin inspecting rental properties in early 2006. If the inspections are approved in the spring, the Common Council will enforce the inspections throughout the city of Syracuse.

‘We are making the area livable for students and for people that live here permanently,’ Lewis said. ‘We want to bring the feeling of a true neighborhood.’

Published on October 30, 2005 at 12:00 pm