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Art Jenkins holds a box full of envelopes containing 9-1-1 emergency call records for his condominium complex, at a meeting of “For a Better Renton” on September 4th.
Art Jenkins has become so frustrated with a lack of City of Renton action to enforce nuisance ordinances and state laws at his condo that he began a petition on August 13. He has already gathered 680 signatures. His Petition can be found here.
Mr. Jenkins’ situation raises red flags about whether Renton is adequately prepared to manage the inevitable conflicts that arise with higher levels of density, even as the city completes a city-wide rezone that allows fourplexes in nearly all of Renton’s single-family neighborhoods. His concerns also raise questions about city liability if anything tragic happens; just two weeks ago King County had to pay $21 million to a dog-attack victim after King County failed to address numerous code-compliance complaints.
I had a chance to meet with Mr.Jenkins at a recent meeting of the “For a Better Renton” organization, where he shared the details of his ten-year struggle to keep his condominium unit habitable in the midst of constant flooding from above, nearby drug crimes, firearm concerns, fights, noise, and other challenges that are beyond his control. He’s worked with his condo association as much as he could, even serving as a member of his HOA board, but most of these problems are beyond the condo board’s authority or ability to effect change.
He brought a heavy box of papers with him that document all the 911 calls to the vicinity of his condo unit, activity that far surpasses the number of calls that define a “Chronic Nuisance Premises” in Renton’s 1-3-3 Nuisance Code. The primary request of his petition, is that this Renton code be enforced. He’s also asking Renton to enforce the applicable state laws, and to coordinate with King County Health Department to ensure King County’s codes are met. Mr. Jenkins said he has reached out to King County directly regarding mold from the constant flooding and other health concerns he’s observed, but King County said they need the City of Renton to take the lead on resolving these concerns.
Mr. Jenkins came across as pleasant, sensible, patient, and compassionate, even as he described an odyssey that would literally drive many people from their homes. And though he has spent many thousands of dollars and countless hours mitigating the impacts and seeking assistance, he’s not looking to punish or seek retribution; he just wants the city to take actions that will allow him to peacefully live in his Renton home.
He’s encouraged that the petition has already gotten city attention, and a couple of Council Members have come out to see the situation for themselves. He’s hoping more elected officials will come out, and then take action on his concerns.
I encourage you to read Mr. Jenkins petition, and sign it (electronically) if you feel so inclined. I am one of the many hundreds of Renton residents that have signed it. If Renton is going to begin replacing single-family homes with fourplexes throughout our entire city, we’ll need nuisance code enforcement systems in place that can keep the peace and keep units habitable.
I have seen Art Jenkins speaking at city council meetings. He is very articulate and calm as he shows photos of his condo as well as thugs in the parking lot carrying weapons. I’m positive I would not be calm. Yet through all this he never accuses or speaks badly of those in a position to step up and resolve this issue. Even going so far as to remind those on facebook not to speak badly of anyone. I have signed his petition and continue to support him where I can. I understand this could be any one of us. Please sign the petition and help where you can. Go to council meetings, use your voice…..
Flooding from above constantly IS something the condo association can do something about. If there are fights and lots of extreme loud noise at inappropriate times they are all something that can be handled by the association. Firearms concerns and “nearby drug crimes”vague terms to use to describe these years of torment. If this condo owner above or renter is so horrendously out of control these are all things the condo association by laws the HOA rules regs were created for.
I agree (and I think Mr. Jenkins would as well) that condominium rules should prohibit many of these activities, and the board could and should be fining property owners that allow nuisances to continue. My understanding is that Mr. Jenkins is continuing to press his condo association to act in every way they can.
Many of the violations that Mr. Jenkins has 9-1-1 records of are crimes in Renton, and the police or code enforcement typically have to take the lead in acting on these (such as drug sales from a residence, or a felon in possession of a firearm, as just a couple of examples.) Allegations of illegal activity requires due process to properly investigate, and HOAs are generally not properly staffed or empowered to conduct these investigations.
And when disruptive activity requiring police intervention is ongoing, week after week, with no plan to stop it, it constitutes another city violation by the property owner– maintaining a nuisance premises. The city could prosecute this. The condo complex can probably also levy fines, if it allowed in the condo bylaws.
In summary, I think Mr. Jenkins is using both these avenues as much as he can, in addition to contacting county authorities, state legislators, and a personal attorney.
Well
My small family had to leave our house in North Renton. After the pitbull attack two doors down, the meth lab next door, the car break-in, the two thefts from our home, and the constant street racing…we were just “done.” We were ok with such nonsense when it was just us, but it changes the calculus when you have three small children.
Art has my sympathies and support.
Thanks Ben. I’m sorry you had to move out of your pretty and historic North Renton home, but glad you were able to find a nice residence in Renton. I remember getting reports of specific nuisance homes in North Renton that were spoiling an otherwise beautiful neighborhood for everyone else, and that helped spur the Council to update our nuisance ordinance in 2015. We were seeing similar events in other neighborhoods.
The 2015 Renton ordinance updates were intended specifically to further empower code enforcement to act on nuisance properties, and to provide stronger penalties on property owners who maintained “nuisance” and “chronic nuisance” properties.
The 2015 ordinance can be found here.
Trouble is… enforcement.
I’m not sure if we want to create a system where just reporting by citizens would trigger a draconian government response, but at times is was really frustrating to see something horrid (like the neighbors try to run over their own children) and then be dismissed because a officer didn’t witness the behavior directly.
It do however think it’s entirely ok for us as a society to pair higher habitation density with a heightened responsibility for higher behavior.
One of the reasons I keep mentioning the re-zoning that allows fourplexes in every single family neighborhood, is that fourplexes are so small they typically will not have on-site managers. This works fine when every resident is courteous and thoughtful about their neighbors, but can be a big problem if one of the tenants doesn’t care about their neighbors. So it will likely fall on the city to help keep the peace, as they do in single family neighborhoods without HOAs. This will take more effort with fourplexes than it does with single-family housing since there will be more tenant disputes related to parking, noise, trash, and other issues that are more likely to flare-up with people having shared spaces and living close together.
The city can try to side-step these disputes and insist that the landlord take action. But the typical out-of-town hedge fund landlord that owns the four-plex will point to Washington’s strong anti-eviction laws, and insist there is nothing they can do unless the police can show their tenant is repeatedly breaking the law.
This will be a time when we need to enforce our nuisance laws more than ever, and we’ll need to be consistent so we don’t have hedge-fund landlord attorneys saying we are just picking-and-choosing when to enforce these codes. Consistency and early intervention by the city will be important.
I’m also left wondering why we have a domestic violence abuser as chair of Public Safety? No wonder nothing has been done at 6th and Park – it’s like the fox watching the hen house.
I feel terrible for Art . 10 years and the nuisance code still hasn’t been applied. City of Renton help this man !