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Crime Free Housing

On March 31st, 2003, the City of La Salle passed City Ordinance 1800, “The Residential Rental Licensing Ordinance.” This ordinance requires all residential rental property owners in the City of La Salle to obtain a license to rent their property.

In conjunction with this ordinance, the La Salle Police Department began a state-of-the-art crime prevention program, designed to reduce crime, drugs, and gang related problems on residential rental properties, known as the Crime Free Multi-Housing Program. In keeping with our proactive approach toward law enforcement, the La Salle Police Department was the first and remains the only police agencies in the Illinois Valley progressive enough to have designed and continued to enforce such a program. This program was developed in response to complaints from citizens regarding drug dealing and other unlawful acts that disrupt the quality of life throughout our neighborhoods. It has been created to help the citizens of La Salle and its landlords in deterring illegal activity around their property.

A similar program was successfully developed by the Mesa Arizona Police Department in 1992. Since then, this program has been instituted in over 2000 cities and 44 states nationwide. The anticipated benefits of this program are reduced calls for service, a more stable, satisfied resident base, increased demand for rental units with a reputation for active management, increased property values, lower maintenance, and repair costs and improved personal safety for building occupants and the community as a whole.

Beginning October 1st, 2003, all residential rental property owners in La Salle are required to obtain a license to rent their property. Your rental unit may then have to be inspected by the Building and Fire Department to ensure it is a safe dwelling. Residential property owners should then include a “Crime Free Lease Addendum” on all their rental/lease agreements.

The heart and soul of the program are the correct implementations of the use of the “Crime Free Lease Addendum.” This addendum enables landlords to more easily evict problem tenants if they become engaged in a certain criminal activity. When drug criminals and other destructive tenants operate out of rental property, neighborhoods suffer, and landlords pay a high price. With this program, landlords and city agents will now be better equipped to get rid of tenants involved with criminal activity which cause problems for the rest of the community.