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28A Guide to Proactive Rental Inspection Programschangelabsolutions.org Financial assistance for low-income landlords to make repairs: There are some instances where low-income property owners may be unable to make repairs on rental properties, a situation magnified by the recent mortgage and credit crises. Financial assistance for low-income landlords can help ensure that needed repairs get made. Rent control: As mentioned in the previous section, tenants may be subject to rent increases after a landlord conducts repairs to bring a unit into compliance. In some localities, where permitted under state law, rent control laws may protect tenants from sharp rent increases by limiting allowable pass-throughs of program fees. For example, in Los Angeles, landlords are permitted to pass through the registration and inspection fees onto tenants, but if they do so, they must pass the charges along as prorated monthly fees so that tenants can absorb the cost over the course of a year.196 In addition, while localities with rent control ordinances allow landlords to recoup their capital improvement costs from tenants, they may require that the costs be recouped in a gradual fashion over a period of time, such as several years.197 Public access to code violation information: By providing tenants and the public with readily available registration status and code violation information about specific properties, localities can incentivize rental owners to comply with registration requirements and give the community tools for enforcement as well as critical information. Grand Rapids provides online access to its lists of registered properties, allowing tenants or prospective tenants to easily find out whether properties are registered and whether registered properties have certificates of compliance.198 Boston will maintain an online, searchable Chronic Offenders Registry that includes a list of landlords who regularly fail to correct problems.199 In an effort to increase prospective tenants’ access to rental property information, Code for America, in collaboration with the City of San Francisco and other industry stakeholders, developed a reportable, uniform data standard for housing code violations.200 By adopting a uniform data standard, San Francisco ensures that the data is available for use in additional applications – the sum effect of which is to increase consumer access to housing information. A number of other localities have also committed to adopting the standard, including Las Vegas, NV; Kansas City, MO; Gary and Bloomington, IN; Olathe, KS; and Bayside, WI.201