Characterizing home-based health hazards in rental housing: Year 1 of the Clark County Landlord-Tenant Hotline Study (CCLTHS)

The Clark County Landlord-Tenant Hotline Study is a cross-sectional study, conducted by the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and the Southern Nevada Health District, funded by a Healthy Homes Technical Studies grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  One of the goals of the study is to determine the frequency of home-based hazards that may adversely impact health, specifically in renter-occupied units (ROUs).  Data from Year 1 (March 2014 – December 2014) have been collected and provide insight into the specific hazards present in this population of ROUs.  In Year 1, the CCLTHS received 1,425 original calls regarding ROU issues from callers in 60 Southern Nevada zip codes.  Of these calls, 858 were considered qualified complaints that may be covered by Nevada’s habitability statutes.  The large majority of callers (91.3%) identified themselves as the ROU tenant.  The 858 qualified callers reported a total of 1,438 complaints across sixteen complaint categories.  The most common complaints were: mold (39.6%), general maintenance issues (32.8%), cockroaches (18.1%), bedbugs (17.7%), and HVAC outages (15.4%).  Of the 858 qualified callers, 460 also consented to participate in the follow-up portion of the study; these callers reported on their perceived severity of their complaint(s).  The majority of complaints (88.2%) were reportedly “severe” or “worst case”.  Analysis will continue in Years 2 and 3 of the study, as will analysis of follow-up data, to determine if the current resolution process is effective and if the Hotline is a useful tool.