Council proposal targets apartment crime

City Council will consider a proposal today to make apartment owners more responsible for dealing with crime on their properties, part of a continuing effort to reduce crime at some of Houston's more dangerous apartment complexes. Under the proposal, owners of apartment buildings with high crime rates would be required to spend $400 for a security consultant and to follow recommendations to make their properties safer.

"It's going to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods and apartments," said Councilwoman Toni Lawrence, who spearheaded the effort. "People correcting holes in their fence, having to put brighter lights in the parking lot. ... It's just going to make a big difference."

The proposal comes after a year of wrangling between city leaders, attorneys and representatives of the Houston Apartment Association, who worried that well-intentioned apartment owners in bad neighborhoods might end up being unfairly targeted. Under the proposal up for consideration today, owners of apartment buildings or complexes with at least 10 units and high crime — that is, crime rates above the city's per-capita average — would have to put in place security measures like access gates, cameras and stricter screening of potential residents: In other words, the things that most responsible apartment owners do anyway. Any owner who failed to follow the recommendations would be fined $2,000 a day. The proposal would also create a database of all Houston apartment buildings and their per-capita crime rates which potential renters could check before moving in.

Council is targeting apartments because, according to the Chronicle, about half of Houstonians live in apartments, and crime has spiked at many complexes recently: So far this year, a third of the homicides in Houston have taken place at apartments.