https://www.nhlp.org/wp-content/uploads/TBOR-Final.pdf 2024 NATIONAL TENANTS BILL OF RIGHTS by National Housing Law Project https://www.nhlp.org/ National Low Income Housing Coalition https://nlihc.org/ Tenant Union Federation https://tenantfederation.org/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- The National Tenants Bill of Rights sets out seven essential rights that establish a baseline of tenant protections in the rental housing market. These rights follow a tenant’s experience applying for housing, signing a lease, and living in their home. The National Tenants Bill of Rights includes: 1. The Right to A Fair Application – Discriminatory screening practices by landlords and tenant screening companies prevent prospective tenants from being fairly considered when they apply for housing. To ensure fair opportunity for all, landlords should only consider information relevant to an applicant’s ability to perform their obligations as a tenant. 2. The Right to A Fair Lease – Leases shape the legal relationship between landlords and tenants, often reflecting their imbalance of power. To correct this imbalance, leases should clearly define the duties and rights of both landlords and tenants and avoid predatory and deceptive terms. 3. The Right to Freedom from Discrimination and Harassment - Home should be a sanctuary for tenants. Currently, tenants are vulnerable to discrimination, violations of privacy, and harassment by their landlords. To ensure a basic level of privacy and quiet enjoyment, tenants should have the tools to prevent this behavior. Tenants also need the federal government to robustly enforce federal anti-discrimination laws to prevent landlord abuses. 4. The Right to A Habitable Home – Tenants deserve to feel safe in their homes. Safe homes include working appliances and fixtures, reliable utilities, effective pest control, and prevention from deadly health hazards. When something is in need of repair, tenants should have a clear way to communicate their concerns to a landlord and the landlord should be obligated to fix habitability concerns promptly. 5. The Right to Reasonable Rent and Costs – Rent is often the largest expense in a household’s budget, and financial stability is largely absent in a system where landlords hike rents dramatically higher and at a faster rate than the growth of wages. To protect tenants from financial shocks that put them at risk of eviction and further harm, safeguards are necessary to prevent rent gouging and excessive or hidden fees. Landlords should be limited to reasonable rent increases, and they should only be allowed to assess fees that have been clearly disclosed in the lease. 6. The Right to Organize – To correct the power imbalance between tenants and landlords, tenants must have the ability to organize without fear of retaliation or eviction from landlords, owners, and management. 7. The Right to Safeguards Against Eviction – Tenants should not have to risk losing their homes in eviction court in a manner of minutes. Tenants deserve a basic level of due process in eviction proceedings and have protections from illegal evictions and evictions without good cause. The National Tenants Bill of Rights complements the Biden administration’s efforts to improve housing affordability and supply, such as its Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights and Housing Supply Action Plan.2 To address the housing crisis, the federal government must go farther and enact a tenant-centered and comprehensive set of solutions. These long-term solutions are needed to end housing instability and homelessness, redress long-standing racial and social inequities, and advance housing justice. Continued input, feedback, and direction from tenants and their allies will be critical in the collective work to enact and implement these protections. Tenant leaders and advocates across the nation have long fought for and won many of the policy solutions outlined in the National Tenants Bill of Rights. This work builds on their historic and effective leadership. Decades of tenant organizing has also shown that policies are only as good as their enforcement. In addition to policy change, the federal government should prioritize engagement with tenants and their allies to ensure the proper funding, time, and resources are given to the policies delineated below as well as existing protections, such as the Fair Housing Act. Everyone deserves to live in decent, safe, stable, accessible, and affordable homes. The current power imbalance between landlords and tenants denies those rights to the 114 million people who rent. To begin to fix the nation’s housing crisis, the federal government must accept its role in protecting tenants. _____________________________________________________________________ https://www.housingjusticeplatform.org/ https://www.housingjusticeplatform.org/our-platform HOUSING JUSTICE NATIONAL PLATFORM for a Homes Guarantee ---------- ABOUT WE ARE We are a movement of tenants, homeowners and allies, and we are building power and winning victories for housing justice all across the country. WE BELIEVE We believe that housing is a human right, not a commodity to be bought and sold for profit. We believe that everyone should be guaranteed an affordable, safe and healthy place to call home. We believe that homes must be accessible for people with physical or other disabilities, as well as to where people work, go to school and have built a community. And we know that to build a just housing system, we must start now. ---------- THE NATIONAL HOUSING CRISIS The nation’s housing crisis has reached emergency levels. Many families spend more than half of their earnings on rent, struggling to hold down jobs that pay too little in order to put more money into landlords’ pockets. Rising homelessness, evictions and housing instability are all the result of a system that advances the interests of Wall Street and corporations over the health and well-being of our families and our communities. It doesn’t have to be this way. We’re in a moment of incredible change, where people are fighting for universal healthcare, sanctuary for immigrants, free college and a Green New Deal. We need to be equally bold in demanding homes for all. That is why tenants, manufactured home residents, homeowners and community members across the country are coming together to chart a path forward. ----------- THE SOLUTIONS ONE Create Affordable, Community-Controlled, Social Housing Everyone deserves housing that allows them to live with dignity, regardless of their income level. No one should ever have to choose between paying rent and having enough food or medicine. And everyone should be able to cover their housing costs, including utilities, and still have enough to meet their other basic needs. Our public policy must guarantee this basic standard of living. TWO Protect Renters and Mortgage Holders from Displacement Eviction is a devastating event that has ripple effects on health, education, employment and future access to housing. We need new protections that prevent landlords and lenders from displacing people and tearing apart communities in search of ever-higher profits. THREE Provide Reparations for Centuries of Racist Housing and Land Policy, Indigenous Land Theft; Strengthen and Enforce Fair Housing Law Our housing policy must actively dismantle and provide restitution for a legacy of racist exclusion and exploitation. Housing, by location and design, must foster the inclusion of its residents, including those currently experiencing homelessness. Historically marginalized communities must lead in decision-making related to housing and community development. FOUR De-commodify Housing and Regulate Wall Street Housing and land should be democratically owned and controlled by community members, not by Wall Street and corporations. We need strong financial regulations that disincentivize securitization and profit-driven speculation in our housing. FIVE Ensure All Homes are Healthy and Sustainable Housing is the foundation for healthy, sustainable communities. Housing policy should seek to maximize the well-being of residents and workers and promote climate resiliency, clean and renewable energy, and safe and affordable water systems. --------------------------------------------------------------- HOUSING JUSTICE NATIONAL PLATFORM I. CREATE AFFORDABLE, COMMUNITY-CONTROLLED, SOCIAL HOUSING Everyone deserves housing that allows them to live with dignity, regardless of their income level. No one should ever have to choose between paying rent and having enough food or medicine. And everyone should be able to cover their housing costs, including utilities, and still have enough to meet their other basic needs. Our public policy must guarantee this basic standard of living. Stable housing is the bedrock of healthy families and communities. Without it, the physical, mental and emotional health of families and individuals suffers. Children’s school performance often declines. The U.S. has a shortage of more millions of affordable housing units. The chasm between need and availability results from the failure of the private, for-profit market, as well as the federal government’s divestment from programs that create affordable housing. The federal government has not made a large scale investment to address affordable housing shortages since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal which created our public housing system. Now, we need action even beyond that scale. The country’s housing crisis is untenable, and it must end. WE NEED * The creation of 12 million new, non-market social housing units in the next decade, prioritizing community ownership and control. * Federal funding to adequately subsidize housing so that people at all income levels can afford their housing, as well as the basic necessities for a dignified life . II. PROTECT RENTERS AND MORTGAGE HOLDERS FROM DISPLACEMENT Eviction is a devastating event that has ripple effects on health, education, employment and future access to housing. We need new protections that prevent landlords and lenders from displacing people and tearing apart communities in search of ever-higher profits. Today, more than 43 million American households rent. That number only continues to grow, especially among low-income, working class communities of color and immigrant communities that have been left behind and left out. ​In most parts of the country, tenants and manufactured home residents lack even basic protections from eviction by unscrupulous landlords and speculators who may double or triple rents in a single year. Without such protections, landlords are free to engage in predatory behavior, displacing tenants and perpetuating housing insecurity. The far-reaching impacts of evictions are often experienced most intensely by already- marginalized people: Eviction rates are highest among Black women. WE NEED * Universal rent control * Universal just cause eviction laws * Federal investment in community-controlled anti-displacement funds * A right to return for displaced residents III. PROVIDE REPARATIONS FOR CENTURIES OF RACIST HOUSING AND LAND POLICY, INDIGENOUS LAND THEFT; STRENGTHEN AND ENFORCE FAIR HOUSING LAW Our housing policy must actively dismantle and provide restitution for a legacy of racist exclusion and exploitation. Housing, by location and design, must foster the inclusion of its residents, including those currently experiencing homelessness. Historically marginalized communities must lead in decision-making related to housing and community development. Persistent segregation, high indigenous poverty rates and a yawning racial wealth gap are a feature, not a bug, of our housing system. They’re the result of systematic land theft, exclusion from access to capital, and white supremacist policies designed to exclude Black, Brown, Asian and Indigenous people from owning property. These policies must be actively dismantled and restitution made to begin to bring justice and equality to the housing system. In addition, the federal government must ensure that the Department of Housing and Urban Development fully lives up to its mandate by not only enforcing anti-discrimination laws but also affirmatively furthering fair housing. WE NEED * Reparations to address the historic theft of indigenous lands, including principal reduction and zero-interest loans to Black and Brown communities impacted by racist housing and land policies. * An end to source of income discrimination and all tenant discrimination policies. * Full eligibility for housing resources, regardless of immigration status or past incarceration * A federal prohibition on single-family and other exclusionary zoning laws * A commitment by HUD to reinstate, strengthen and enforce the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule IV. DE-COMMODIFY HOUSING & REGULATE WALL STREET Housing and land should be democratically owned and controlled by community members, not by Wall Street and corporations. We need strong financial regulations that disincentivize securitization and profit-driven speculation in our housing. Wall Street and private equity’s deepening control over the rental units has exacerbated the housing crisis. The history of the commodification of housing in the U.S. is long, but has seen a dangerous acceleration in recent decades. Corporate landlords are expanding their reach from multi-family apartment buildings in high-rent cities to student housing, manufactured home communities, low-rent apartment complexes and single-family homes nationwide. In many places across the country, it is virtually impossible for the average low- or moderate-income person to compete against multinational corporations to buy a home. The practices of these private equity players, who seek to profit from displacement and gentrification, have led to deteriorating conditions and rising housing costs for low-income and working-class tenants who live in their buildings. More robust financial regulations will protect both tenants and homebuyers by limiting the role that private equity can play. WE NEED * An end to government support for, and sales to, the predatory corporations buying up homes and communities. * Strong regulation, including transparency and fair taxation, of real-estate development and investment corporations . * Funding and policy preference for non-profit and cooperative ownership, community land trusts and other models that facilitate public and resident ownership . V. ENSURE ALL HOMES ARE HEALTHY AND SUSTAINABLE Housing is the foundation for healthy, sustainable communities. Housing policy should seek to maximize the well-being of residents and workers and promote climate resiliency, clean and renewable energy, and safe and affordable water systems. Thirty million homes in the United States contain serious health and safety hazards. The estimated 77 million people who live in these hazardous homes contend with the mental and physical effects of conditions including lead paint, gas leaks, damaged plumbing, poor heating, rats and mold. Entire communities also face health complications and premature death as the result of land, air and water toxicity caused by nearby polluting facilities and hazardous sites, as well as infrastructure disinvestment. Across the United States, Black people are 75 percent more likely than whites to live in areas adjacent to environmental hazards from oil and gas facilities, including noise, toxic pollutants and traffic emissions. Latinx people are 60 percent more likely than white people to live in such areas. One million Black people live in areas where cancer-causing toxins exceed the “Level of Concern” identified by the Environmental Protection Agency, and they face elevated cancer risks as a result. Lax oversight, combined with a lack of residential zoning protections and enforcement, create living hazards for people with few other places to go. Climate change, created by human environmental impacts, is already leading to more volatile weather and stronger storms, which in turn creates new environmental hazards that leave low-income communities and people of color most vulnerable. And a new wave of mass displacement, fueled by the climate crisis, is already underway and will only intensify. WE NEED A Green New Deal for Housing that creates and rehabilitates millions of housing units, built by people earning a living wage, that supports the health and well-being of people and our planet. ------------ Housing is a basic need and a human right. It’s also the foundation for neighborhoods where everyone can feel safe and thrive, where good jobs and strong public schools and services are available to all, and where neighbors work together to build the communities they want to see. ​ By extension, stable and dignified housing is a crucial building block for so much of what our movements are fighting for in this moment. It’s central to the health of individuals and communities, as well as the flourishing of our schools and the students they serve. Real sanctuary for immigrants and refugees must include safe and accessible housing. Increases to the minimum wage don’t go far for workers paying half their incomes in rent every month, and even the most robust versions of a Green New Deal will struggle to cut carbon emissions as deeply as is required without millions of new, no-carbon homes. In short, without a massive shift in public policy around housing, we won’t make real gains around any of the most pressing issues of our time. ---------- ENDORSING ORGANIZATIONS NATIONAL Action Center for Race and the Economy (ACRE) Alliance for Housing Justice Bargaining for the Common Good (BCG) Center for Popular Democracy Homes For All (Organizing Committee) MHAction Partnership for Working Families People’s Action PolicyLink RACE FORWARD Right to the City Alliance STATE / LOCAL ENDORSING ORGANIZATIONS NATIONAL Action Center for Race and the Economy (ACRE) | Alliance for Housing Justice | Bargaining for the Common Good (BCG) | Center for Popular Democracy | Homes For All (Organizing Committee) | MHAction | Partnership for Working Families | People’s Action | PolicyLink | RACE FORWARD | Right to the City Alliance STATE / LOCAL 9to5 Colorado / Colorado Homes For All Access Task Force, Lansing Action NC Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Action (ACCE Action) Alliance for Community Transit — Los Angeles Alliance for Metropolitan Stability Arkansas Community Organizations BASTA, Inc. Building Movement Project/Detroit People’s Platform CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities Causa Justa :: Just Cause City Life Vida Urbana City-Wide Tenant Union of Rochester Coalition of Organized Residents of East Liberty Community Justice Project DARE — Direct Action for Rights & Equality Detroit Action East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) East Bay Housing Organizations East LA Community Corporation Equal Justice Society Esperanza Community Housing Corporation Esperanza Peace and Justice Center Frogtown Neighborhood Association Georgia Stand-Up Grassroots Collaborative Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center HEART L.A. — Housing Equality & Advocacy Resource Team Hill District Consensus Group Homes For All (Organizing Committee) Homes For All Newark (HFAN) Indivisible Sausalito InnerCity Struggle Inquilinxs Unidxs Por Justicia (Renters United for Justice) Investing in Place Ironbound Community Corporation Jane Addams Senior Caucus Just Harvest Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition LAANE LA Forward Landless Peoples' Alliance / Pittsburgh Union of Regional Renters Liberty Resources, Inc. Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center Montgomery Citizens United for Prosperity (MCUP) New York Communities for Change NYS Upstate Downstate Housing Alliance ONE DC ONE Northside One Pennsylvania Organize Sacramento Our Natural Homes Property Management LLC Partnership for the Public Good People’s Alliance for Transit, Housing, and Employment (PATHE) People’s Housing Coalition of Maine Pittsburgh United Pittsburghers for Public Transit Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada Public Advocates Inc. Public Engagement Associates Puget Sound Sage PUSH Buffalo Raise-Op Housing Cooperative Reclaim Philadelphia Rochester City-Wide Tenants Union San Antonio Historic Westside Resident Association Social Justice Learning Institute Springfield No One Leaves Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) Struggle for Miami’s Affordable and Sustainable Housing, Inc. SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) — Marin Chapter Tenants Together United for a New Economy Urban Habitat Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless Western Regional Advocacy Project Women's Community Revitalization Project (WCRP) Working Partnerships USA