Good evening/afternoon chair and
committee members. My name is Royla Rice; I am a renter in Colorado
Springs and a member of 9to5 Colorado. I am here to testify in
support of the Safe & Healthy Homes Act, HB 1170.
I want to tell you about my personal
experiences with substandard housing and unscrupulous landlords. In
2008, I moved into an apartment in Colorado Springs that was
affordable based on my income. In the middle of a cold winter night,
I woke up so dizzy and sick that could not stand. I crawled across
the apartment to the front door, opened the door, and fell out across
the threshold into the snow. When my head cleared up enough that I
could stand again, I opened every window in the apartment and shut
off the heater that was burning bright orange flames. The next day,
the manager was reluctant to tell me what had happened but the guy
that did the work told me he didn't know how I was still alive. He
informed me that the gas unit had been red-tagged by the City as
hazardous and should not have been used until it had been repaired
and inspected. I was that close to being a casualty of carbon
monoxide poisoning because my life was not worth the cost to repair a
red-tagged gas heater. I was eventually able to move to a larger
apartment complex but left when the lease was up because management
was increasing rent by $200 per month which was not affordable.
That move led to my second experience
with a slumlord. On moving into an apartment in Fountain, I noted a
long list of needed maintnenace and repairs including apparent mold
in a bathroom wall and ceiling, loose tiles around the tub, a broken
window that could not be closed or locked, a sliding patio door that
did not have a lock, and other problems. A month went by, then
another with nothing but excuses from the manager. Early the day
after Thanksgiving, as I ran the water in the bathroom sink to brush
my teeth I noticed the drain was sluggish, then the toilet bowl
started to gurgle and back up with brown-colored water. The same
gurgling sound crept under the bathtub followed by a stench, then
debris and brown water—technically, greywater. I heard people
running in the hall trying to figure out how to shut off the water
main as greywater filled the bathtubs, sinks, and toilets of every
apartment on the first floor, including mine. Someone finally reached
the property owner. He was not eager to leave his $500,000 home in
Monument on a holiday weekend to deal with a maintenance issue at his
slum property in Fountain. When he finally arrived about six hours
later, he said he would wait until Monday to call a plumber because
the repair would already be expensive; calling a plumber on a holiday
would cost even more. It took the rest of the weekend to get some
kind of repair completed and the water back on. Not once did the
owner offer to provide water or some other place to stay; he left us
to live in that muck for three days.
In either case, if I had an equal legal
right to enforce the terms of the lease contract then I would not
have faced retaliation or been forced to move out. But that's what
happened to me in both cases. I didn't choose to live in these places
for any reason other than it was affordable based on my income. Rent
in the Springs has increased year over year and moving expenses every
year or two is a greater burden especially given the shortage of
affordable housing.
All this bill is about is fairness.
This is a health and
consumer protection issue. No one should have to
live
in unsafe or unsanitary conditions because they can’t afford to
move elsewhere or to live in a new property. I urge the committee to
pass this bill. Thank you for your time.
UPDATE: The bill was signed into law and becomes effective August 2, 2019.
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