Illegal Housing Enforcement Utilizes Post Office

The new Long Beach Housing Task Force has issued summonses to 40 homes in recent months and has utilized the U.S. Postal Service to help find violations, according to city officials. 

When asked about the task force’s efforts during a meeting with West End residents July 9, Michael Tangney, commissioner of the Long Beach Police Department, said that two officers and a building inspector go out together on different nights, usually between 8 and 11 p.m., to find illegal rentals, in part working on information a postal carrier has provided them.

“One of things we’ve been doing is we’ve been working with the mailman, which is a great resource,” Tangney said. “[We ask him] 'how many people do you deliver to at this house; how many names do they use?' That gives us probable cause to go in and do inspections.”

Otherwise the city has set up a hotline in the building department that allows residents to report illegal rentals anonymously. The city has received about 40 calls and about 20 cases have been sent to Long Beach City Court, Tangney estimated.

“So, we are being very aggressive with that,” he said.

The Housing Task Force, a program established earlier this year and funded entirely by a $30,000 federal community development grant, has been dispatched to all areas of Long Beach to enforce city code, according to a city press release sent to media on July 27. “Several reports were unfounded, and the investigators were unable to gain entrance to some addresses,” the release states.

Among the 40 homes that were found to be in violation, the property owners have been summoned to city court for offenses that include illegal two and three families and converting rooming houses and garages into rooms.

Building Commissioner Scott Kemins said that fines for illegal rentals typically range from $2,500 to $5,000, zoning violations are a maximum of $1,000 per count, and property violations are a maximum on $250 a count.

“But we rarely get maximum fines in court unfortunately,” Kemins said.

Richard Boodman, a Long Beach resident and a longtime landlord of properties in New York City, believes that Long Beach’s fines should be heavier, perhaps doubled, and set by law to eliminate the profitability of illegal rentals.

“If the illegal rent is $12,000 for the year, and even if the judge goes for the maximum of $5,000, there is incentive to restore the illegal rental because the landlord is going to get his $5,000 back in five months and continue to collect,” Boodman explained.  

“By the end of the year he is up $7,000,” he continued. “If the judge sets the fine at $1,000, the landlord gets his money back in one month and has an additional $11,000 at the end of the year. It sure beats the interest rate that the banks are paying.”

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At Long Beach Listens, a City Council-led community meeting in March, resident Kathleen O’Leary inquired about the city’s enforcement of illegal housing. “I would like to see the attitude change for illegal housing and I would like to see the laws changed to enable the building department to move these cases along quickly,” O’Leary said during the meeting at St. Mary of the Isle Church.

Councilman Scott Mandel agreed and encouraged residents to report any suspicious activity to the police department. “If we know there is an illegal housing entity, we can’t just come in and shut it down, but bringing this to the building department’s attention is a crucial step,” he said.

Tangney, who attended the meeting, told residents police were investigating a number of properties in the city and warned those who refuse to follow the law: “If your planning on doing illegal housing, don’t; if you have it, correct it; and if you know someone that’s doing it, let us know."