Campaign Endorsements – Alachua County Labor Coalition

Through the Safe & Healthy 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.