FORT WORTH, Texas — A new Fort Worth ordinance would target problem properties that police and city council said are exploiting disabled and elderly residents.
Fort Worth police Lt. Chris Gorrie said the city has an informal list of around 150 boarding homes that house disabled and elderly residents. When responding to calls, officers noticed many of the homes provided poor or unsafe living conditions.
“The problem became more and more noticeable, the more houses that they were visiting,” Gorrie said. “Then it became a very large list.”
Officers going to homes would find dirt, mold, roaches and rodents. Fridges and cabinets were locked, and there were often 10 to 12 people living in three-bedroom homes with beds stacked on top of each other.
Councilwoman Elizabeth Beck said officers didn’t have a way to punish the landlords because there was not current state or city law governing the properties. At Tuesday night’s council meeting, she’s pushing a new ordinance to register and regulate them.
“Some of our most vulnerable population were being taken advantage of by predators,” she said. “When I heard the stories for the first time it really was gut-wrenching, but it wasn’t until you saw the photographs of a lot of these or some of these facilities that it was just heartbreaking.”
State law regulates group homes but not boarding homes which had three more elderly or disabled residents unrelated to the owner living in them. State lawmakers recently provided guidelines for regulations but left it up to cities to opt into the program.
Beck said the ordinance is also a cost saver. Just 14 of the boarding homes accounted for nearly 650 calls to police, fire or Medstar in the past year, according to a presentation by the police department. That adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“It does tie up a bunch of resources and it prevents those officers from responding to a robbery or a burglary,” Gorrie said.
The new measure would require a certain amount of space for residents in a bedroom, access to a shared place to cook and eat, and bathroom and parking regulation.
Beck said council members have been supportive. There is some concern, though, that unless other neighboring cities pass identical ordinances, the homes will simply move.
“I want to be clear that not every board home is acting in a negative capacity but the ones that are need to clean up their act,” Gorrie said.
The elderly and disabled residents use social security checks to pay up for the rent that runs up to $900 per month.
“To see a vast portion of their finances being used and kind of squandered for just simple shelter does frustrate me,” Gorrie said.
The homes can blend in on any block, a continuing problem few knew about, and Fort Worth hasn’t had a way to solve.
“The answer was we don’t,” Beck said. “But we should.”