HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-15-25 Public Comment - A. Kranker - Bozeman Right to CounselFrom:Andrew Kranker
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Bozeman Right to Counsel
Date:Sunday, April 13, 2025 4:06:57 PM
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you
recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
Dear City Commission,
My name is Andrew Kranker, and I am a member of Bozeman Tenants United. I am
houseless. I am here to speak to the issue of a tenant’s right to council when a
conflict arises between a tenant and their landlord, up to and including eviction.
As someone who considers Bozeman my lifetime home, and has lived most of my life
here, I have rented several times and multiple properties, signed leases, and
understand the importance of housing security in an area that can be difficult to find
space affordably. It is no secret to the community that lives here that Bozeman is an
incredibly desirable place to live, and I would welcome anyone to be able to enjoy Big
Sky country.
Over the years, I have noticed many changes that have made the reality of living here
comfortably and with dignity exceedingly challenging for a large portion of our
community. Having worked with property management companies, specifically as a
maintenance technician, I have seen tenants hold back on submitting work orders in
fear of retaliation or penalty from their landlords. This is also true of myself at times,
because I was worried that by bothering their office often would result in a non-
renewal at the end of the current lease. When a lease non-renewal letter did arrive at
my mailbox one time around 8 years ago, it resulted in myself and my roommates
being temporarily homeless to varying degrees. We learned that we needed to move
just two weeks beforehand. The main reason for the non-renewal that was provided
was that renovations needed to be made to the apartment, yet no accommodation or
consideration was made toward myself or any of my roommates about what our
future plans would need to be moving forward.
I’ve also worked in property management and seen firsthand unfair practices that
landlords use to keep tenants unstable. A few years after the first lease non-renewal I
received, I witnessed the landlord I worked for not renew a family’s lease, uprooting
them entirely, after no complaints or lease violations, just so that the landlord’s family
could move into a one room bigger apartment.
The last place I lived in, I experienced a mental breakdown, lost my income and
wasn’t able to pay my rent. My lease was terminated, and I didn’t go through a legal
eviction procedure.
93% of tenants in Bozeman cannot afford lawyers when facing a legal battle. It’s
nearly impossible for tenants to face the legal system on their own, especially going
up against a trained lawyer. Many tenants don’t respond to summons at all. Many
tenants representing themselves in court make no legal arguments against their
landlords’ lawyer. For years, I thought I had been legally evicted from these places,
when in reality the process had been completely outside of the courts. However, I
couldn’t have afforded a lawyer even if it had been taken to court.
If there were community resources and supports in place, and if legal counsel was an
accessible option for tenants in Bozeman, that family could still be in their home. I
could still be in a home, too, instead of spending years on the streets of Bozeman.
If legal counsel had been an option to the tenants in any of these examples, I feel
there may have been a better outcome. Fund Right to Counsel and keep tenants in
their homes.
-Andrew Kranker