(WHTM)– Fighting blight is the focus for Steelton’s newest state representative, and he sees absentee landlords as a big part of the problem and thinks he has the solution.

His name is Dave Madsen (D-Dauphin County). He’s a first-term Democrat in the state house. He’s about to introduce a bill targeting irresponsible landlords.

Madsen says codes officers in Steelton and Harrisburg and other areas are telling him that landlords are renting out properties that should be condemned and they’re doing it with little or no penalties.

The bill Madsen will introduce in the next few weeks would be putting a little more teeth in the law regarding the tenant-landlord relationship in apartments that don’t meet the code.

“This would put the landlord on account paying for their moving, moving the tenant, they would be on the hook for paying back their deposit and also paying their housing until the property gets fixed up to code so they can go back in,” Madsen said.

Madsen is on the appropriations committee and says negotiations to finalize the budget are ongoing. He expects there will be a hike in the minimum wage.