On a typical day in Houston, the city’s 311 helpline receives roughly 10 complaints about busted pipes, broken heaters, stinky sewage and other predicaments plaguing apartments.
City staff route the calls to health, neighborhoods, solid waste and other departments to tackle problems. But several City Council members are looking to proactively hold landlords accountable for operating the area’s most run-down complexes — and they’re eyeing a long-dormant committee to make it happen.
Houston City Council could vote next week to reactivate the Apartment Standards Enforcement Committee, or ASEC, a 12-member group that would be tasked with improving oversight of apartment complexes, targeting landlords with a history of neglect and marshaling city agencies to fix chronic building issues.
The proposal to revive the committee is included in a broader housing ordinance championed by Councilmember Letitia Plummer, who is stepping down at the end of the month to run for Harris County judge.
The ordinance would create a “high-risk rental buildings” label for particularly run-down complexes, name-and-shame the worst offenders and require training for landlords managing troubled facilities. Housing advocates, landlords and council members have spent months wrestling over details of the ordinance, including whether it’s fair to landlords and enforceable.
Here’s what to know about ASEC and how it would impact Houston tenants if the ordinance passes.
What is ASEC?
City leaders created ASEC in 2013 to coordinate Houston’s response to habitability problems in multifamily housing.
As originally designed, its 12 members are supposed to set guidelines for responding to “substandard and dangerous” apartment complexes, document credible allegations of mismanagement, track the city’s response to safety issues and ensure landlords comply with orders to improve conditions.
But to date, the committee has been ineffectual and unorganized, Plummer said. She believes the group only met one or two times, in part because it lacked clear leadership.
What would change under the new ordinance?
The proposed ordinance would set clearer roles and responsibilities for the committee, in part by providing a structure for identifying which landlords to target and how to ensure they make required updates to apartments.
Any apartment complex ranking in the top five for number of 311 helpline complaints related to living conditions, as well as 10 health or safety citations, would fall under the ASEC’s enforcement authority. The committee would be responsible for creating a training program for landlords of those complexes.
“The ordinance would really just give the committee power that it didn’t have before,” Plummer said.
The committee also would get clearer leadership, with Houston Public Works and the Houston Health Department running point.
“We do have the capacity, we have the level of intelligence from our directors that can lead this properly,” Plummer said. “We can find ways in this ordinance to protect the residents that live in these particular complexes that are socioeconomically challenged.”
Who would serve on the committee?
ASEC membership under the ordinance would mirror the original group, with some small changes.
The Houston Police Department and Houston Public Works would send two representatives each. The Fire, Health, Housing and Community Development and Solid Waste departments would get one representative, as would the City Attorney. The mayor could appoint one representative, as well.
The biggest change would involve one landlord and one tenant serving on the committee. The ordinance doesn’t outline how they would be chosen.
What is known about living conditions in Houston apartments?
Once every four years, Houston Public Works inspectors review each residential building in the city with three or more units, but they only scrutinize the exterior of properties.
Houston’s 311 helpline recorded 18,000 calls logged as “multifamily habitability violations” complaints between 2020 and 2024. Most of those calls land with various city departments that employ a few dozen staffers to address some complaints about interior conditions.
But the 311 records don’t indicate how many of those gripes were deemed valid, and it’s not clear what share of residents living in poor conditions call 311 for support.
The Kinder Institute’s ongoing Housing Quality Registry, which launched in 2024, aims to collect data on living conditions in Houston.
Preliminary results show 47% of 175 respondents living in an apartment or condominium reported feeling “somewhat safe” or “not at all safe” in their home, roughly double the rate of those living in single-family homes or townhomes. Still, that sample size is small and not intended to be scientifically representative of the city.
Will the ordinance pass next week?
Plummer said Thursday that she’s unsure whether she has enough votes for passage, though she plans to call for a vote.
City Council voted 9-7 last month to temporarily delay a final vote, with the majority citing concerns about how the city would enforce the ordinance and whether the system for identifying problematic landlords is fair.
Mayor John Whitmire and the Houston Apartment Association have voiced support for the intention behind the ordinance, though they’ve objected to various details of the proposal and supported the delay.
