Board of Aldermen Page 27
June 14, 2016
private sector and it’s because basically it’s allowed. If you allow it then chances are that at some point
down the road somebody is going to do it. It doesn’t mean that it will happen tomorrow or in twenty years
but if we are having an issue where we are having a lot of issues with landlords for whatever reason,
rather than give warnings we want to change the policy to just fine people automatically. Nothing in this
ordinance prevents that from happening. Nothing in this ordinance gives that landlord an opportunity to
state their case and not pay the fine other than going to court and as we’ve said earlier tonight, that’s an
expensive process. | don’t think that this ordinance is ready for prime time. | think that there are other
things that we need to do as a city to go after the big offenders. This is not going to have any impact,
other than raising the rent on the poorest of individuals in this city and it won’t do anything else other
than that and | guarantee you that the rents will rise if we pass this, they will because they are going to
build it in because their business model is not a business model of renting rooms, nice rooms to people
so that they have a safe place to live; the business model of our worst offenders is to collect the money
and hope that the city doesn’t come in and hope that the people that we are renting to don’t come and
complain to code enforcement. That’s what immoral people do.
Alderman Wilshire
Landlords can increase their rents, and they are going to have vacancies if they do so. This is not going
to affect 99 percent of the landlords in this city. It’s that other one percent that this is going to affect. We
need to pass this ordinance to start making change here in the city. | agree with everything Alderman
Siegel has said and everything Alderman Lopez has said. It’s time we, as a city, start making some
changes so the housing quality in this city improves. I’m going to support this.
Alderman Lopez
| just want to point out that if rents raise, that would be the deliberate decision on the part of landlords,
regardless of whether they are being affected or not. Rents have been raising; rents are going to
continue to rise. If a landlord in this room decides, I’m upset the city did this. I’m going to pump my rent
up, that’s one way of looking at it. The landlords that are being specifically addressed by this legislation
it is not intended to impact every person in the City of Nashua. It is intended to directly impact the people
who are being non-responsive to the city’s attempts at code enforcement. They’re the ones who seem to
have set the bar as low as possible for rent. I’m not sure they are going to start to try to compete with
other landlords and other businesses to try to get back at us or try to improve their conditions because as
soon as that happens, anybody who could afford their rental properties is probably going to pick
someone else. | don’t think necessarily rent is automatically going to be raised across the board. | do
know that you made a good point that if we allow something to happen, it probably will happen. My issue
with this is it is happening right now. We can talk about what could happen or what might happen with
the assumption for some reason by the way that every future board of aldermen is going to be
completely negligent of this issue and they are not going to respond to constituent complaints; if a
landlord is being mistreated, nobody is going to do anything. If that happens, that’s a day that hasn't
happened yet. What is happening right now is there are landlords that are doing this that need to be
addressed. It’s not even really just 23 Temple Street. There are other landlords that aren’t as frequent
or as ridiculous offender but we heard public comment in the last meeting about issues at 243 Main
Street that should probably be looked at too. There are other substandard living condition locations. |
think if we pass this ordinance, it creates a disincentive for people to continue doing business that way
because it changes the dynamic of what they can get away with and what they can't.
Alderman Moriarty
| was going to make a motion to re-refer, but I’ve decided not to. I'll let somebody else make that motion.
| heard what Alderman Clemons had to say, and I'll just let him have that opportunity if he wants to.
Thank you.
