Letter to the Editor: Being a Good Neighbor

A large percentage of Evansville’s citizens rent their home. This means that they either have a written or oral agreement to take possession of and live in a residence that belongs to someone else. A small segment of these renters continuously break the law, and in doing so create serious problems for their neighbors. This behavior, in addition to terrorizing a neighborhood, is expensive to the rest of us in terms of the use of our police and other city services. The issue that law enforcement and neighborhood leaders regularly encounter is that some landlords will not evict a problem tenant, even when that tenant has clearly violated the terms of the lease with their behavior.

The “Good Neighbor Ordinance” is new law that will address this problem. The Ordinance creates new tools for landlords to use in addressing issues not related to the payment of rent and a minimum standard of behavior for tenants. For a landlord that cannot determine what amount of bad behavior is enough to trigger an eviction, the Ordinance is instructive as to how much a neighborhood must endure before a landlord shall enforce his lease and file an eviction. Most of the behaviors that cause problems in a neighborhood are not serious crimes. The Good Neighbor Ordinance draws a line between those that commit serious felonies and must be evicted, and those that have less serious bad behavior that we hope to change through a two or three strike warning system.

A city ordinance cannot change the process for an eviction or the burden of proof that a landlord must meet to secure an eviction order from a judge. The Good Neighbor Ordinance was written understanding two things: 1) the ordinance applies to landlords; and 2) there is no value in compelling a landlord to file an eviction that is not legally sufficient to obtain an eviction order. Therefore the Ordinance seeks to find a balance between behavior that cannot be tolerated even once, and behavior that can be changed with the right incentive. The goal over time is to see the number of eviction filings not related to a failure to pay rent go down as the standard of good behavior becomes uniform throughout the city.

The working group that drafted the Good Neighbor Ordinance is made up of representatives from City Council, the Mayor’s office, apartment owners, property managers, and the Crime Prevention Officers of the Evansville Police Department who interact on a daily basis with neighborhoods dealing with unchecked behavior. The Ordinance will not become effective in a vacuum. The passage of the Mandatory Rental Registry Ordinance last year helped further develop the Crime-Free Multi-Housing and the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) Programs led by Crime Prevention Officers. These programs include free training for landlords and property managers that includes screening tenants and having an effective lease. Through the Building Commission, landlords also have a Voluntary Rental Registry that is available and includes negotiated benefits related to the repair and maintenance of rental units. Additionally, as the Good Neighbor Ordinance goes into effect this October, it will correlate with the merger of the two rental registries on a new website that will include new tenant screening tools and a section for tenants with information about their rights and responsibilities.

Ultimately, the Good Neighbor Ordinance is not for attacking landlords or tenants but is part of a full spectrum approach to facilitating safe and healthy neighborhoods. Every neighborhood and each one of our neighbors is entitled to the quiet enjoyment of their residence, and this Ordinance is an attempt to make sure we all understand what it is to be a good neighbor.

Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley
Third Ward City Councilwoman