After years of work by the ACLC, the Gainesville City Commission adopted Ordinance 190814 in May 2020 and the Rental Housing Ordinance on September 17th, 2020! Together, these ordinances help protect renters via some key provisions:  

• Ending discrimination based on lawful source of income or citizenship status – This means that renters who use a housing voucher program such as HCV or VASH, commonly known as Section 8, are protected against discrimination. A landlord cannot refuse to rent to you because you receive housing assistance! Discrimination based on citizenship status is also prohibited.
• Stricter energy & water efficiency standards – Landlords must maintain rental properties to a reasonable energy and water efficiency standard so tenants are not burdened with unmanageable energy bills.
• Universal inspections – All rental units must be inspected by the city at least once every four years beginning in October 2021 to ensure they meet code. Tenants can also request an inspection at any time if their home does not meet code.
• Greater disclosure of tenant rights and responsibilities – Landlords are required to provide every tenant with a copy of the Tenant Rights and Responsibilities and this brochure explaining the basics of landlord/tenant law upon signing the lease.

If you or someone you know has been discriminated against for housing, please contact the Gainesville Office of Equity and Inclusion by calling 352-334-5051 or emailing equalopportunity@cityofgainesville.org to file a formal complaint. Depending on your income, you may qualify for free legal advice at Three Rivers Legal Services by calling 1-866-256-8091. Then, email us at info@laborcoalition.org and let us know what landlords to go after!  

Endorsements of the Campaign

Through the Safe & Affordable Housing Campaign we have received support from many groups and individuals. Some of that support has materialized into official endorsements while much of the support has remained constantly strong despite any official endorsing stance being taken by supporting organizations. Here we list the organizations who have decided to support the campaign, short quotes as to why they have supported it, and a link to their official endorsement letter. As the campaign goes on we are sure this list will continue to grow both in size and in strength.

• ACEA: Our organization decided to support this campaign because all working people, regardless of income level or ability to own a home, deserve to live in dignity.
• Alachua County DEC: This ordinance was presented to the Alachua County Democratic Party and uur members supported it with a vote of 53 – 0.  We all wanted help for the thousands of citizens in Gainesville with substandard housing.  Almost all of us in the DEC come home to well-insulated, air-conditioned homes, with working toilets, and roofs that do not leak.  We want these things for all our brothers and sisters in our town.
• Carol Barron (Local Section 8 Rental Property Owner): I have witnessed many conditions of deferred maintenance and exorbitant utility bills, and for years have been involved in efforts to help defer some of these causes with groups such as Community Weatherization Coalition. This is about saving energy, about maintaining property values, about making all landlords accountable and providing safe and healthy housing for all…All landlords should be held accountable!
• Cultural Arts Coalition: In too many cases landlords are absent or refuse to do anything about their tenant’s high utility bills because they know options are few for the working poor. These Gainesville residents need your help.  Whereas we do not want to cause any hardships to landlords who are trying to be fair to their tenants, we do need a way to assure the working poor get treated with the same basic rights and protections for those making six figures. CAC strongly encourage you to create whatever policies that you can, so that you can say to our young people, you did everything you could for All of your citizens no matter their income or position in life.
• Emmanuel Mennonite Church: Emmanuel Mennonite Church endorses the work of the Alachua County Labor Coalition and others to provide accessible housing in our community for lower-income families and individuals. We believe that access to shelter, like access to food and clean water, is a natural human right. Sadly here in Gainesville and Alachua County as in many other communities the housing market does not deliver affordable housing either for purchase or rental. Developers have understandably built for the high end of the market, sometimes with public assistance in the form of tax breaks, and neglected housing for the working poor.  We have many vacant luxury apartments across town, while the supply of low-rent units does not meet the demand. We hope city and county can work together to solve this problem.
• Graduate Assistants United: Our members include many non-citizens and non-permanent residents, who face discrimination and unfair treatment from landlords who either fear people from abroad or wish to take advantage of the fear many non-citizens have in the current political climate. All of our members are also graduate students, which makes each and every one of us is susceptible to having our lease applications denied due to landlord’s uncertainty about our income. Many of our members rent older houses and apartments, which are very energy inefficient and lead to inflated utility costs. The policies proposed by the ACLC would begin to remedy and prevent the harm resulting from these practices.
• Greater Duval Neighborhood Association: I think we should collectively work with landlords, tenant associations, ACLC and the City Commission to draft a rental rights’ policy that is fair to both landlords and tenants. There’s no quick and easy way to do this. We must all approach this matter with open heads and hearts.
• IBEW: We firmly believe that renters in Alachua County deserve the basic protections offered by this proposal. People should be able to secure housing free from discrimination. People need to be provided information on their rights and responsibilities as tenants, and how to enforce those rights. People need an accessible form of arbitration when either parties’ responsibilities aren’t being met. Responsible landlords shouldn’t be forced to compete with slumlords not living up to their responsibilities. Renters should have a reasonable expectation of safety and energy efficiency when renting in Gainesville.
• Indivisible Gainesville: In the Spring of 2018, we asked hundreds of our East Gainesville neighbors the open-ended question, “What is one thing you would like our elected officials address?”  The third most common response, after education and gun control, was the cost of utilities…And currently there is little to no financial incentive for landlords to bring their properties up to current acceptable building standards. In this sense, the market is failing the struggling and exploited renter… They need the authority and resources of government to step in and ensure fairness and some modicum of justice.
• Janice Garry (Local Rental Property Owner): Housing is a fundamental need and housing as a product warrants basic standards. Basic Standards of safety and quality are in keeping with other types of products.
• League of Women Voters Alachua County: Renters in this community are due basic rights. This propose ordinance would offer assistance to landlords improving energy efficiency, lowering utility costs for tenants and conserving precious energy resources…We have been studying affordable housing needs n the city and county only to conclude that many residents are paying a disproportionate share of their income on housing. At times utility bills may rival rental costs, with possible unreasonable cost burden on our citizens.
• NAACP, Alachua County Branch: A home is a basic human need. A home is not only where the heart is, it is where a basic sense of stability is housed. The foundation of mental health, physical health, and capacity to be a productive citizen stems from stable, safe, affordable housing for each individual and each family. In this age of climate crisis, it is also where environmental sustainability begins… Too often renters are victims of unfair and dishonest landlords and this proposed ordinance spells out rights and responsibilities for both groups with timely enforcement provisions. We urge support for the passage of this Renters’ Rights ordinance.

• National Women’s Liberation: National Women’s Liberation (NWL) is endorsing the Renters’ Rights ordinance because every person should have the right to safe housing and to be treated fairly when looking for a place to rent. According to the Pew Research Center1, more American households are renting their homes now than at any point in the last 50 years; and Black and Latinx households are twice as likely to be renters as whites. NWL recognizes that the Renters’ Rights ordinance will strengthen and protect our broader Gainesville community; it will improve quality of life for those of us who rent, as well as those of us whose family members, neighbors, and coworkers rent their homes. We hope that in addition to passage of this ordinance, our elected officials will prioritize increasing the amount of affordable housing and introduce measures to protect renters from rent increases and gentrification. According to the 2018 Out of Reach Report2, 46% of Alachua County’s households are renters. To afford a modest 1 bedroom apartment at the fair market rent of $725 per month in Alachua County, a minimum wage worker would have to work 68 hours per week. NWL recognizes the need for housing justice as women still struggle for equal pay. According to research by Eviction Lab3, “[l]ow-income women, especially poor women of color, have a high risk of eviction. Research has shown domestic violence victims and families with children are also at particularly high risk for eviction.” Far too many women stay in abusive and unsafe households or endure sexual harassment from landlords due to a lack of economic power and alternative housing options. Passage of this ordinance would show that our elected officials recognize that all renters in our community deserve the basic rights and protections described in the ACLC’s proposal, and that they want the Gainesville community to be informed on our rights.
• North Central Florida Labor Council: Our organization decided to support this campaign because all working people, regardless of income level or ability to own a home deserve to live in dignity.
• Pride Community Center of North Central Florida: No official endorsement but has vocalized support of the campaign and approved us listing them as a SUPPORTER not an endorser.
• Samual B. Trickey (Professor): Adopting the proposed ordinance will help lift such burdens from renters. The ordinance will reduce the enormous imbalance of power under which renters live. Please test the predictable complaints about landlord “burdens” with skepticism sharpened by recognition of the real, grinding burdens of ordinary renters.
• Suwannee St. Johns Sierra Club: As reported in the 2017 Energy Burden study produced by UF’s College of Journalism and Communications, “substandard, inefficient housing is also a factor, particularly in the rental market. Despite more than a decade of community efforts to fix inferior homes some of Gainesville’s poorest renters still live without basic attic insulation or updated, efficient appliances that keep families comfortable in addition to saving them money and energy.” Achieving the goal of 100% clean renewable energy by 2050 is possible only if all of our local housing stock is energy efficient.
• UF Student Government: Let it be resolved that the University of Florida Student Senate fully supports the comprehensive Renters’ Rights ordinance put forward by the Alachua County Labor Coalition… Let it finally be resolved that the University of Florida Student Senate recognizes the basic rights and protections of every renter in Gainesville.
• UFF: Many of UF’s faculty, staff, and students rent. They and other renters in this community are due basic protections such as a safe place to live, freedom from discrimination and negligent landlords, affordable utility bills, and disclosure of their rights and responsibilities as tenants. Many of UF’s faculty, staff, and students hail from states across the country and nations around the world. Those who rent should be protected from discrimination based on their source of income and their citizenship status. The ACLC’s proposal contains language to this effect and thus reflects the value we all place in our community’s diversity. UF’s employees benefit from having laws that govern their relationship with their employer. Similarly, UF’s students benefit from having a Conduct Code, an Honor Code, and a list of Rights and Responsibilities that delineate their relationship with the university. Likewise, renters will benefit from having a clear definition of their relationship with their landlords. And because both landlords and tenants will benefit from having a process for addressing negligence by either party, UFF-UF supports the proposal’s plan to establish a mediation program for rental deposit disputes, one modeled on Alachua County’s successful Wage Recovery Ordinance.
• University Evangelical Lutheran Church: The goals of the Renters’ Rights proposal are consistent with the missions and concerns expressed by members of UELC, seeking fairness for those in need in our community whose voices are often unheard or ignored with impunity… We welcome the opportunity to advocate for expanded access to basic, God-given human rights for all people, without discrimination. By virtue of our direct involvement with people experiencing these problems, we therefor fully support and endorse the Renters’ Rights proposal.
• UU Fellowship of Gainesville, Social Justice Circle: Our organization has decided to support this campaign because it is consistent with our religious values that call us to “compassionate service to each other, our community, and the earth.” This campaign provides the support to both our community by providing more affordable housing and to the earth by helping save energy and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Click Here for PDF of Renters’ Rights White Paper

Letters of Support from Our Members

Written by Paul Ortiz, professor of history at UF and longtime ACLC member.

Dear Gainesville City Commissioners,

I am writing to urge you in the strongest terms possible to pass the Renter’s Rights/Safe and Healthy Housing Ordinance. This ordinance has been exhaustively researched, shared and discussed in numerous public forums by the Alachua County Labor Coalition (ACLC).

The Labor Coalition has successfully built coalitions in our community in support of numerous social justice and equity issues including the Alachua County Wage Recovery Ordinance, health care and raising wages. Unfortunately, affordable housing and renters’ rights appears to be the toughest nut to crack.

As you all are aware, housing conditions in too many areas of Gainesville are deplorable. Tenants have testified and written repeatedly that there is a strong fear in Gainesville of reporting poor conditions in their rental units due to reprisals and evictions. These fears are magnified by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Bad housing conditions have negative multiplier effects that are often neglected. Peer-reviewed studies show that substandard housing conditions have a detrimental impact on educational outcomes for children. In additions, numerous scholars have demonstrated that substandard housing conditions lead to poorer health, racial profiling and higher crime levels. The data is clear. So, why are we still debating this issue?

For too long, groups of affluent developers, landlords, and realtors in Florida have stalled and shut down public efforts to address this problem. Even now, powerful interests outside of our community are flooding Gainesville with disinformation designed to prevent the Renter’s Rights Ordinance from passing.

For all of these reasons I am urging the Gainesville City Commission to pass the Renter’s Rights/Safe and Healthy Housing Ordinance without delay. This ordinance has been repeatedly vetted, debated and discussed in numerous city and public forums. The ordinance will help Gainesville become a better place for everyone to live.  It is time to pass this importance measure.

Thank you for your time and for your commitment to equity!

Sincerely Yours,

Paul Ortiz

 

Written by Nezahualcoyotl Xiuhtecutli, the ACLC’s Membership Coordinator and Research Coordinator at The Farmworker Association of Florida 

Dear Members of the City of Gainesville Commission,

Thank you all for the work you do for this city. 

I want to express my support for the Renters’ Rights ordinance proposal presented by the Alachua County Labor Coalition. As our town continues to grow because of the economic and educational opportunities Gainesville offers to people all over Florida, the nation, and the world, we are experiencing a boom in development throughout town. Everywhere I go I see new housing units being built next to a new shopping center with new establishments reflecting the cultural diversity of our town. 

 

At the same time, I fear that with economic and population growth will come other unintended consequences that the city would do well to foresee and prevent. One of these is discrimination based on income as well as increases in utility bills. Likewise, decreases in housing quality may creep into Gainesville dwellings if housing demands surpass availability. 

 

I urge our city commission to take the necessary steps to make sure that our city remains a place where its residents can maintain a dignified residence including the following measures: 

1) Universal low-cost landlord licensing and inspection

2) Lower utility bills by requiring landlords to meet energy and water efficiency standards

3) A mediation program for tenant-landlord disputes

4) Greater disclosure of renters’ rights and responsibilities

5) Protection against discrimination on the basis of income or citizenship status 

 

Failure to take necessary steps may further exacerbate a housing issue into a housing crisis in Gainesville. 

Thank you all again for your time and attention. 

Sincerely, 

 

Nezahualcoyotl Xiuhtecutli Research Coordinator Farmworker Association of Florida 

 

Written by ACLC Member Jeffrey Shapiro

Dear Commissioners and Mayor Poe:

I believe that we now have an excellent draft of the renters rights ordinance. Your vote on this ordinance will follow a prolonged effort by the city’s housing subcommittee to fairly consider all points of view. I fully support the ordinance and urge you to pass it. Implementation will take work by all involved, but it can go a long way toward improving the housing situation for the large proportion of citizens who rent. 
        Despite an excellent set of elected officials (I voted for all of you, with no thought of profit for myself), our city has only declined in its ability to provide for its most economically disadvantaged citizens. It is especially critical in these times of pandemic that those most in need receive our support.
        Far too many pay too much in rent and utilities for too little earned. This ordinance is the fair way to help improve their situations.  Furthermore, I believe that many landlords will ultimately benefit through improved upkeep of their properties, as confirmed by some of the input in meetings, and my experience volunteering for the Community Weatherization Coalition. Please pass this hard-earned initiative.

Jeffrey P. Shapiro, Ph.D.

Written by ACLC member Nancy Deren

Dear Mr Mayor and Commissioners, 

 

I wanted to write to express my support for the Renters Bill of rights.  Since we struggle with affordable housing, and rentals are a big part of what makes up what affordable housing we do have, we must protect our renters and ensure that landlords are doing the right thing. Renters in this community deserve 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.  The Alachua County Labor Coalition proposal is a revenue neutral effort that should only pose a threat to landlords with a pattern of misconduct. Safety and efficiency standards will help people’s lives and help reduce total housing costs, and will also help our environment by reducing housing related emissions and waste as a result of poorly-managed spaces.  Please adopt a renters bill of rights that provides:

1. Universal, low cost landlord licensing and inspection throughout Alachua County.
2. Lower utility bills by requiring landlords to meet low-cost, high return on investment, energy and water efficiency standards.
3. A mediation program for rental deposit disputes modeled on the County’s successful Wage Recovery Ordinance.  
4. Greater disclosure of rental units’ safety and efficiency ratings, as well as renters’ rights and responsibilities. 
5. Protections against discrimination based on source of income and citizenship status.

Dear City Commissioners,

I am contacting you about housing and Renters Right Ordinance proposal by the Alachua County Labor Coalition that you will discuss tomorrow.

 

As a member of the ACLC and as a resident of Gainesville since January 2008, I support this proposal because now, more than ever, people need decent, and affordable housing with proper protection.

From January 2008 until March 2013, I was renting apartments in Gainesville and was surprised by the fact that my electric bills were very high due to single pane windows, and poor insulation from the outside wind. Once we had mice in the kitchen…All of this right in midtown Gainesville. I was also surprised that apartments owners would increase your rent every year, even if you were a good tenant and paid the rent on time. Now I own my house as well as a rental house that I keep in good condition. I think that my tenants deserve a clean and decent home just like I do. I want good communication between us and respond to their requests.

 

Last thing, if you have attracted the attention of the Real Estate industry and Tallahassee, you must be on the right path…

 

Continue working on providing affordable housing, protection of renters, protection of good landlords, promoting energy efficiency housing and appliances. Keep working for the well-being of the people in our community.

 

Involve the University of Florida and the numerous churches to provide funding to improve housing conditions under your supervision.

 

Support the Renters Rights Ordinance proposed by the ACLC. Thank you!

 

Respectfully,

Maryvonne Devensky