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LOCALITY Rental Properties Covered by PRI, <br />By # of Units on the Property <br />Seattle, WA 1 or more units <br />Los Angeles, CA 2 or more units <br />Washington, DC 3 or more units <br />San Francisco, CA (exterior inspection)3 or more units (and hotels with 6 or more <br />units) <br />Grand Rapids, MI 1 or more units <br />Santa Cruz, CA 1 or more units <br />9A Guide to Proactive Rental Inspection Programschangelabsolutions.org <br />Targeting Properties Based on Number of Units <br />Localities often limit a program’s scope to properties that contain a specified minimum <br />number of units. <br /> Practice Tip <br />When targeting neighborhoods, <br />a locality should use criteria that <br />pertain to the quality of housing <br />and/or the need for inspection, <br />such as those criteria employed by <br />Sacramento and Kansas City, MO, <br />as described above. Classifications <br />or targeting based on the race, <br />color, religion, sex, familial status, <br />national origin, or disability <br />status of residents may result in <br />discrimination claims.40, 41, 42, 43 <br />Multi-unit properties: Most programs cover multi-unit rental properties, but some <br />programs restrict that coverage to properties with a certain number of units. Los <br />Angeles’s Systematic Code Enforcement Program applies to residential properties with <br />two or more units, so long as at least one of those units is rented or offered for rent.44 <br />Washington DC’s proactive inspection program applies to all multi-family rental properties <br />with more than three units.45 San Francisco conducts periodic inspections of the exterior <br />and common areas of residential buildings with three or more dwelling units and hotels <br />consisting of six or more guest rooms.46 In contrast, Seattle’s registration and inspection <br />provisions apply to rental housing properties irrespective of size or number of units.47 <br />Single-family homes: Some PRI programs cover single-family homes. Recently, Grand <br />Rapids expanded its registration and inspection program for multi-family properties to <br />include single-family rental housing and abandoned and vacant residential properties.48 <br />Reporting that the number of families living in single-family rental units increased <br />from 4,568 to 7,771 between 2006 and 2009, the working group recommended <br />adding single-family rental units in order to: (1) ensure that substandard housing did <br />not disproportionately impact families with children; (2) increase market equity for all <br />investment property owners by promoting consistent code compliance across all types of <br />rental housing; and (3) ensure a standard of quality and affordability for all rental units, <br />particularly in the central city, to promote urban neighborhoods.49 Santa Cruz, a college <br />town where single-family homes are often rented to groups of students, also includes <br />single-family rental homes within its program.50 <br />Other Commonly-Exempted Units <br />Localities have also adopted a variety of other ways to focus their rental inspection resources. <br />Owner-occupied: Several localities exempt buildings if the property owner lives in one <br />of the units.51 Boston, for example, exempts buildings of six or fewer units if the owner <br />occupies one of the units.52 The rationale for this exemption is that buildings where the <br />landowner resides are likely to be adequately maintained.