Roswell law tackles boardinghouse trend BYLINE:    PAUL KAPLAN DATE: May 12, 2006 PUBLICATION: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA) EDITION: Main; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution SECTION: Metro News PAGE: E7 In college towns across America, including Athens, laws have been passed that limit the number of unrelated people who can live together in residential areas. The idea is to prevent a bunch of college kids, each with a car, a girlfriend and buddies who can party all night, from disrupting a quiet single-family neighborhood. Today, those laws are being copied in cities such as Roswell that have no colleges. What they have is a lot of immigrants, mainly Latinos, who work at low-paying jobs and try to economize by rooming together in low-priced housing. It's common to find 10 or more immigrants living in one house, and there have been reports of 20 living together, or even 30. That creates the equivalent of boardinghouses in single-family neighborhoods, with transient men coming and going, sometimes at all hours. Homeowners are complaining about it, and cities, including several in metro Atlanta, are responding with laws that impose heavy fines and even jail time for both landlords and tenants. The issue has brought the emotional national debate over immigration policy down to the local level. "Until the issue of immigration reform is resolved at the federal level, it's going to continue to create this tension that exists at the local level," said Maritza Pichon, executive director of the Latin American Association, a social services organization. Cities can help defuse that tension by bringing Hispanic leaders to the table to explore solutions before laws are imposed, Pichon said. Residents and city officials in Roswell say the intent is not to keep out Hispanics or any other group. "I don't care who you are or what your race is," said June Fletcher of Roswell. "We're not judging you based on that. We're just concerned about our property values." Fletcher lives in Terramont, an east Roswell neighborhood with affordable housing, which is somewhat rare in the upscale north Fulton city. Terramont is one of the places that have complained to the city about boardinghouses. So are Martin's Landing, the city's biggest subdivision with 1,700 homes across Holcomb Bridge Road from Terramont, and Liberty Square, another affordable subdivision. Roswell has responded by drafting a law that would allow no more than three unrelated people to live together in a single-family home. The penalty for ongoing violations would be up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine per day. The proposed law goes to the city's Planning Commission on Tuesday and then to the City Council, where it appears to have broad support. Roswell Mayor Jere Wood knows the measure will be controversial in the immigrant community, but, he said, "I don't think it will be controversial with council. I've got a sense that we have a lot of neighborhoods behind it." Councilman David Tolleson, who heads the Community Development Committee, said the city has to protect the integrity of single-family neighborhoods by keeping boardinghouses out. "It's not at all an effort to be inhospitable to anyone," he said. Sara Gonzalez, president of the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, doesn't buy it. "I don't think they're being honest," Gonzalez said. "They are targeting Latinos -- the flavor of the month." If cities are sincere about not singling out Hispanics, they should write laws that target only the landlords, Gonzalez said. "Who calls the shots?" she said. "It's the landlord." By holding both landlords and tenants responsible, however, the city has more tools to respond quickly. And with Georgia's illegal immigrant population having swelled to roughly 400,000, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization in Washington, the boardinghouse situation could worsen in prosperous cities like Roswell, where work is plentiful. "It's the transient population we're going to be impacting, and my guess is they're a fairly mobile group and they'll probably move somewhere else," Wood said. "It's not going to impact the Latin community that lives in our multifamily dwellings. It's not going to affect the Latin immigrants who own homes in Roswell. They're welcome here." What code enforcers have found in Roswell is "groups of men living together, all claiming to be cousins," said Bob Hulsey, the assistant city attorney in Roswell, who wrote the proposed law. It's not easy to prove that seven guys who don't speak English are not second cousins from the mountains of Mexico. Roswell isn't going to try. "What we're trying to do is allow large families to live together, but groups of cousins are not going to be able to," Hulsey said. Ralph Perales, an attorney who lives in Roswell and formerly headed the Georgia Hispanic Bar Association, questions the fairness of the law as proposed. "What is the difference between four brothers renting a house together and four close friends?" Perales asked. "Isn't the impact on the community the same?" Perales thinks the law should target the landlords, who typically know when they're breaking the law. The tenants often don't, he said. "Zoning regulations are unfamiliar territory for the Latin community," Perales said. That should be their problem, not Roswell's, said Alan Schneibaum, a 16-year resident of Liberty Square. He said several houses near his have been used as boardinghouses, and he has seen cars parked on lawns, trash strewn about and a lot of people hanging out. "I had a neighbor with nine children, and I had no problem with that," Schneibaum said. "But what I'm seeing is a convention. I live on a cul-de-sac, and it looks like the parking lot at Turner Field. It's ludicrous." Graphic HOW MANY HOUSEMATES? The number of unrelated people who can live together, by law, in a single-family home: Roswell (proposed): 3 Duluth: ............3 Athens: ............2 Peachtree City: ....2 Snelllville:........5 Cobb County:........4 Atlanta:............6 UPDATE - JULY, 2006 - ATLANTA JOURNAL ARTICLE ROSWELL Law tackles boardinghouses City will go slow in enforcing new housing rules BYLINE:    PAUL KAPLAN Staff DATE: July 13, 2006 PUBLICATION: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA) EDITION: Main; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution SECTION: NorthSide PAGE: JH3 Roswell code enforcers now have the ammunition they need to shut down illegal boardinghouses in single-family neighborhoods. But the city plans to take it slow at first. The City Council on Monday approved a zoning amendment that allows no more than three unrelated residents in one single-family home. It will hit hardest in the Spanish-speaking immigrant community, where poor residents in low-paying jobs try to economize by living together, sometimes in large numbers. That has created boardinghouses in some single-family neighborhoods, and residents have complained. Even with the new law, which was approved 5-0 by the council, Roswell's three code enforcers -- a fourth will be added soon -- won't be roaming the city, looking for violators. In fact, they won't go out at all unless someone complains. And even then, the city will try to correct the problem before citing anyone. "We always start with warnings," said Kathleen Field, director of community development, whose department oversees code enforcement. "We try to educate people about what the ordinance says. They might be unaware." Violators will be given 30 days to comply with the new ordinance, "and if they need additional time to find a place to live, we'll try to work with them, within reason," said Vicki Barclay, the city's code enforcement supervisor. But if the warnings are not heeded, both the landlord and tenants can be hauled into Municipal Court and given up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine, per day. Some Latino advocates have said the law should target only the landlord, because many tenants don't understand the law or have limited housing options in expensive cities like Roswell. But the city wanted to be able to move quickly to shut down boardinghouses, and it can be time-consuming to find a landlord, who might not even live in Georgia. With the state's illegal immigrant population having swelled to roughly 400,000, the boardinghouse situation could worsen in prosperous cities like Roswell, where day labor is plentiful. Morton Shlossman, who lives in Hembree Forest, wonders how the city will enforce the law. "I think it was passed to be politically correct," Shlossman said. "It's like the 55 mph speed limit on [Interstate] 285. I think it's unenforceable." Several cities and counties in metro Atlanta have laws similar to the one Roswell approved. They limit the number of people living together to anywhere from two to eight. Roswell's law still allows for large families, including relatives as far removed as grandparents. But it does not count cousins as relatives, and that will eliminate a dilemma that police and code enforcers were encountering. It's not easy to disprove that people from another country are cousins, and now the city won't have to. But it also can be hard to prove closer relationships. "You have to use your judgment on whether they're telling the truth," Field said. "Neighbors are great sources of information. And to make them understand that we're watching the premises, that sends a message as well." Day laborers wait for work across the street from the Frazier Street Apartments in Roswell. Responding to complaints, city officials have enacted an ordinance that limits the number of unrelated people who can live together. PHIL SKINNER / Staff