Several members of the City-County Council are calling on the Health and Hospital Corporation to do more to protect vulnerable renters.
Specifically, the councilors say the agency needs to follow through on enforcement cases when renters raise concerns about unsafe living conditions.
But that doesn’t always happen. For example, if a renter is evicted or moved by a landlord to another unit, then the Health and Hospital Corporation typically dismisses the complaint.
Councilors say that lets the problem linger for the next renter to endure. The problem has gotten so bad that 11 councilors wrote a letter to CEO Paul Babcock.
“If we allow this to become standard practice,” the letter reads, “quality housing options for our most vulnerable neighbors will continue to disappear.”
Mirror Indy obtained a copy of the letter, which is dated Oct. 16, 2024. The letter is signed by 11 Democratic councilors, including President Vop Osili.
A spokesperson for Health and Hospital Corporation declined Mirror Indy’s request to interview Babcock. In a statement, Babcock didn’t directly address many of the councilors’ concerns in the letter but said the agency prioritizes cases where a tenant is facing “real danger.”
“To ensure the safety of our community,” Babcock’s statement says, in part, “our legal team fights in court every day against landlords who neglect their legal duties to tenants.”
The number of cases ranges on average from 1,500 to 2,500 each year, according to Anne O’Connor, the agency’s general counsel.
She said 500 cases were dismissed by the agency in 2023 and 2024 combined.
Still, councilors wrote that residential properties are a shared resource affecting the whole community.
“The harm of substandard housing reaches far beyond the current tenant,” the letter says.
City-County Councilor Andy Nielsen, an eastside Democrat who wrote the letter, told Mirror Indy that landlords escape accountability when a case gets dismissed.
“That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing,” Nielsen said. “They’re a big organization that has an important public mandate.”
Health and Hospital Corporation is a municipal corporation with a $2.4 billion budget. The agency operates the Marion County Public Health Department, Eskenazi Health and Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services.
How landlords avoid enforcement
If a renter does file a complaint with the health department, an inspector can investigate the unit and give the owner a notice to fix the problem.
If the issue continues, the agency can file a civil lawsuit to make the landlord comply with safety standards, which are spelled out in state law and the local health code.
But many landlords are aware of Health and Hospital Corporation’s practice to dismiss complaints, housing advocates say, which allows the landlords to avoid enforcement.
Therefore, the advocates and attorneys said, the unit remains unsafe when a new renter moves in, and the cycle repeats.
In a statement, O’Connor noted that renters are protected by state law from retaliation if they complain.
But attorneys who work with renters facing eviction say landlords can almost always find a lease violation that justifies eviction. Or landlords can make a deal with a renter to leave by, for example, giving them their security deposit back.
Attorneys: Dropping cases is ‘detrimental’ to public health
Attorneys familiar with the cases told Mirror Indy that the agency believes there is a jurisdictional gap that prevents enforcement once a unit is empty, with an exception for asbestos abatement.
O’Connor, the agency’s general counsel, did not answer Mirror Indy’s question about Health and Hospital Corporation’s legal analysis of enforcement cases.
But two attorneys familiar with the enforcement process concluded that nothing in state law or the local health code requires the agency to terminate cases.
Adam Mueller, executive director of the Indiana Justice Project, and Fran Quigley, a professor at the Indiana University McKinney School of Law, wrote in a legal analysis that closing cases leaves the community with no remedy for health hazards.
“Stopping an investigation once a vacancy occurs creates a cycle of non-remedy and perpetually dangerous conditions,” they wrote. “This cycle is detrimental to the overall public health and surrounding community, with more people being exposed to hazardous conditions when landlords are allowed to re-rent without remediating the health hazard.”
Mirror Indy reporter Tyler Fenwick covers housing and labor. Contact him at 317-766-1406 or tyler.fenwick@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @ty_fenwick and Bluesky @tyfenwick.bsky.social.
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