HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-06-25 Public Comment - D. Pisaneschi - Bozeman Right to CounselFrom:Dominic Pisaneschi
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Bozeman Right to Counsel
Date:Tuesday, May 6, 2025 7:52:02 AM
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Bozeman Right to Counsel
Dear Bozeman City Commission,
I’m an engineer, and I’ve lived and worked here for seven years. If prices
continue to rise the way they have been, I couldn’t continue to afford to live here. I
want to be able to have a secure place to live, even if that’s just renting. Being able to
be in a stable place, where I could keep a garden and sustain myself and contribute
to the community by growing things, would make a world of difference. Having the
fear of knowing that it’s a possibility that I could be moved from my home tomorrow
causes a disconnect from the place I’m actually living in. How can I truly settle in if I
know that I could see an eviction notice on my door tomorrow, and not even know the
first thing I should do about it?
Looking at the numbers it just makes sense to fund Right to Counsel to keep
tenants in their home. 6% of tenants having legal representation is unfair and a crime
on its own. If a tenant doesn’t have enough money to pay rent, how do you expect
them to afford a lawyer to give them a fighting chance to stay in their homes?
Landlords have the privilege of owning property and being able to hire a lawyer. To
them it is just the cost of doing business, but to a tenant it is often impossible to hire a
lawyer. I have had many friends forced to move out of their homes. Some not even
due to their financial circumstances but the fact that their landlords want to sell the
property due to the high price they can receive for it. I know you all receive multiple
complaints for urban campers living on the streets in Bozeman, so if it is your goal to
keep people off the streets Funding Right to Counsel is imperative in doing so.
I want to be in a community where we care about each other, and look out for
each other, and there’s a limit to how much community you can build when most folks
need to move every year and can barely keep up with the costs of rent, or get pushed
out. Fund Right to Counsel, and keep engineers in Bozeman.
Dominic Pisaneschi
510 Stadauher St