Apartment industry advocacy works: state & local grassroots share best practices: NAA affiliates across the country are having success in state and local legislation. Experiences illustrated here can serve as models for other affiliates' political involvement.

NAA affiliates are actively engaged in state and local legislation on an ever-increasing number of issues* Because each affiliate is so involved with issues in its immediate area, they can easily forget that they are each other's best resources, not just for issue education and awareness, but also for sharing strategies on ways to deal with a particular issue.

Following are examples of successes experienced by NAA affiliates on behalf of the apartment industry.

Florida Apartment Association

Lease Termination Fees 

The issue of fees and notice requirements for lease termination came to an unfortunate head in Florida in 2003. A class action lawsuit is currently making its way through the Florida court system that would limit the fees that a property owner could recover in the event of a lease termination. The major issue is how much time a resident must provide a property owner when terminating a lease with a specific duration and what types of fees can be charged if proper notice is not given*

Representatives of the Florida Apartment Association (FAA) worked during 2003 to get legislation passed that will resolve the fee issue for the future. FAA's attorney drafted language specific to "Termination of tenancy with specific duration" to be added to the statute. The language contained maximum notice requirements and penalty of liquidated damages in the event that proper notice is not given to the property owner.

Once the language was agreed on within the organization, FAA's lobbyist found both a House and Senate sponsor for the legislation. Because they knew that opposition could crop up at any moment from resident advocates and legal aid organizations, the lobbyist and FAA representatives worked to pass the bill in the Senate. Legal services tried to defeat the bill in the House, stating that it was unfair to residents, however, they were unsuccessful and the bill passed unanimously.

Apartment Association of Fort Wayne-Northeast Indiana

Housing and Building Standards

Five years ago, the city of Fort Wayne, Ind., worked to develop a comprehensive set of housing and building standards pertaining to rental housing. The Apartment Association of Fort Wayne-Northeast Indiana (AAFW-NEI) was involved with the initial meetings all the way through to the passage of the final ordinance.

During that process, AAFW-NEI was able to develop relationships with members of the city council, members of local neighborhood associations and business leaders to broaden the awareness of the general public to AAFW-NEI's goals and mission.

In addition, a member of the AAFW-NEI Board of Directors sits on the Citizen's Appeals Board. The Citizen's Appeals Board is a body formed and mandated in the original statute that acts as a check and balance for homeowners and rental property owners/apartment communities alike. The Citizen's Appeals Board reviews citations from the Neighborhood Code Enforcement division in regard to violations to the Housing Ordinance.

In 2002, a review of the Housing Ordinance was undertaken by the City Council (as written into the original statute), and again the AAFW-NEI was involved in the review process. The AAFW-NEI was able to make recommendations and suggestions that had a positive affect on the review process and on the revisions to the ordinance* The AAFW-NEI was asked for its input by the city council. This type of working relationship was forged more than five years ago during the initial stages of drafting the first Housing Ordinance.

The AAFW-NEI has taken the approach of working with local legislators, business leaders and neighborhood association members. In demonstrating a desire to make the city a better place to live for everyone, it has become a reality that many neighborhood associations view rental property owners and apartment communities as being advantageous for their neighborhoods instead of being a disadvantage.

This working relationship took time and has not developed without conflict. But the effort has been made to continue working with the local legislators, business leaders and neighborhood associations. An added benefit of this hard work is that the AAFW-NEI is now seen as the local expert and authority in the multifamily housing industry. Education has been the key. Once the local community understood that the AAFW-NEI was out to serve the larger community, as well as its own members, a barrier was removed, which allowed for open dialogue and the exchange of ideas.

Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Apartment Association

Fair Housing

The Fair Housing Mediation Service is a free service supported by an alliance between the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky Apt. Assn. (GCNKAA) and Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME) that provides mediation services to owners of rental property and their residents who are involved in fair housing complaints that previously would have resulted in either formal litigation or direct referrals to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, which is the local fair housing regulatory agency in the state.

The main objective of the Fair Housing Mediation Service is to actually solve fair housing discrimination problems. This is not just another fix, but a focus on actually resolving for good, the problem, miscommunication or misunderstanding that created the problem in the first place. Historically, fair housing advocates have litigated discriminatory problems much to the financial discomfort and/or dismay of property owners. Instead, GCNKAA has partnered with the local fair housing advocate to develop a new method of dealing with discrimination. The fair housing mediation service resolves problems by reaching each person, on a one-to one basis, and striving to settle differences that once loomed.

The singular goal of the Fair Housing Mediation Service is to solve what years of litigation have not, by placing people, face-to-face and eye-to eye with a trained profession al mediator to solve discrimination issues.

GCNKAA won a 2003 PARAGON Award in Government Affairs for their work with the Fair Housing Mediation Service.

Greater Boston Real Estate Board

Rent Control

The voters of Massachusetts eliminated rent control throughout the state in 1994 and in November, nine years later, the voters in the former rent control stronghold of Cambridge, Mass., overwhelmingly reiterated their agreement with that decision.

On Election Day 2003, Cambridge voters rejected a ballot initiative seeking permission to send a rent control home rule petition to the state legislature by a 62-38 percent vote. Having the proposal defeated by such a wide margin speaks volumes to the thoroughness and success of the local housing industry's efforts to ensure a free market rental housing economy for Massachusetts.

The Greater Boston Real Estate Board (GBREB), with the support of NAA and the National Multi Housing Council, worked with the Massachusetts Homeowners Coalition to defeat the ballot measure. The opposition needed 33 percent of the electorate to vote in favor of the measure in order to win. The GBREB concentrated its efforts solely on those constituents who were already its voters, with very limited mailings to property owners of condominiums and single- and multifamily housing, in an attempt to ensure that they would turn out to vote.

It is hoped that such an overwhelming defeat of rent control in Cambridge, long thought to be a stronghold, will have a ripple effect on the politics surrounding the issue in Boston.

Triangle Apartment Association

Live-Ins, Growth Management Strategy

When it comes to local legislative issues, it is important for apartment associations to not only know the issues, but also get in the trenches and be actively involved on every front possible. The Triangle Apartment Association (TAA) used a multi pronged approach to two issues it faced in 2003.

The Raleigh, N.C., City Council pro posed an ordinance in early 2003 flint would limit to two the number of unrelated per sons that could live in single family or duplex housing in Raleigh. The TAA Legislative Committee and Independent Rental Owners Council stayed with the issue all along the way, attending city council meetings, city committee meetings and speaking at the public hearing.

The proposed ordinance did not pass, but it still was not dead! The Raleigh City Council appointed a task force to discuss and come to a consensus about neighborhood issues that originally precipitated the proposed ordinance. TAA asked for and received a seat on the task force. However, the task force was not balanced in terms of stakeholder representation, pro and con. Therefore, the recommendations that were submitted to the Raleigh City Council this past fall were riddled with inaccurate information and "additional bureaucracy for the rental housing industry.

TAA did not let that stop them from holding their position on rental licensing and overlay districts that would limit the percentage of rental housing in area neighborhoods. It partnered with the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors to meet one on one with the newly elected Raleigh City Council to hammer home the onerous recommendations in the task force report, as well as offer alternative recommendations that would not entail additional bureaucracy and fees for property owners and managers.

The TAA Legislative Committee, in conjunction with the Independent Rental Owners Council, teamed up to write letters to the editor of the local newspaper, refuting articles that intimated rental housing negatively impacts single-family home values in neighborhoods where both exist. Currently, the TAA Legislative Committee is monitoring the Raleigh Law and Public Safety Committee, which is studying the task force recommendations.

In early 2003, the Wake County (N.C.) Growth Management Task Force released a draft of the county's Growth Management Strategy. The draft was a culmination of a three-year planning process in which elected officials from all of Wake County's municipal governments worked on a strategy for managing the county's growth. The Growth Management Strategy included things that would 'affect the multifamily industry such as impact tees, inclusionary zoning and stormwater run off fees/taxes.

The TAA joined forces with the Triangle Community Coalition, the Raleigh/Wake County Home Builders Association and the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors and prepared a response document titled, "How Do We Grow From Here?" which was distributed to elected leaders in each of Wake County's towns and cities. This was a proactive unified response that shared how the local real estate industries would be impacted by the Growth Management Strategy which government leaders found to be a helpful resource as they tried to dissect the more than 300-page strategy document.

Utah Apartment Association

Application Fees

The Utah Apartment Association (UAA), feeling that the tenor of the Salt Lake County Council had changed, decided to embark on an effort to repeal the county's 10-year ban on application fees.

NAA staff provided UAA with background information on other jurisdictions and information to educate the council on the issue. UAA's proposal incorporated benefits to both property owners and residents and represented a compromise with low-income advocates. The ordinance change applies to unincorporated areas throughout Salt Lake County and allows property owners and managers to charge prospective residents for background and credit checks.

The new law caps the charge at $25 per resident and provides that residents earning 130 percent of the federal poverty level or less and those receiving government housing assistance will not he charged the fee. Property owners and managers are also limited to only charging the fee for one applicant at one time. Violations could result in a Class B misdemeanor charge.

Apartment and Office Building Assn, of Metropolitan Washington

Terrorism Threats

As a proactive response to the terrorism threats facing the property management industry following September 11, Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington (AOBA) had introduced Virginia HB 1727, a bill to protect certain critical infrastructure elements of private and public multifamily, office and retail buildings from inappropriate public disclosure requirements required under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

HB 1727, which constituted not only a model state legislative initiative, but also a first-time-ever state legislative initiative in the area of anti-terrorism protection, was developed by AOBA's Virginia Vice President for Government Affairs, Mark S. Ingrao, based on initial recognition of the need for this type of legislation by a senior property manager with Boston Properties.

HB 1727 protects certain critical records from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and requires local building code officials to develop a procedure to safeguard the documents. The critical components of the bill are: (1) applies to all public and private commercial office, multifamily residential or retail buildings; (2) owners or lessees would invoke the protection of this bill in writing; (3) owners would identify the drawings, plans or other material to be protected, including security, equipment and systems, ventilation systems, fire protection equipment, mandatory building emergency equipment or systems, elevators, electrical systems, telecommunications equipment and systems and other utility equipment and systems submitted for the purpose of complying with the Uniform Statewide Building Code; and (4) state the reasons why protection is necessary.

The initial recognition of a need for this legislative proposal came from a senior property manager with an AOBA member company. This need was translated into a draft legislative proposal to amend both the Virginia Building Code statute and FOIA law, the latter of which in its existing version made all building plans and drawings critical structural component information, including any proprietary information, available to the public upon the completion of a building.

The potential for political opposition to HB 1727 was widespread, ranging from Virginia state and local government building code and public safety officials and local public interest groups and activists to the print, radio and television media industry.

Early on, AOBA teamed with the Virginia Apartment Managers Association (VAMA) to acquaint the other principal Virginia building development and property management trade associations (i.e. BOMA of Virginia, National Association of industrial and Office Properties, Home Builders Association of Virginia, Virginia Association of Realtors, etc.) with the intent and language of the proposed legislation and solicited their comments and support.

AOBA and VAMA then embarked on efforts to educate the Virginia State Building Code Official/Fire Marshall and the Virginia Anti-Terrorism Office on the importance of this legislation and gained their support. After securing a senior, committed and influential state legislator to be the primary sponsor, the support of the Virginia Press Association, the principal advocacy group for FOIA-related legislation and the support of members of the several Virginia House and Senate Committees with oversight of FOIA and terrorism issues the bill unanimously passed, was signed into law and became effective on July 1, 2003.

Rachel Arnold is Senior Manager of Public Affairs for NAA. She can be reached at [e-mail] or call 703/518-6141 Ext. 119.