Ineffective Code Enforcement An Incentive For Continued Rentals Of Shoddy, Substandard Housing Endangering Poor

In Houston, Texas, the Houston Chronicle reports:

• Just weeks before 19-year-old Jamesha Floyd was pulled from her burning home, her aunt and uncle complained to their landlord about faulty electrical wiring in the four-room house they shared with Floyd on Sayers Street. Five days after the fire, Floyd died from her injuries. The fire, which started while she slept, was attributed to an electrical problem.
• The home is one of more than 200 properties in low-income neighborhoods owned by a Houston investment company whose other properties have been cited repeatedly for being dangerous or posing a public nuisance, a Houston Chronicle analysis shows.

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• The burned house on Sayers Street still stands, a charred shell, although the fire occurred nearly two years ago. Joe and Earnestine Brown were renting from Barbara Markman and her investment company, BMI Investment Inc. The Browns had complained of troubles with electrical outlets, and an electrician determined the wiring was faulty, records claim. Their niece had graduated from Kashmere High School just before the fire that took her life.
• Markman bought the house in a tax foreclosure resale for $12,000. The annual median income in the northeast Houston neighborhood is about $17,000. The Browns filed suit and reached an undisclosed settlement with Markman — who told the Chronicle the fire was not electrical, even though fire inspectors said it was. The house was never repaired or demolished, Markman said, because of the civil lawsuit brought by the Browns.
• Nearly 500 correction orders were issued to Barbara Markman and her husband Jack Markman's 100 properties going back to 2008 - for everything from holes in walls and floors to unsafe building parts. Five properties were cited for failure to provide and maintain electrical circuits and outlets in good operating condition. "Many of the properties were damaged by the tenants, when they move out; they trash the properties," said Markman.
• Together, Markman and another property owner, Richard Pfirman, are among those with the greatest number of troubled properties, according to the data examined by the Chronicle. Pfirman was cited for more than 800 violations for 100 houses he has owned since 2008. More than half of the orders haven't been corrected.
• The city legal department has sued Pfirman and ordered him to demolish 12 houses, though some of them still display "For lease or sale" signs noting that "No credit is no problem". The Chronicle called All American Properties, one of Pfirman's companies. The office manager declined to comment. Pfirman did not return calls for comment.

For more, see Owners prey on poor with dangerous rentals (Thousands of properties remain on the market despite repeated citations).