Community members in the Tenant Landowner Community (TLC) Rights Group are upset about two proposed DeKalb ordinances and are not being quiet about their opposition.

At 1:30 p.m. today, the City of DeKalb and DeKalb landlords will hold a meeting to discuss the Chronic Nuisance Ordinance and Rental Property Licensing and Inspections Ordinance, neither of which are finalized.

“This is a continuation of a series of staff level meetings that we’ve been having for area landlords and the purpose is to discuss two proposed ordinances,” DeKalb City Manager Mark Biernacki said.

These ordinances will give the city stricter code enforcement for certain housing types.

The TLC Rights Group has several complaints against these ordinances. One is that these proposed ordinances can currently be enforced but are not, said Susan Besinger, member of the TLC Rights Group and DeKalb renter. She questions why they need them at all.

The purpose of monetary gain for the city has also been questioned by the group.

“We’re not talking about a few dollars; the city will generate millions of dollars [from fines put in place by the ordinances],” Besinger said.

The group also feels the Rental Property Licensing and Inspections Ordinance is in violation of the Fourth Amendment - the right against unreasonable search and seizure.

Besinger said these ordinances affect the civil rights of every person in the community.

“This is not a landlord-tenant issue. What you’ve got here is if the rest of the community knew what all was going on and what it was risking, they’d all be up in arms,” Besinger said.

The city was responding to the public after more than 70 percent of citizens, through a survey, asked them to, Biernacki said.

“This is a very well-established and proven-in-effort code enforcement,” Biernacki said.

DeKalb is one of the two college towns in the state that do not regularly inspect rental properties.

“In fact, of all the college towns of Illinois, [...] Charlestown and DeKalb are the only towns that do not regularly inspect rental properties,” Biernacki said. “With over one-half of our population residents in rental properties, we feel that it is important that these properties are well-maintenanced and up to code. Currently we don’t have the ability to do that.”

Biernacki said this was not about rights or money but rather better neighborhoods.

“This is not about Fourth Amendment Rights,” Biernacki said. “This is not about making money for the city budget. This is about making our neighborhoods better and our rental stock safer and that’s the bottom line.”

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