Join NLIHC’s “Tenant Talk Live,” a meeting geared toward tenant and resident leaders, today, August 5, at 6 pm ET (5 pm CT, 4 pm MT, and 3 pm PT). During today’s meeting, Kayla Laywell of NLIHC will discuss the National Tenants Bill of Rights (TBOR), a policy agenda released by NLIHC, the National Housing Law Project (NHLP), and the Tenant Union Federation (TUF) in June that represents a major step toward empowering renters and advancing tenant protections.
The TBOR outlines seven essential rights covering the tenant experience, including the rights 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.
- A fair lease – Leases shape the legal relationship between landlords and tenants, often reflecting the 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Safeguards against evictions – 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 as well as protections from illegal evictions and evictions without good cause.
Addressing the nation’s housing crisis requires enacting strong and enforceable tenant protections to help prevent housing instability and homelessness, redress long-standing racial and social inequities, and advance housing justice. During the call, we will review each of the rights in the agenda and explain how they advance housing security for the lowest-income renters. Read the TBOR here, and register for the call here.
“Tenant Talk Live” meetings are held the first Monday of every month at 6 pm ET. If you are unable to attend today’s meeting, you can view upcoming or past Tenant Talk Live recordings on our working group webpage. To stay up to date on “Tenant Talk Live” events and connect with other attendees, join the Tenant Talk Facebook group.
Meetings like “Tenant Talk Live” also depend on the support of our members. Become an NLIHC member here!