The Village of Rantoul adopted an ordinance creating a Crime-Free Housing Program. The Crime-Free Housing Program is a state-of-the-art crime prevention program designed to reduce criminal activity in and around apartments and rental properties. This program was successfully developed by the Mesa Arizona Police Department in 1992.

Rantoul’s Crime-Free Housing Program gives rental property owners and managers a powerful tool to help reduce the chances of criminal activity in individual rented units.

The cornerstone of the program is a lease addendum that puts potential tenants on notice that they are liable for any certain criminal activity and, if criminal activity does occur, the lease can be terminated and the eviction process initiated.

By establishing this successful program, the Village of Rantoul hopes to reduce police calls for service, build a more stable resident base, reduce exposure to civil liability, and improve the quality of life in residential neighborhoods

Program Phases

The Crime-Free Housing Program is a unique, three-phase certification program for rental properties of all sizes, including single family rental homes. It is designed to educate owners and property managers of rental properties on ways to keep drugs and other illegal activity off their property. While we encourage owners and property managers to complete all three phases of the program, the ordinance only requires completion of phase one.

Phase One of the program is the completion of a 4-hour class taught by police personnel with the goal of teaching rental property owners and managers ways to establish a stable, more satisfied tenant base, increase demand for rental units with a reputation for active management, lower maintenance and repair costs, and improve safety for tenants and property managers. In addition, phase one includes the use of a crime-free lease addendum.

Phase Two will certify that the rental property has met the security requirements for the residents’ safety.

Phase Three, a resident crime prevention meeting will be conducted for full certification, and rental property owners and managers will be granted the use of the Crime-Free Housing sign for the property. They will also be granted use of the program logo in all advertisement.

REQUIREMENTS

Any owner of a residential rental property with two or more units or who owns two or more single residential units within the Village of Rantoul must comply with the ordinance.

1. All property owners or their agents must attend and complete a 4-hour crime-free housing seminar before January 1, 2019.

2. All property owners or their agents entering into leases must utilize a crime-free housing lease addendum which makes certain criminal activity a violation of the terms of the lease. The addendum must be used with all new or renewed lease entered into after January 1, 2018. No later than January 1, 2019 all leases must include the addendum.

3. If a tenant violations of the crime free lease addendum, the property owner or their agent may not re-rent to that person for three years.

4. The ordinance declares it a public nuisance for a property owner or their agent to allow or permit criminal activity to take place on or within any rental property if the property owner or their agent had knowledge or reasonably should have known of facts indicating a reason to believe that such criminal activity was about to occur or was occurring and took no action reasonably calculated to prevent or stop such criminal activity, or occurred and took no action reasonably calculated to prevent the same or similar criminal activity from happening again.

For more information, contact Sara Simpkins, Crime Free Housing coordinator, by calling 217-893-2103 or email: crimefreehousing@myrantoul.com