A resolution passed during Thursday's Wilmington City Council meeting mandates landlord training for property owners or building managers in charge of properties in the city.
Bob Williams was the lone dissenter Thursday night, although four council members were absent. Williams thinks a simple landlord handbook would suffice.
Council president Theo Gregory supported it, but said the Libertarian in him is concerned the measure could be applied to liquor stores and corner stores in the future.
“I don’t like mandatory, mandating that people do stuff. That concerns me,” Gregory said.
He adds that he’s willing to set his Libertarian spirit aside to see if mandatory training helps to solve issues with crime in the city.
Councilwoman Maria Cabrera says those who’ve attended the training – even those who were initially skeptical – say they learned something and were ultimately happy they attended.
“The reason we’re mandating it is because we do have a high number of renters in the city of Wilmington," Cabrera said. "And we see that the neighborhoods with the highest amount of renters also have the highest amount of crime.”
Right now, loss of business license is the only penalty for not attending the training, but after meeting with the Greater Wilmington Housing Partnership and others, Cabrera is open to other ideas.
One idea is mandating insurance for landlords, to help prevent the abandonment of properties after fires and other property issues.
She said the issue came up in the Housing License and Inspection Committee meeting.
“There’s nothing here that says having insurance is a provision of you getting a business license in the city of Wilmington so you know who took a note, and you know who’s going to investigate this. Because there should be," she said.
The mandatory training is a one-time class from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with lunch included.
Cabrera says the training includes information about tenant screening, how to identify quality tenants and how to prevent crime, but concedes the training doesn’t guarantee landlords don’t become slumlords.
Cabrera says the Attorney General’s office supports the initiative and will provide support for it through a community development block grant.
