In an article published in the Telegram on Sunday, July 17, 2005, George Jones, community code enforcement supervisor stated that as of July 13, 2005, 655 houses failed to meet minimum housing codes. This seems to be a continuing problem with the City of Rocky Mount.
On November 11, 2000, a deadly fire occurred at 416 Arlington Street, killing seven (7) people-six (6) children, from the age of four (4) months to fourteen (14) years, and one (1) adult. This home was placed under enforcement by the City of Rocky Mount after the tenant started complaining to the City in 1997. The City found the dwelling was unfit for human habitation and constituted a hazard to health and safety.
The tenant who rented 416 Arlington Street from the landlord in 1997 and 1998 had no heat or running water. She carried water in buckets to flush the commode and at times ran a hose from the business next door in order to have water. The house was infested by large rats. The electrical system was defective. She complained numerous times to the landlord without results, and she finally filed a complaint with the City of Rocky Mount in June of 1997. On February 18, 1998, an order was issued by the City to vacate, close, repair or demolish the home at 416 Arlington by March 31, 1998. The tenant who filed the complaint had already moved, because no repairs were made.
In May of 1998, Virgie Lane and her family moved into the home at 416 Arlington Street. There was still no heat and there were no smoke detectors. According to the Landlord Tenant Act (1996 Amendment) and an ordinance adopted as part of the City Code in March of 1998, smoke detectors are required in all rental homes. These laws were specifically intended to decrease child fatalities in residential fires.
According to the City of Rocky Mount, no records exist showing compliance by the City with neither the Landlord Tenant Act nor the March 1998 ordinance requiring smoke detectors. Copies of the permits for the alleged repairs to 416 Arlington were not available from the City nor was the Order of Compliance releasing this home from enforcement and allowing another family to move into the home. The landlord who owned this home has a thirty (30) year history of housing code violations with the City of Rocky Mount, including other fires where deaths occurred. The landlord has kept no documentation concerning smoke detectors as required by the Landlord Tenant Act and has been cited for smoke detector violations on dozens of occasions.
Heating appliances were not installed in the home until sometime during the winter of 1998-long after their last alleged inspection. Smoke detectors were never installed. On the night of November 11, 2000, seven (7) people died in a fire in which the City of Rocky Mount's own investigation found no smoke detectors and affirmatively found that no smoke detectors attributed to the deaths. The City had been aware of the unsafe conditions at this home since June of 1997.
While it is admirable for the City to tear down substandard housing which the landlords refuse to repair, the Landlord Tenant Act of 1996 and the City's own smoke detector ordinance of March of 1998 would have prevented at least seven (7) deaths if the laws on the books as early as 1996 and 1998 had been properly enforced. Tearing down houses is only affective in removing present threats. The City's Housing Code and the Landlord Tenant Act were enacted in acknowledgement that substandard housing exists and for the purpose of enforcing standards and exercising the police powers of the City to affect the repair, closure or demolition of such dwellings. The City of Rocky Mount should not commence wholesale demolition until they have adequately exercised the police powers given them by Article 19 of Chapter 160A of the General Statutes to enforce the repair of substandard dwellings inhabited by their citizens.