Duluth City Council Study Session on Rental Licensing and Enforcement - June 2, 2025
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Duluth City Council Study Session on Rental Licensing and Enforcement - June 2, 2025
This study session, held on June 2, 2025, focused on the city's rental licensing and enforcement program. City staff from the Life Safety Division and representatives from One Roof Community Housing presented on current inspection processes, complaint handling, and tenant-landlord resources. Council members discussed data, enforcement strategies, and potential ordinance changes, including administrative citations and landlord education requirements.
Discussion Items
- Presentation by Deputy Chief John Otis and Supervisor Greg Smith (Life Safety Division):
- 40% of Duluth's residential structures are long-term rentals (30+ days), with over 5,500 licenses covering 17,800 units. About 125 new licenses are issued annually.
- Inspections are conducted on a triennial cycle. Five housing inspectors perform roughly five inspections per day (200 per year each). The backlog has been reduced from three years (post-COVID layoffs) to under eight months.
- Inspection types: initial, renewal, and complaint-based. 44% of initial inspections require a reinspection.
- Fees: $125 no-show fee, $125 reinspection fee. Administrative citations range from $200 to $2,000. License revocations carry fees up to $625, plus $500 for unlicensed rentals. Over the last three years, 47 tenant complaint cases were filed (15 in 2025 so far).
- Proposed process changes: 14-day compliance deadline for tenant complaints, increased use of administrative citations for non-compliance, and a possible ordinance requiring landlord education courses (1 hour, valid 6 years, with recertification after verified complaints).
- Staffing: Currently 5 inspectors; ideally 6 would be needed for full coverage.
- Council Questions and Discussion:
- Councilor Randorf requested data on fines and citations assessed over the last five years; staff committed to providing it.
- Councilor Kennedy asked about response times for tenant complaints; staff said life safety issues are immediate, others within a week, with compliance deadlines typically 14–30 days (discretionary).
- Councilor Nephew raised accessibility of complaint forms and outreach to vulnerable populations. Staff acknowledged the need to improve website and communication.
- Councilor DeRoctor noted that tenants may fear retaliation and not report; staff said anonymous complaints are accepted but confidentiality can be challenging in single-unit properties.
- Councilor Owell suggested inspectors speak privately with tenants during inspections. Staff noted that currently they do not proactively separate tenants; they are open to leaving behind contact information.
- Councilor Swenson asked about the 40% rental figure (excluding VDUs) and whether it is healthy; no comparative data was available.
- Councilor Durwachter questioned whether aggressive fines would hurt small landlords more; staff responded that fines are only applied to non-compliant landlords who ignore correction orders.
- Councilor Forsman asked about interaction with the Duluth Tenants Union; staff said they have offered to meet but have not received a response.
- Councilor Mayo asked about fee comparison with Minneapolis; staff noted Minneapolis has 130 inspectors with specialized teams, making direct comparison difficult.
- Councilor Nephew suggested graduated fines per property for repeat offenders; staff expressed openness to exploring that.
- Presentation by Jeff Corey and Terry Carlson (One Roof Community Housing – Tenant Landlord Connection):
- The Tenant Landlord Connection (TLC) provides education, troubleshooting, and mediation for tenants and landlords. It is funded by the City of Duluth, St. Louis County, and the HRA.
- Statistics (since 2015): 6,100 clients served; 265 evictions prevented; 1,500 tenant situations stabilized. 76% of tenant clients earn under $20,000; 39% are households of color; 28% have children or disabilities.
- 79% of landlord clients are owner-operators; 66% own six or fewer units.
- Staffing: 1.5 FTEs (one full-time, one part-time). Currently able to respond within a day. If volume increased dramatically (e.g., from a ballot initiative), staffing would need to increase.
- Councilor Owell shared a personal story of a bedbug issue and lack of knowledge about resources, highlighting the need for better outreach.
- Councilor DeRoctor asked about repair timelines; TLC works within the same 14-day notice framework as Life Safety.
- Councilor Mayo asked about mediation availability; it is offered on a case-by-case basis.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken; the session was informational.
- The council will consider an ordinance requiring landlords to post tenant complaint information on every lease (vote scheduled for next meeting).
- Staff will provide requested data on fees and citations (last three years).
- Proposed changes to enforcement include: a 14-day compliance deadline for tenant complaints, administrative citations for non-compliance, and a possible landlord education ordinance.
- The council and staff agreed to explore better outreach to tenants, including improved website, leaving contact information during inspections, and partnering with the Tenant Landlord Connection and Tenants Union.
- The Tenant Landlord Connection will send an annual report to the council.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening. We will begin our study session with the reading of the tools of civility. The Duluth City Council promotes the use and adherence of the tools of civility in conducting the business of the council. The tools of civility provide increased opportunities for civil discourse, leading to positive resolutions for the issues that face our city. We know that when we have civility, we get civic engagement. And because we can't make each other civil and we can only work on ourselves, we state that today I will pay attention, listen, be inclusive, not gossip, show respect, seek common ground, repair damaged relationships, use constructive language, and take responsibility. I want to thank you all for being here this evening for this important meeting. And I want to remind people that are with us this evening that there will be no response from the audience. There will be no clapping or jeering or any such uh outbreak. Thank you. And Mr. Staling, I will let you take over. Council President Tomonik, uh members of the council, and for uh uh members of the public here interested in this topic tonight. Welcome. Um just a few uh comments regarding this format, the study section format. Really, it's designed to be a work session. Ideally, we'd all be sitting around a council or around a conference table at the same level, but uh this is designed to really be more conversational in nature. Um tonight you'll hear from uh some city staff or subject matter experts. Uh you'll hear from administration a little bit less, but it'll be an opportunity to hear from our uh subject matter experts, and council you'll have an opportunity to ask questions and really just learn more about the topic. And tonight a very important topic uh rental licensing and enforcement. It's a topic that's been uh bubbling to the surface the last several weeks of great interest in our community. And so with that, I'll turn it over to Deputy Chief John Otis. Thank you, and welcome uh Deputy Chief Otis. Thank you. Um good evening. Um thanks for having us here tonight. Um I am here tonight to speak um as the deputy chief that oversees the life safety division for the fire department. Um may not uh understand uh the depth of work that our life safety office really does. I had no idea even working for the fire department. I'm going on my 25th year working for the fire department. Um I have been doing inspections in the life safety division um as part of the uniform staff for um just under 10 years, and I have led this division now for the last three years. And um at the time of coming in and doing inspections, I had no idea the depth of what we actually did. Um could you hit the next slide here for me, please, Kelly? Um, tonight I'm just specifically talking about our our uh civilian side. We have uniformed and we have uh civilian employees in my division. Um the uniformed um side actually does they do fire investigation, they do commercial fire inspections, those sorts of things. Um tonight I'm here to talk specifically about our housing side, um, which is um is civilian staff. Uh this staff inspects all rental housing. Uh we do we investigate unlicensed rentals if we get complaints from from folks. We have several opportunities for for folks to send in complaints on unlicensed rentals. Uh we investigate complaints related to housing matters. Uh we work to um condemn properties when there's been a lack of utilities, when there's been unsafe or unsanitary conditions. Uh we investigate and enforce solid waste violations, vacant but we have a vacant building registration program so that we track and monitor vacant properties and work with owners to bring those properties into compliance. Um and most recently we've added some encampment outreach and compliance related to that. Um when we're talking about housing, uh we're talking about the long-term rentals. So when we're talking about housing, and we're talking about the long-term rentals. So we're talking about rental that is 30 days or more consecutive days. And actually 40% of the residential structures in Duluth are licensed as a rental, and that's at long-term rental, so that more than 30 days. We have over nearly 5500 licenses that are issued for housing, and that uh covers over 17,800 units. And we average about 125 new licenses that come on every year.
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