HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-25-24 Public Comment - A. Sweeney - Tenants right to councelFrom:Alison Sweeney
To:Bozeman Public Comment; Jennifer Madgic; Joey Morrison; Douglas Fischer; Emma Bode; Terry Cunningham
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Tenants right to councel
Date:Tuesday, June 25, 2024 11:29:02 AM
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Hello Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and City Commissioners,
I'm writing to express my support for Tenants right to Counsel. I support this for the
following reasons:
Tenants are bearing the brunt of the un-affordability crisis in our community.
For the incredibly high cost they are paying for what can be subpar housingthey deserve some sense of stability, and representation in eviction cases.
Good landlords have nothing to fear from tenants having the same access to councilas they do.
It doesn't mean we're going to see a ton of court cases, what I hope it leads to is thatlandlords and tenants will be on equal footing when resolving disputes.
Many renters would be homeowners, were housing prices at the levels they were 15years ago.
Renters are not just young transient populations moving through our community. They are all ages, all occupations, and if they had stability in their situation they
would prefer to be long term neighborhood residents and participate in communitythat all people need to thrive.
The property management landscape is predatory in our town.With increasing land value every mobile home park in our community is vulnerable
to displacement. They should atleast have access to representation.Finally I believe economically diverse populations make for better neighborhoods.
That means renters and homeowners living alongside each other. I've said goodbye toso many amazing renter neighbors of all ages because their situation is not secure.
I've watched renters give up on trying to cultivate a relationship with their neighborsbecause they don't know if they'll still be living there in a year.
Additionally the BBC's Neighborhood Friendly Unified Development Code report suggeststhe city do the following:
Explore every possible avenue to protect renters allowed under Montana law.
Explore tenants right to purchase, or first right of refusal laws that would be possible
to implement in City code. This is necessary to protect mobile home park tenants aswell as some historic multi-family homes that are currently rented to local working
residents.
Implement strict FAR regulations so the existing housing stock, often occupied by
renters, would be preserved rather than torn down for redevelopment into luxurycondos.
The report also states our support for this from the Belonging in Bozeman plan:
“Goal 2. Reduce displacement of residents who work and go to school in Bozeman butcannot afford to live in Bozeman. 2. Convene local partners to explore the potential for co-
operative housing models.”
Something that concerns me however is that taxpayers will be subsidizing tenants' access to
councel, but small landlords may be disproportionately affected by this. I believe many ofthe bad actors in our community are the large apartment complex landlords and the multi-
property LLC landlords, who likely have deeper pockets to fund legal recourse. Many singleproperty owners don't have deep pockets to pay for legal action.
A potential solution that I think I'd prefer is a mediation fund. This doesn't necessarily need to
be tax payer funded, since those fees just get passed on to renters anyway. I'd like to seesomething that facilitates landlords and tenants coming together to resolve disputes in a
properly mediated forum with legal representation provided equally to both parties. Iunderstand tenant's are vastly underrepresented by legal counsel in disputes. But I think it's
more helpful to approach this from a standpoint that doesn't pit renters and landlords againstone another, but that helps our community stand as a whole against bad landlords.
I also struggle with the way in which this ask has been presented to the city. At the BBC we
clearly state in our mission that we prefer to work with the city. I'm not aware ofconversations between the advocates for the Tenants' Right to Counsel and the city's legal
department, budgeting office, or elected officials. These types of meetings may very wellhave taken place, but that is the preferred method from my point of view, to implementing
something like this. The approach of overwhelming commission meetings with publiccomment should be used only in dire circumstances, after other avenues have been explored to
engage in meaningful conversation and collaborative efforts to achieve solutions.
I'll just close by saying, there is very little we can do to protect renters in our town, because ofstate law, and this frustrates me greatly. Housing stability is key to a thriving community, and
eviction often does lead to homelessness. This is something we can do, and therefore weshould explore ways to make it happen.
Thank you,
Alison B. Sweeney
Bernadette's Handmade JewelryBozeman MT
406-404-5740alison-bernadettes.com