State and Local Innovation

State and Local Tenant Protections Database

The State and Local Tenant Protections Database provides information about protections passed or implemented that have assisted in preventing evictions and keeping renters stably housed. The database tracks state and local tenant protections passed since the onset of COVID-19 as well as specific tenant protections that were in place prior to 2021, such as right to counsel, source-of-income discrimination, eviction record sealing and expungement legislation, anti-rent gouging measures, and just cause eviction laws. The database also identifies states that have preemption legislation in place.

Information provided in the database includes the jurisdiction, implementing authority, year passed, status, a brief description of each protection, and a link to more information.

The information collected in the database was gathered through NLIHC research and tracking as well as through partnerships with our local, state, and national partners who have been working to collect and track the passage of tenant protections included in the database. These partners include members of the ERASE Cohort, the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, Legal Services Corporation, and Power Switch Action.

• For more information on source-of-income discrimination laws, please visit the Poverty & Race Research Action Council’s website here.
• For more information on right-to-counsel laws, please visit the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel’s website here.
• For more information on eviction laws, including information about notice periods for nonpayment of rent, please visit Legal Services Corporation’s website here.
• For more information on state preemptions laws, please visit Power Switch Action’s website here.

Please contact the ERASE Project at [email protected] with any questions.

Are you aware of a tenant protection that is NOT currently on NLIHC's State and Local Tenant Protections database? Please email the ERASE Project team at [email protected] or complete this form (https://forms.gle/8zx2PU5QaxsrEoLP9) to submit a new protection for our database. With your help, we can make it easier for tenants and advocates to learn what protections are available in their states and localities to keep them stably housed.

Note: Many states and local jurisdictions had tenant protections in place prior to January 2021 that are not included in the database below. NLIHC began tracking tenant protections in January 2021 in an effort to identify those protections passed in conjunction with the implementation of the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program. For a comprehensive database of tenant protections existing before January 2021, please see the LSC Eviction Laws Database at: https://bit.ly/3KpK7yu. For more information, email [email protected]