HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-16-25 Public Comment - K. Hock - Support Right to CounselFrom:Kevin Hock
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Support Right to Counsel
Date:Tuesday, May 13, 2025 7:42:23 PM
Attachments:Kevin Hock Right to Counsel Public Comment.docx
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Kevin Hock Public Comment
My name is Kevin Hock. I moved to Bozeman as a student with the expectation of only being here while I’m in
school. I decided to stay because of the community. That community which is threatened by abuse from
landlords and unaffordable rent leading tenants to desperate situations.
I’m here because the city is considering using our tax dollars to fund right to counsel and I want to be clear. Me
and other tenants are tax payers. We pay our landlords mortgages and property taxes and it should be used to
protect the few rights we have as tenants.
Working in the service industry it’s clear to me how most of us who are tenants are critical to the city running.
And we’re barely paid enough to stay alive. By the time I’ve paid my rent and bills there’s barely any money
left. Heaven forbid I want to go home and visit my family or have an emergency.
For so many of us, finding rent that is affordable means you have to be willing to withstand poor treatment from
the landlord or a violation of our rights. No matter where you live you should have baseline respect. If landlords
know that tenants will receive free legal counsel, they won’t threaten tenants with eviction if they know they’ve
been violating a lease. This is bare minimum protections for tenants
Last November my roommates and I contacted the landlord because our house was extremely cold. The
landlord sent someone who very clearly didn’t know what they were doing. He didn’t even look at the furnace
just said it’s good and left. My roommates and I had to foot the bill to keep electric heaters on all winter and still
things in our home were regularly freezing.
When our landlord violated our rights to a safe and heated unit in the wintertime there was no accountability for
her to follow the law.
This April we were told by our landlord that we have 24 hours to move off the lawn including chairs and a table
if we want to avoid lease violations. Things that had been there for 9 months with no problem The fear of a
lease violation is unclear but it’s a threat that made us nervous. To hear this all of a sudden after having things
in the yard for 9 months was jarring. This threatening threat could mean justification for her raising the rent to a
point we couldn’t afford or kicking us out or blacklisting us.
It’s clear that there’s so little power for tenants in situations where our rights are violated but they can always
hold the threat of eviction over our heads.
For a lot of people, getting legal counsel isn’t an option even if you have rent that you can afford. No one that I
know can afford to get a lawyer even if they’re well aware that their rights are being violated. There’s many
people like me who work and make the city run who can’t stay here because of the unfair treatment from
landlords or the lack of affordable housing.
Bozeman needs tenant right to counsel I’m tired of talking to my friends and hearing the issues that we
experience everyday being brushed off. This is the bare minimum that the city can do to safeguard the working
people of Bozeman.