The City of Omaha talks about what they'll do to identify other places facing uninhabitable conditions on Tuesday.
Thousands of violations forced about 500 people from their homes at the Yale Park Apartments last month. The city has sent notice of violation letters for 3 of the 13 buildings to the landlord.
During the City Council Planning Committee Meeting the mayor, council members, and the City Planning Department talked about how they will be able to keep up with the workload after the massive inspection. The Omaha City Inspections Department says they will increase the number of inspectors from 7 to 9 by November.
"We want to make sure that the families that are impacted right now are taken care of first and foremost, and we have commitments now to hire total staff for the planning department and the inspectors we should have employed to start working on this," said Councilman Pete Festersen.
Omaha estimates that there are 75,000 rental properties within city limits.
A landlord registry has been thrown around a lot, but Mayor Stothert says they've got to figure out what will work for Omaha while keeping in mind landlord and tenant's rights.
"Some sort of registration or some sort of a guarantee that rental properties aren't full of code violations conceptually I'd support but it's the practicality of it in the City of Omaha if we could ever achieve something like a smaller community would do," Mayor Stothert explained.
The Metro Omaha Property Owners Association opposes a city landlord registry.
The committee will meet every two weeks to hopefully have a plan soon to present in front of the public.
