We surveyed nearly 200 SLO County renters on their housing conditions. Here’s what they said
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Substandard of Living
This investigative series examines the experiences of low-income renters living in poorly maintained housing in San Luis Obispo County.
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Most San Luis Obispo County tenants struggle to afford their housing — and many likely live in units that are unhealthy because local governments don’t hold landlords accountable for renting old, crumbling homes and apartments.
That is what The Tribune learned through a nine-month investigation into rental housing conditions in working-class neighborhoods throughout the county.
The Tribune teamed up with the Promotores Collaborative of San Luis Obispo County, part of the Center for Family Strengthening, to survey nearly 200 tenants in-person and online.
We canvassed in neighborhoods in San Miguel, Paso Robles, Oceano and Grover Beach where residents primarily speak Spanish.
The Tribune focused on renters living in these areas because they’re more likely to face landlord abuse due to language barriers, immigration status and income levels. They’re also most at risk for housing discrimination, which makes it more challenging for them to escape poor rentals.
Here are the results of our survey.
Who did we survey and where?
The Tribune opted to focus in-person surveying efforts on working-class neighborhoods where tenants primarily speak Spanish.
Such renters are more vulnerable to landlord abuse due to language barriers, immigration status and income levels.
How many people live in the unit and for how long?
Most renters we surveyed lived in a household of two to five people. About 14% of renters we talked to lived in more crowded households of six people or more. Only about 7% of people lived alone.
More than half of renters we surveyed had lived in their rentals for more than five years, showing that tenants would likely prefer to hang onto the housing they have rather than re-enter a challenging market.
What barriers do people face when searching for housing?
Renters reported facing a variety of barriers when searching for new housing — cost being the primary one. Tenants also reported struggling with credit checks and application fees. Undocumented immigrants also said not having Social Security numbers kept them from finding housing, as some applications require them.
What types of problems do renters experience in their housing?
Renters said they’ve dealt with a variety of problems in their housing units during the past five years. About 83% of renters reported experiencing at least one of the issues we we asked about. Pests, plumbing problems and mold topped the list of problems tenants told us about.
How do people deal with problems in their rental units?
Most tenants reported their landlords eventually fixed issues in their rental units. But 20% of those respondents also said they’d fixed things themselves, lived with problems or hadn’t gotten issues repaired.
Nearly 30% of tenants said they hadn’t gotten all of the problems in their units fixed. Only 4% of tenants said they’d reported problems in their housing to the city or the county.
This story was originally published October 2, 2020 at 2:02 PM.
