## Facts

- Early Estates, Inc. owned a three-tenement (three-unit) residential building in Providence, Rhode Island.
- In 1956, the Rhode Island legislature enacted an enabling act, 1956 R.I. Pub. Laws ch. 3715, authorizing Providence to establish and enforce minimum standards for dwellings to make housing “safe, sanitary and fit for human habitation.”
- Acting under the enabling act, Providence enacted chapter 1040, the Minimum-Standards Housing Ordinance.
- The ordinance required, among other things:
  - lighting for public halls and common stairways used for ingress and egress in connection with two or more dwelling units (or, in certain small structures, properly located switches controlling an adequate electric lighting system); and
  - hot-water facilities for dwelling units.
- City officials determined that Early Estates’ building failed to meet these requirements because:
  - the hallway lacked a rear light; and
  - the third-floor tenement lacked hot-water facilities.
- The director of the city’s division of minimum housing standards issued a compliance order directing Early Estates to (1) provide a rear hallway light and (2) install hot-water facilities in the third-floor tenement.
- Early Estates appealed the compliance order to the Housing Board of Review of Providence, which denied the appeal and left the compliance order in place.
- Early Estates then petitioned the Rhode Island Supreme Court for certiorari to review and quash the board’s decision.

## Issues

1. Did the 1956 enabling act authorize Providence to enact and enforce minimum housing standards requiring rear hallway lighting and hot-water facilities?
2. If authorized, were those ordinance requirements valid as applied to Early Estates’ property?

## Decision

- The court held that the enabling act granted Providence authority to enact and enforce a minimum-standards housing ordinance aimed at making dwellings safe, sanitary, and fit for human habitation.
- The court concluded that requirements for hallway lighting and hot-water facilities fall within that delegated authority.
- The court determined the challenged requirements were reasonable measures related to safety and sanitation and therefore valid exercises of the police power as implemented through the enabling act.
- The court sustained the Housing Board of Review’s decision; the compliance order remained effective.

## Legal Principles

- A state statute authorizing a municipality to establish and enforce minimum housing standards to make dwellings “safe, sanitary and fit for human habitation” permits local rules addressing basic safety and sanitary conditions in multi-unit dwellings, including lighting in common egress areas and the availability of hot water.
- A legislative delegation to a municipality is not invalid merely because it is phrased broadly, where the delegation is guided by an articulated standard (here, habitability and sanitation) that can be applied and reviewed.
- Minimum housing standards reasonably related to public health, sanitation, and safety are a valid use of the police power when enacted pursuant to legislative authorization.
- On certiorari review, when an ordinance requirement fits within the enabling act and is not arbitrary or unreasonable, the court will not disturb the municipal board’s enforcement decision.

## Conclusion

The Rhode Island Supreme Court held that Providence acted within the authority granted by the 1956 enabling act when it required Early Estates to install a rear hallway light and hot-water facilities, and it allowed the Housing Board of Review’s decision upholding the compliance order to stand.


Early Estates v. Housing Board of Review of Providence, 174 A.2d 117 (1961)