Call for law, not a plague, on certain neighbors’ houses

Loving thy neighbor was never the easiest commandment to follow.
More often than not most people might respect or at least tolerate their neighbors, while some may even like them.
But in the advent of the opioid scourge today, some instead wish or call for a plague on certain neighbors’ houses. That is, houses where obvious drug activity is occurring, sometimes with the landlord’s or property owner’s knowledge.
This week, dozens of members of the Greenmont Neighborhood Association in Morgantown called on City Council to enact a drug house ordinance.
Though a variety of such laws exist in a host of cities across the state, what they all have in common is holding the landlord or property owner responsible for what’s happening in their rentals.
Specifically, landlords who fail to address “problem” tenants who are selling drugs or engaged in other illegal activities. At the very same time, these laws are designed to help landlords resolve tough situations and expedite the eviction of tenants.
Some will argue these laws have unintended consequences. Or that drug addiction is not solved by kicking it down the road or street — out of sight.
Yet, landlords who invite illegal activities into neighborhoods by renting to suspect tenants should not get a bye.
No one is suggesting that most landlords are more interested in the rent than doing the right thing. Most are circumspect about who they rent their property to simply to protect it.
However, some, who may live out of state or locally, often do the minimum to maintain their property, and are even indifferent to complaints about their tenants, as long as they pay their rent.
When issues are not immediately remedied or repaired — say multiple overdoses or police calls happen at one location or a vacant house is allowed to deteriorate — it’s easy to conclude no one cares or no one’s in charge.
That would be not only the landlord or owner, but the community, the city, as well.
Which only results in additional and worse violations of laws or even the breakdown of neighborhoods.
In other words, little things matter, though a neighborhood is not a little thing, nor is drug addiction.
We’re uncertain how many such drug houses exist in Morgantown, but it’s obvious they do exist and are not ever welcome. Even one such location in any neighborhood is too many, whether it is near you or blocks or miles away.
For now, this issue is on City Council’s committee of the whole session’s agenda for discussion Feb. 25.
There’s no need here to run a new commandment through City Council about the neighbors.
But a law to get certain houses in our city in order — where drug activity is obvious — is overdue.