Tenants Bill of Rights will help protect vulnerable renters — and Miami-Dade’s economy | Opinion
Residents at a rally in downtown Miami in July 2021, demanding policies that better protect renters from predatory landlords. JOSE A. IGLESIAS jiglesias@elnuevoherald.com
As Miami-Dade residents try to heal and return to normal after navigating the lingering crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, we now face an unprecedented spike in the cost of basic necessities, including — and especially — the cost of rent. Week after week, vulnerable tenants are reporting that bad-actor corporate landlords are taking riskier measures — and sometimes illegal measures — to expedite tenants’ removal. These include harassment, threats, illegal lockouts and refusing to address safety and health hazards in the pursuit of rapidly raising the rent or selling the property to a larger company. This thrusts thousands of families across the county into another crisis — figuring out where to go from here. Rent is up 30% to 40% across Miami, making it the most unaffordable housing market in the nation. While the spikes in rent alone are enough to cause great concern to all who want to protect families and neighbors, there are dangerous ripple effects that surround massive rent spikes. Evictions are on the rise, with many tenants facing an eviction notice for the first time in their lives. January 2022 saw the single highest number of evictions filed since January 2020 — pre-pandemic.
Housing discrimination, particularly around income, is also on the rise. A recent NBC6 Investigative report highlights that since the beginning of 2022: one in four complaints to Miami-Dade County’s Commission on Human Rights has involved housing discrimination. This is not the story of all property owners, but there are some owners taking dangerous shortcuts and violating the law to the detriment of renters who make up over half of county residents. This is why hundreds of renters, supporters, clergy, lawyers, healthcare workers and some affordable-housing developers support the Tenants Bill of Rights legislation currently co-sponsored by Commissioners Jean Monestime and Raquel Regalado. Laws are only as strong as their enforcement, and in a time of increased harm, confusion and crisis, we need increased oversight and protections to ensure that all Miami-Dade residents feel safe where they live.
Displacement is traumatic; it’s also costly to tenants, landlords and our communities. According to synthesized data from The Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization, the rise in evictions could result in millions of dollars of lost earnings and additional debt for tenants and their families, which would harm our local economy. While Miami-Dade County has worked hard to distribute rental relief resources as quickly as possible, our capacity to support the relocation of residents pushed out of their homes is limited. We can and must do everything within our power to reduce incidents of displacement in the first place, otherwise, there will be a dramatic spike in houselessness and continued displacement. One of the simplest things we can do is add more protections for tenants being illegally pushed out. The Tenants Bill of Rights would offer them some level of support and recourse when their rights are violated by encouraging property owners and tenants to follow their contractual responsibilities and by reducing the number of tenants being discriminated against in their applications simply for having a previous eviction. Passing such legislation is good for renters and their families, and it’s also good business. We want to create sustainable, affordable communities where renters and families can stay in their homes long term without disruption and contribute to our development and local economy. This is especially important in Miami-Dade County, where we rely heavily upon low-wage, service industry and care workers. With evictions on the rise, anything we can do to support tenants is imperative. Respecting people’s rights is not a detriment to business; most tenants have and want positive relationships with their landlords. The Tenants Bill of Rights, if passed in Miami-Dade with enforcement powers, will be one small step to protecting our neighbors, rewarding ethical property owners and tackling the housing crisis.