At the Urbana City Council meeting Monday night, the council decided to include two more Urbana rental properties that will qualify for registration fee waivers. Rental property owners who house disabled individuals under Medicaid and the Illinois Department of Human Services will receive a $45 fee waiver annually.

At the Urbana City Council meeting Monday night, the council decided to include two more Urbana rental properties that will qualify for registration fee waivers. Rental property owners who house disabled individuals under Medicaid and the Illinois Department of Human Services will receive a $45 fee waiver annually. These government subsidized housing projects for seniors, people with disabilities, low-income families and homeless individuals.

The city will absorb the rental registration fee, which covers the maintenance and inspection of apartment buildings.

“The council voted to waive rental registration fees for government-run housing,” said Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing. “We charged a rental registration fee for the inspection of (rental property), but we waived it for low-income (housing units).”

The council suggested that they should be eligible for fee waivers.

“We didn’t think it was fair for (these) subsidized housing (units) to pay because they’re not income generating,” said Libby Tyler, Urbana director of community development.

Some property owners disagreed with the council and said the fee waivers would encourage jobless people to stay unemployed.

Gabe Omo-Osagie, owner of Gabe’s Place, said the city of Urbana allows all people to rent property, despite their criminal background. Out of Omo-Osagie’s 12 rental properties in Urbana, three individuals receive assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

“We have a few people off campus that receive money from HUD,” Omo-Osagie said. “These are people who qualify under Section 8. We’ve never received a fee waiver.”

Section 8 of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 authorizes rental voucher programs, which helps very low-income families pay for affordable housing.

“HUD started with the War on Poverty, where the government tried to help single women with children,” he added. “In putting together people who don’t work (in Chicago), there were crimes, drugs and gangs. It’s almost the same thing here. If you put togeter too many Section 8 people, you get the same types of (problems).”

In the city of Urbana, there are about four to five HUD funded, low-income housing units, said Gordon Skinner, Urbana building safety division manager. A rental property owner pays anywhere between $40 to $50 for rental registration, depending on whether the building is a single-family or duplex, Tyler said.

Part of maintaining the quality and cleanliness of rental property is to conduct building inspections regularly. However, since there are several registered rental properties in Urbana, it takes about three to five years for the city to inspect every building, Skinner said.

“The fee waiver covers the annual fee,” Skinner said. “We still do inspections of building for safety.”

He said Urbana’s rental registration fee waiver program will set a precedent for other government subsidized housing units that may need assistance in the future, Skinner added.

“We just added Medicaid and the Illinois Department of Human Services, so we didn’t leave anyone out,” Skinner said. “There could be more (housing units) that qualify for the fee waivers in the future.”