May 2019
The Alachua County NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Committee (ECJC) focuses on community issues affecting the quality of life and economic equity for all citizens in Gainesville and Alachua County. Environmental Justice recognizes that environmental benefits and burdens are not shared equally among all residents.Consequently, Environmental Justice issues are also civil and human rights issues.
NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Committee Support for the Renter’s Rights and Responsibilities Initiative.
A home is not only where the heart is, it is where a basic sense of stability as an individual and a community begins. Mental health, physical health, and the capacity to be a productive citizen starts in a stable, safe, affordable home for each individual and each family. In this age of climate crisis, it is also where environmental sustainability begins.
In Gainesville, as in all cities, there is a shared necessity for citizens to be adequately employed and for businesses to have a productive workforce. Stable housing directly contributes to an adult’s well-being and productivity in the work setting and a child’s capacity to learn in school for future job performance. In terms of sustainability, Gainesville is participating in the Sierra Club Ready for 100 initiative and has a goal of 100% renewable energy by 2045. Sustainable homes will contribute to the success of this goal.
Simply put, it behooves every single citizen and business in Gainesville to have stable, safe, sustainable, affordable housing.
Some 50% of Gainesville inhabitants live in rental housing. New housing developments cater to students and residents with ample resources. The area of focus for the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Committee (ECJC) is the many long term residents who have limited resources for housing. There is an abundant quantity of older homes that are not properly rehabilitated or maintained, particularly on the east side of Gainesville. Some of them are rentals and some lie vacant as untapped potential. Housing prices and rent are on the rise but are not supported by higher wages. Affordable housing is less and less available. Real lives are affected. Businesses are affected. Schools are affected. We are affected. The fundamental need for housing needs help.
The short supply of affordable rentals is not the only challenge. There are lousy landlords and lousy renters. Some renters pay more for their utilities bill than they pay for rent because of poor or no insulation, leaky windows, leaky plumbing and/or old appliances. Some landlords don’t have a realistic business model that includes money for property maintenance and improvements. Some renters don’t know how or don’t care about things like changing AC filters, smoke detector batteries and general home care. You might be surprised to know that there is no state or local licensure for landlords. Hair stylists and nail technicians have to have a license. Lawn services have to have a license. But there is no license for landlords. Even though owning a safe, energy conserving property is a lot more complicated than those other businesses. Does that make sense?
A City Commission Rental Housing Subcommittee has been meeting for several months. Citizens, landlords and management companies have been welcome. The goal is to create a program with a balance between the needs and responsibilities of renters and landlords. The Alachua County Labor Coalition has also participated. They have a position paper, Safe & Healthy Housing for All that can be read here: https://laborcoalition.org/safehealthyhousing/our-position/.
The NAACP ECJC is on board with requiring landlords to have minimum standards for safe and energy efficient rentals. We also support identifying renter’s rights and responsibilities. We think that there should be universal landlord licensing with a small fee that would be deposited into an account for running the rental properties program. We think that some sort of inspection system to verify the minimum safety and energy efficiency standards of a rental should be in place. Properties that don’t have problems could have less frequent inspections. We think there should be a written document that outlines the landlord/renter responsibilities that would be signed along with the lease agreement. Problems between a landlord and renter might be handled through arbitration similar to the Alachua County’s very successful Wage Recovery Ordinance.
The NAACP ECJC thinks that a Renter’s Rights and Responsibilities program would serve landlords, renters and our community well. It would also encourage Gainesville’s goal of energy sustainability while we continue to grow. We have a vision of quality housing for renters that is also a good business for landlords. Rental homes would contribute to environmental sustainability in our beautiful city. Together we can do this.
Nkwanda JahNkwanda
Chairperson, NAACP ECJC