With Rental Registries, Cities Seek to Close Data Gap With Landlords
Cities like Pittsburgh, Oakland and Rochester have passed ordinances to track property ownership and mandate inspections for rental housing. But landlords often resist.
Since 2008, lawmakers in Pittsburgh have been trying to set up a rental registry to track local housing conditions. They’re still trying.
Photographer: Robert Knopes/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
For 17 years, a back-and-forth battle has rippled through Pittsburgh City Hall, marked by accusations of constitutional overreach, threats to public health, and a parade of legal actions that have gone all the way to the state supreme court.
The issue at hand is no hot-button culture war concern like abortion rights or gun control: It’s a rental registry, which would allow the city to keep tabs on who owns rental properties and enact regular inspections of the city’s housing stock in a bid to improve apartment quality and protect tenants.