As many Oberlin students are busy touring off-campus houses and signing leases for next year, the Oberlin City Manager's Office is working with the fire department and local landlords to ensure that all rooming houses in the area will be on their way to full compliance with existing fire codes.
In Oberlin there are currently 47 licensed rooming houses, defined as being occupied by five or more unrelated people. According to City Manager, Robert DiSpirito, there may still be a handful of other unlicensed buildings which he hopes to discover as soon as possible.
The City of Oberlin began the process of evaluating the fire safety of local rental property when DiSpirito arrived last summer. The inquery is being done to protect the rights of both students and area residents in order to provide greater enforcement of the pre-existing Ohio Basic Building Code and various city building codes.
When this project was first considered, DiSpirito received enthusiastic support from the College. Diana Roose, Assistant to the President, said "We are very interested in the safety of the students living off campus." The college has helped in the effort by providing lists of names of all students currently living off campus. Dean Cole-Newkirk called the project "exciting."
Harold Gibson, who has owned and operated a rooming house in Oberlin since 1959, considers fire safety a top priority. However, he feels that rooming houses have been unfairly targeted.
"[Rooming house landlords] are being picked on because [officials] know where we are," he said. "We do not know where students are living in duplexes and houses" not forced to comply under local and state rules. They are having a difficult time locating students in houses that aren't forced to comply.
According to Gibson, in 1995-96 rooming houses had the lowest number of structural fires compared to the number of incidents in on-campus housing, private houses and apartments.
While owners of properties housing less than five people are not legally mandated to compliance, owners of those houses are also interested in fire safety.
"I sincerely hope that owners feel morally obligated to follow the guidelines to provide proper safety for renters," Oberlin Fire Chief Dennis Kirin said.
Willie M. Smith has been renting her two apartments to Oberlin students for thirty years, and although she is not mandated under the defined rooming house ordinance, she has equipped her property with both smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
"[The landlords] should do our best to protect our students, or anyone who rents from us," she said.
Gibson does not agree with this policy of self regulation for some landlords, but legal requirements for others. "[These laws] should encompass everyone when dealing with housing" said Gibson.
Lisa Yasuhara, a college sophomore, is one of the many students looking for off-campus housing for the coming school year, and is happy to hear of the current drive to regulate such housing.
"It is the responsibility of the landlord to make sure their rental property is safe," she said. "I would expect certain issues such as fire safety to be addressed before any new tenants move in."
While acknowledging the responsibilities of each landlord, chief Kirin feels that "students have an obligation too, to be in a unit that is as safe as it can be" he said. To Kirin, this means not tampering with installed fire alarms, not blocking escape routes such as doorways, and reporting to the Oberlin Fire Department any residence they feel is not in compliance with fire codes.
According to Kirin, this concern for fire safety began when local officials began noticing numerous homes where ladders were fixated to window bases to act as a means of evacuation in the event of a fire.
According to a city ordinance concerning building codes, every room being rented to tenants must have an adequate stairway accessed by a doorway.
DiSpirito began looking into this situation to make sure all off campus rooming houses are first licensed with the city, then began developing a plan to evaluate each house's safety. This project has been one of DiSpirito's main concerns since his arrival last summer.
DiSpirito says that every rooming house must be furnished with properly placed hard wired smoke detectors and proper means of exit. In some cases this will mean the installation of exterior fire escapes, especially in the cases of attic apartments.
"We have some houses that are in really great condition," said Kirin. "But some owners need to evaluate their property to ensure the safety of their occupants."
"Some rooming houses may need to get rid of a room or two," said DiSpirito.
In an attempt to address the excuse of additional expenses sometimes used to avoid proper compliance to fire codes, the city has contracted a certified state building inspector to work with the owners of these properties to review their current status and provide needed advice.
"We've gone beyond the norm in attempting to work closely with each individual owner to help them through this process," said Kirin.
Throughout the process the city wants to continue to make all accommodations necessary to make sure all rooming houses are brought up to code.
"We're asking all owners to make arrangements with city building officials to inspect the property and set up a schedule," Kirin said. "We'd like all owners to be in some phase of compliance by Aug. 31 of this year," he said.
City officials do not want to inconvenience involved parties any more than necessary. Kirin feels that this deadline allows for the completion of this school year, and provides adequate time during the summer for repairs to be made before the next batch of Oberlin students leave the dorms for the freedoms of off-campus housing.
There are an estimated 750 students currently living off campus, a vast majority of whom are living in rooming houses effected by the current crack down of code violations.
A recent survey conducted by the City of Oberlin found that 36 percent of the fire departments in Ohio's college towns enforce the Ohio Basic Building Code, and 83 percent of these towns have local regulations in addition to those set by the state.
Several of these cities, including Akron and Berea, have fire code standards in place that exceed state regulations. According to the survey 90 percent of Ohio's college towns perform regular fire inspections in off campus residences designated as rooming houses.
"We are actually just getting with the program," DiSpiro said.
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