Illegal Boarding Houses

When I moved into the neighborhood in 2000, I found out there was a boarding house several blocks down the street from me. 1303 E. New Orleans Avenue. I 'd see many of the residents as they walked by my house and I got to know several. One is a gentleman who suffered from a stroke in his past who rides his three-wheel bike from Seminole Heights to Bayshore and back almost every day. His bike is festooned with all sorts of found items. I'd seen him for years as I drove home from work before I moved into the neighborhood.

At some point I noticed that the boarding house expanded their services, apparently moving residents into two houses next door at 1307 and 1309 New Orleans. The manager apparently lived across the street at 1302 New Orleans. At some point I then noticed the two neighboring house vacated and go up for sale.

I regularly check Tampa Police Department Request for Reports to see what crimes have been reported in the area. I always noticed a lot of calls to those addresses. One days I counted them up and found that from 1/1/04 to there have been 81 calls for service/reports at those addresses. I compared these with 2 other boarding houses in our neighborhood and found that the FSJ Boarding Home at 4202 N Nebraska Ave had 11 calls for service since 1/1/04 and Gail's ALF at 811 E Osborne Ave had 1 call for service since 1999. This indicated to me there was an excessive number of calls at the New Orleans Avenue boarding house.

I became curious and started to do some more research.

Clifford Hill Boarding House is a rooming house located at 1303 E. New Orleans. (13th and New Orleans) . This property is zoned as RS-50 (Residential Single Family Dwelling 50 foot lot) This facility started out as an Assisted Living Facility (ALF). ALFs are allowed in residential zoning (RS-50) with 6 or less residents. If they are a ALF Small Group Facilities they need Zoning Administrator approval.

ALF's are licensed by the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA.)

In 2002 Clifford Hill Boarding House (AHCA license number 7286) had fines from the AHCA from several years of deficiencies totaling $30,750. (Case numbers 2000-05568, 2001-05487, 2001-055540, 2001-05541, 2001-06530). On 7/12/2002 the Agency for Health Care Administration denied their ALF license renewal. At this point, Clifford Hill should have shut the facility down and reverted back to a single family dwelling. However instead they began operation as a rooming house.

However per City Ordinance it is not permitted to operate rooming houses in RS-50 Zonings. I think the only way to do so would be seek a change the zoning to Commercial or Residential Multi Family. Of note is that as the houses around are Residential Single Family.

City of Tampa Code Enforcement cited them in early 2004 for failure to cease operation of illegal rooming house and found guilty by the Code Enforcement Board on 8/18/04. Due to non-compliance, fines of $60.00 a day were levied from 9/23/04. Additionally they were cited in early 2003 for: Failure to Remove accumulations of junk, trash and debris from property and right of way; Failure to make repairs of walls, doors, doors frames, eaves, floor coverings, electrical fixtures in rear of building; Failure to repair or remove unsound shed. They were found guilty on 9/15/04 and have had fines of $30.00 a day from 11/04/04. As of 4/20/05 the current fines for both citations could be $16,550. The City may be exploring foreclosure.

TPD did some research and found that over the last several years there have been over 200 Tampa Police Department calls for service at Clifford Hill. These have included multiple calls for Assault/Battery, Petit and Grand Theft, Disturbance, and Burglary.

Rooming Houses are licensed by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Clifford Hill’s current license is TRM391145. They were recently inspected by DBPR and Tampa Fire Rescue and were found to have multiple violations. They were given 30 days to correct the violations.

They may also be investigated by DBPR regarding a possible violation in their application regarding their loss of their prior ALF license. In the application form it states "Has any person interested in the operation of this establishment, whether owner, operator, agent, lessee or manager, had a license for an Adult Living Facility at this establishment denied, suspended or revoked pursuant to section 400.414, FS, within the last five (5) years?." Assuming their ALF renewal was denied pursuant to 400.414, how is it they obtained a Rooming House license?

I find it interesting they were able to operate for as long as they did illegally and how long it is taking to get them in compliance especially when you consider their ALF issues.

I have been told that proper zoning for a facility is not something DBPR looks as part of their licensure/inspection process.

So this has prompted me to look at other rooming houses and to see what they are zoned as and I found 2 others with possible issues:

1. Thelma Street Boarding House at 3001 Thelma Street. DBPR license TRM3901399. Per Property Appraiser this is RS-50 zoning also

2. Emily Street Home Inc. DBA as Crawford Street Apartments at 815 E Crawford DBPR License (Applicant) . Also possibly FARMERS MARKET RESTAURANT (DBA Name) NRM391553. RS-60 zoning per property appraiser.

It is not clear if these other boarding houses are in any violation of anything, but on the surface, their zoning would not seem to allow boarding houses also. Perhaps they were grandfathered in.

I wonder whether DBPR should require compliance with all zoning laws before approving licenses. Perhaps as part of their license screening process they should verify with local government that the facility is zoned correctly.