Guest MINDSETTER™ Chris Rotondo: Time to Reconsider Just Cause

Guest MINDSETTER™ Chris Rotondo: Time to Reconsider Just Cause

With an emphasis on easing the burdens of doing business in Rhode Island, the General Assembly is plugging away at a budget that lowers the corporate tax rate, raises the ceiling on the estate tax, and raises the gas tax and the cost of a car inspection. One has to wonder how these easements will truly help businesses in Rhode Island, or lure others here, when they push the state’s consumers deeper into poverty. Businesses may come here to take advantage of the tax rate, and wealthy people might stay because of a change to the estate tax, but ordinary Rhode Islanders will likely be pushed out.

Forcing Rhode Island’s Families Out

Along with raising the costs of living and depleting our tax revenues, the General Assembly may be shelving legislation and quite literally enabling the eviction of hundreds of Rhode Island’s renters.

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Just Cause (H7449 and S2659), is a bill that would prevent the no-fault eviction of tenants whose landlords get foreclosed on by the bank. With homeownership farther and farther from reach, especially among the state’s working families and families of color, the threat of no-fault eviction due to foreclosure looms over many.

The title of the bill refers to the state’s Landlord-Tenant Act, which describes “just causes” for which a landlord can evict a tenant. The list includes: non-payment of rent, illegal activity, damage to the property, or violating a lease. The list does not include foreclosure. However, throughout the housing crisis banks have used foreclosure as a justification to evict hundreds of families from their apartments.

Affordable Housing is “Out of Reach” for Many Rhode Islanders

According to The National Low Income Housing Coalition, housing costs are already out of reach for many Rhode Island renters. In order to afford the fair market rent for a 2-bedroom apartment ($928 a month), a renter making the average wage ($11.92 an hour), would have to work 60 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. Add to this the 1,468 foreclosure deeds filed in 2013 and you have a rental crisis, as tenants evicted because of foreclosure drive up the demand on scarce and unaffordable rentals. In addition, those vacant, foreclosed properties stand empty, occasionally burning down, dragging down surrounding property values and further exacerbating the homeless and housing issues of our state.

No fault evictions after foreclosure are increasing homelessness, perpetuating blight, reducing available housing stock, pushing up rents, and fueling a housing crisis. It’s immoral and bad for the economy to allow banks to put families out, especially when they’ve done nothing wrong and are willing to pay rent. Why would legislators prefer a vacant home, the potential for vandalism and fire, the loss of wealth to the surrounding community, and a homeless family, to a property occupied by tenants who pay their rent and maintain the building? The House leadership seems to prefer this, even while the leaders of the Senate have shepherded the bill towards passage.

It’s time to question whether certain regulations, like the Just Cause eviction bill, wouldn’t in fact bolster a struggling economy, and at no cost to the state! It would, in fact, save the state and municipalities the costs of social services for those made homeless through eviction, provision of fire and police for vacant, bank-owned properties, and the protection of property values and subsequent tax revenue.

It’s time for the leadership of the House to reconsider whether it’s worth the cost of shelving this legislation.

Christopher Rotondo is an organizer for Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE).