OP–Ed in the Gainesville Sun, Nov. 1, 2018
Written by Sheila Payne and Jason Fults, members of the Alachua County Labor Coalition Housing Committee.
Our community has a severe shortage of affordable housing. With 3,000 new residents projected to be moving into Alachua County every year, the Alachua County Labor Coalition supports a variety of measures to help increase the overall number of affordable housing units in the future.
However, we also believe this community must address existing housing costs for our community’s most vulnerable residents now. Renters in this community are due basic rights and protections such as a safe place to live, freedom from discrimination, affordable utility bills, and disclosure of their rights and responsibilities as tenants.
We believe that these aims can best be achieved through a comprehensive renters’ rights ordinance. The proposal that we are putting forward — in consultation with city and county commissioners and Florida Legal Services as well as landlords, renters, neighborhood associations, faith communities, civic organizations, and other stakeholders throughout our community — is revenue-neutral and based upon existing programs and services with a demonstrated track record of success.
It poses a threat to no one except landlords with a pattern of misconduct, and in fact levels the playing field for the majority of landlords throughout our community who strive to keep their housing livable.
Universal, low-cost licensing and inspections of rental units should be mandatory. This community recently experienced three fires within 10 days, with the loss of life in one fire, 35 tenants displaced in another fire and none of the residents were alerted by working smoke detectors. This is just wrong.
Under this proposal, inspections would be carried out by certified inspectors to ensure the safety of the dwelling, including structural integrity, working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, proper locks, electrical outlets and other basic safety standards.
Energy/water efficiency standards in rental units are one of the most immediate ways to decrease overall cost of living for many folks. These standards should be developed by utility experts and could be assigned a point value, allowing landlords to choose from a range of options to achieve low-cost, high return on investment efficiency upgrades. A layer of insulation in the attic and low flow toilets, for instance, would go a long way to helping lower renter utility costs.
Safety and efficiency standards could not only save lives, but they could also help reduce total housing costs by addressing the dramatic inequities in efficiency investments between owner-occupied and rental properties in this community.
In acknowledgment of the amount of rental housing to be inspected and brought up to code and the added workload and expense, landlords should be given a window of compliance. If needed, public funds from already existing programs for homeowners and other sources could be made available as grants or low-interest loans.
Another chronic problem identified by renters is the practice of some landlords to routinely deny the return of security deposits to their tenants, regardless of cause. This practice leaves students and low-income tenants with little recourse and creates tremendous financial instability.
The Alachua County Labor Coalition supports an arbitration program modeled on the county’s highly-successful wage recovery ordinance. This program would be designed to offer a fast and cheap alternative to longer, more drawn out court proceedings and would be free to tenants and landlords and available upon either party’s request.
People deserve protection from discrimination, and discrimination in housing is particularly insidious. The Labor Coalition proposes that protections against discrimination based upon source of income and citizenship status be added to city and county code. These protections are sorely needed, according to local legal services agencies, and have been successfully implemented in other communities.
Both landlords and tenants would benefit from increased education, and this education can be easily provided during initial discussions about a rental agreement. Licensed landlords would provide tenants with basic information about their dwelling units, including compliance with local codes and occupancy limits, the previous 12 months’ utility consumption or efficiency rating, and other educational materials that describe renters’ rights and responsibilities as tenants.
Please join us in supporting renters’ rights during the many upcoming community affordable housing conversations.