(A) The Board of Mayor and Aldermen hereby declares that it finds that the general safety, health and welfare of its citizens and those that might occupy boarding houses could be compromised if persons engaged in renting rooms to such persons allow or permit such properties to be maintained in unsafe or unsanitary conditions.
(B) The Board of Mayor and Aldermen does thereby adopt this chapter to regulate all entities engaged in the business of owning or operating rooming or boarding houses in order to prohibit, abate, suppress and prevent unsafe and unsanitary conditions from existing in the building committed to such use so that they shall not be, or likely to be, detrimental to the health, morals, comfort, safety, convenience or welfare of any of the inhabitants of the city.
(2011 Code, § 13-301)