Rental housing owners and managers are now expected to provide security, police drug and crime problems in their units, report suspected prostitution and gambling, and learn to recognize child and spouse abuse. Adding that her perception of the City's rental housing problem has changed. We are not focusing as much on what used to be called bad landlords, we are now focusing on bad tenants. Landlords don't want bad tenants and we don't want bad neighborhoods. If we're going to save our city, we can't afford to be adversaries.
Landlords finally see a friendlier attitude from local officials.
And if we want quality rental housing, we have to make it work for owners too. Landlords must also toughen their screening, and some have. One manager of a 20-30 unit property who 10 years ago would reject one in four applicants, now rejects two or three out of every four. During one period of the landlord school, Bloomington Police Chief Robert Lutz talked about crime prevention in one room, a Minneapolis Park Police gang expert offered tips on intervention in another. In a third, property managers listened as social workers describe the signs of child abuse and neglect.