You could say a public database of lead inspection data for apartments and rentals across Rhode Island that went live last week is still very green.
Of the 98,539 properties shown on the Rental Registry database map on Friday afternoon, properties categorized as “suspected” rental properties were marked with a green dot. Properties marked with a yellow dot were confirmed rental properties. On the map, green dots far outnumbered yellow.
It’s one reason why a landlord advocacy group was not celebrating when the Rhode Island Department of Health announced the registry’s Feb. 12 launch. The health department manages the statewide database, which was borne out of 2023 legislation intended to publicize and protect tenants from potential lead exposure in their homes.
The database is built on a platform made by Tolemi, a Boston firm specializing in governmental and public sector software that aggregates data across different agencies and departments. One of the company’s products is a rental registration application designed to help city and county governments collect registration fees, map out an area’s stock of rental properties and generally serve as a hub for property owners and governments to conduct business and enforce policies.
The public dashboard allows residents to look up any rental property and see if it has been awarded a Certificate of Lead Conformance or other certification of lead safety. Since 2005, the state has required these certificates for older homes built before 1978, and the certificates can be completed by contracting a licensed lead inspector.
The Rhode Island Coalition of Housing Providers took issue with the software’s use of what it labeled “AI technology” that populated the database without homeowners’ consent in identifying “suspected rental properties” in a post on its Facebook page and in a letter that was distributed to local media outlets.
The coalition questioned why single-family, owner-occupied properties were in the database, which it interpreted as being beyond the scope of the state law authorizing the registry.
The algorithmic labeling of properties, coalition spokesperson Shannon Weinstein said on Friday, “was an unexpected and alarming development.” She added that while the registry database was expected to use such technology, landlords had not expected the database to automatically populate.
By Saturday evening, it appeared some of the data had been removed from the site, including landlords’ home addresses, which the coalition had flagged as a privacy concern. There were also fewer properties listed on the site. The number of properties on Sunday was down to 98,184. Green dots still outnumbered yellow dots.
The platform had, in some instances, linked these addresses to properties the landlords own in the database’s public view. “Perhaps, the next step will be removing owner-occupied single families from the site,” Weinstein said.
“This rental registry is the first of its kind in Rhode Island,” RIDOH spokesperson Joseph Wendelken said via email on Sunday in response to an inquiry from Rhode Island Current. “When the system was launched, we anticipated making some adjustments, based on feedback from tenants, landlords, stakeholders, and others.”
The coalition also claimed there was little effort made to let property owners know about the registry in advance.
“Many homeowners and landlords were unaware of the rental registry requirement, and we are working to update them while growing our membership,” Weinstein said on Friday. “In less than 24 hours, over 100 complaints were received via social media, email, or personal connections.”
Asked about the coalition’s letter, Wendelken said via email on Friday: “Every property listed as a rental was registered by a landlord or a property owner. The registry also lists properties that are potential rentals. Those potential rentals were given that designation based on tax assessor information and other public information.”
No fines had been issued to landlords as of Friday, Wendelken said. The registry law specifies that a failure to register will cost a landlord $50 per month, per unit. Not getting a valid lead certificate will cost $125 per month, per unit. A landlord who owns an unregistered property cannot file for eviction based on a tenant’s nonpayment.
Rhode Island’s housing stock includes many homes that were built prior to 1978 when lead paint was banned from being used in homes. The element can have damaging, long-term effects on the body if ingested, and it is considered particularly toxic to children. Marked cognitive decline has been shown in kids whose blood shows even small amounts of exposure. Lead blood levels of 5 micrograms per deciliter were long considered the threshold for an “elevated” level in children, and in 2021 federal health regulators lowered that number to 3.5 micrograms per deciliter.
The rental registry was added to Rhode Island General Law via 2023 legislation called the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, which specified landlords would face fines if they did not register their properties by Oct. 1, 2024. The new Rental Registry is meant to expedite the registration process with an easy-to-use online portal, the health department’s announcement noted. Landlords will also need to re-register their properties annually.
The rental registry’s October deadline caused some confusion among property owners, as scores of landlords, not realizing the deadline was fast approaching, temporarily crashed the online registration portal. (It was up and running a few days later.)
Weinstein expressed a general dissatisfaction with the entire process.
“Landlords are being required to address the entire housing stock at once rather than focusing on properties where at-risk individuals reside (children under six and pregnant women),” she wrote. “The recent expansion of the lead law to include tens of thousands of owner-occupied homes, previously exempt, has put immense strain on the system.”
This article was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
