The Minnesota House of Representatives passed a tenants’ rights bill Thursday that would introduce significant protections for some of the state’s most vulnerable renters.
The bill is aimed at helping undocumented immigrants, domestic violence survivors and people who rely on housing assistance, such as Section 8 vouchers. It’s also crafted to hold landlords more accountable by charging them penalty fees when they’re late opening newly constructed rental units to tenants who have already signed leases.
The bill passed on a 68-61 vote, with the DFL majority pushing it through. Some Republicans argued that the bill was one-sided and would overpenalize landlords, especially mom-and-pop landlords who rent less than five units.
“It’s a bill that’s going to hurt our housing provider industry,” said Republican Representative Brian Johnson, who opposed the bill. “It’s going to have the opposite effect of what you want to happen. It’s going to cause rent to go up.”
The Senate passed a version of the bill last week.
Undocumented renters get a boost
One of the bill’s measures would require landlords to accept Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers when renters apply for a lease. The taxpayer numbers are issued to undocumented immigrants so they can file their taxes. Currently, landlords mostly accept Social Security numbers.
Ryan Perez worked alongside organizers last fall to launch a campaign, Vida Digna (dignified life), to advocate for undocumented immigrants who don’t have a Social Security number. Landlords typically use a Social Security number to check a prospective tenant’s credit score before issuing a lease. Credit checks can also be accomplished with taxpayer numbers, which are issued by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to undocumented immigrants who aren’t eligible for a Social Security number.
“We want to make sure that ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers) holders, who are inherently Minnesota taxpayers, are also getting access to opportunities that other Minnesota taxpayers have access to,” Perez said.
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Some landlords already accept taxpayer numbers, but it’s unclear how many. Perez said that some landlords the Vida Digna campaign spoke with were unsure if it was legal to use the taxpayer number.
The measure would significantly affect many undocumented immigrants who live in rural areas, particularly south central Minnesota, where housing options are limited, said Perez, who is the leadership and organizing director of Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action.
“Minnesota, as a state, should not care about what your federal immigration status is,” Perez said. “It’s about further codifying what should be equal human rights for ITIN (Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers) holders.”
Other organizations that worked on the Vida Digna campaign include Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research, Latino Economic Development Center, and LatinoLEAD.
Tenants control repairs
The bill would also allow tenants to repair their own units or hire help if their landlords haven’t resolved the issue within 14 days of receiving a written notice requesting repairs. Tenants would then supply their receipts to their landlords, and the cost would be deducted from their rent.
The bill would also grant tenants the right to organize, distribute flyers and host meetings in an effort to improve conditions in their building.
Protecting domestic abuse survivors
The bill would clarify and update existing state housing laws, said Representative Esther Agbaje, DFL, who is the bill’s lead author in the House.
Minnesota currently has a law that allows victims of domestic violence to terminate a lease early. But landlords often don’t accept a victim’s notice to end a lease if they’ve already fled, said Ann McFarland, an attorney for Standpoint, a legal advocacy group that works with domestic abuse survivors.
The bill would require landlords to accept such notices even if tenants leave before filing the notice. The bill would also prevent landlords from filing an eviction notice against victims who terminate their leases early.
“The updates that we made at this point will be very helpful for victims/survivors,” McFarland said. “We’re hoping that … when a victim survivor needs to leave for safety, that it will make that process a little bit less stressful.”
Although the House and Senate bills share some similarities, the House version includes many measures that don’t appear in the Senate version. Some of those measures include prohibiting discrimination against individuals who use housing assistance, such as Section 8 vouchers, and new penalties for landlord violations. The differences between the two bills will be settled at a later date in conference committee.
HOME Line, a nonprofit that provides free and low-cost services to renters, advocated for increasing penalties against landlords who violate housing laws.
“I don’t see it being a contentious conference committee,” Agbaje said of the process of melding the House and Senate versions into a single, final bill. “Once that gets all sorted out, we will come together and create the most robust tenants rights’ package that we can.”
