Annual Code Compliance Workshops Aim to Make Arlington Apartment Communities Safer
By Carol Weemes
Posted on June 09, 2017, June 09, 2017

 Apartment Communities Safer

Do you live in an apartment in Arlington? Great news. City ordinance amendments approved by City Council have resulted in the implementation of annual educational workshops held for multi-family property owners and managers.

Education specific to code familiarization and crime prevention is the focus.

Single adults and families looking for affordable housing, a great quality of life and the convenience of being located at the center of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex visit our city regularly looking for a place to call home. Arlington currently has 312 apartment communities consisting of more than 45,000 individual apartment homes. These numbers do not include apartments or dorms owned and operated by the University of Texas at Arlington. The Code Compliance Multi-Family Team partners with apartment communities working together to provide quality housing in an exemplary, safe environment in which to live, work, play and learn.

This year's workshops hosted by Code Compliance Services featured subject matter experts to educate apartment property owners and managers on topics from bed bugs to crime trends, and more. The sessions held at the Bob Duncan Center featured the following topics and speakers:

  • Insects in the City: Bed Bugs in Your Apartment presented by Dr. Mike Merchant, Professor and Extension Urban Entomologist Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
  • Keeping Arlington Safe! Spotting Suspicious Activity & Current Crime Trends reported by Officer Kimberly Fretwell and Lieutenant Thedrick Andres with Arlington Police Department
  • The Eviction Process: A Roundtable Discussion commentated by Perry Pillow, Director of Government Affairs Apartment Association of Tarrant County, accompanied by Tarrant County Justices of the Peace Judge Mary Tom Cravens Curnutt and Judge Matt Hayes
  • Annual Property Inspection Tips for the Conscientious Owner presentation by John Taylor, Senior Code Compliance Officer, City of Arlington

This required training aligns with the City Council's priority to Champion Great Neighborhoods for apartment residents and the community.

"Our annual Code Compliance Multi-Family Workshop is one of the tools we use in the City of Arlington to make sure that everyone is on the same page concerning quality housing in our city," said Steve Allen, Code Compliance Supervisor over the Multi-Family Program.

All members of the Code Compliance Multi-Family Team attend the sessions to respond to questions and assist with each event. Although the workshops are not open to the public, they are available to all City of Arlington employees that interact with multi-family properties to enhance the scope of work they do in The American Dream City.

For more information, contact Steve Allen, Code Compliance Services Supervisor, Multi-Family Division at [email protected] or at 817-459-6271.

Code Compliance, Government, Housing, News