HJL’s State-Level Legislative Priorities

POST-CROSSOVER DAY UPDATE - MARCH 13, 2023

Monday, March 6th was Crossover Day in the Georgia General Assembly, the day when all bills have to be passed by one chamber or the other if they are to continue moving forward for the rest of the legislative session. We’d previously highlighted a number of housing-related bills introduced in the early days of this legislative session that we were monitoring, and even more were introduced in the final weeks before Crossover Day. Following Crossover Day, just three housing bills remain. A couple of these bills will be familiar to those who followed our earlier recommendations, but some late-breaking changes have also affected our previous takes in the last few weeks. These bills all have until March 29th to be passed out of committee and then the full chamber of either the House or Senate, so it’s important to let your state legislators know how you feel about these three bills as soon as possible!

HJL’s Priorities:

HB404 - The Safe at Home Act

HJL’s Position: SUPPORT

House Bill 404 was one of our original priority bills under consideration. Introduced by Republican state representatives in response to growing awareness of the exploitation of tenants by large landlords in and beyond Atlanta, HB404 had some significant issues in its original form that led us to initially oppose the bill. But before the bill was passed by a unanimous 168-0 vote in the State House on March 2, the bill’s co-sponsors made some key amendments to the original proposal after hearing from HJL and other housing advocates across the state. We were successful in getting the problematic provisions about expedited evictions dropped from the bill, as well as getting the cap on security deposits lowered from three months to two months worth of rent. While there are still elements of HB404 that we believe aren't entirely sufficient to the task of addressing the plight of renters across the state of Georgia, with the removal of the bill's worst provisions we can now support this bill as it now moves on to consideration in the State Senate, where it has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. We hope that HB404 is just the first step in passing stronger regulations to protect Georgia’s renters.

HB514 - The Housing Regulation Transparency Act

HJL’s Position: OPPOSE

One of the new additions to the housing-related docket is House Bill 514 - also known as the The Housing Regulation Transparency Act - which was one of a few paired bills introduced later in the month of February. While each of these bills were offered under the guise of promoting affordable housing - and therefore garnered a handful of progressive Democratic co-sponsors - these bills were actually meant to preempt local regulations of the emerging class of build-to-rent (BTR) subdivisions owned by giant corporate landlords across the state. A bill similar to HB514 failed in last year's legislative session, HB514 ended up passing the House by a 127-43 vote, including many 'yea' votes by Democrats, with the other related bills stalling out. Despite having some concerns over the way that municipalities have exercised local zoning regulations with regards to renters, HJL nonetheless opposes HB514 because of the precedent it sets for further state preemption of local regulation of exploitative landlords. HB514 is currently referred to the Senate Economic Development and Tourism Committee.

SB62 - Anti-Homeless Bill

HJL’s Position: OPPOSE

Since our initial rundown last month, Senate Bill 62 passed the full Senate by a 49-7 vote and was referred to the House Governmental Affairs Committee following Crossover Day. As we wrote before, SB62 is aimed at forcing municipalities across the state - especially Atlanta - to more strictly police homeless populations in public spaces. Written and promoted by the right-wing Cicero Institute think tank, SB62 ignores all available evidence about the best solutions to the growing numbers of homelessness across the country by criminalizing both individuals and municipalities and mandating a crackdown on our most vulnerable residents.

February 2023 update:

The Georgia General Assembly’s 2023 Regular Legislative Session kicked off early last month, and a number of housing-related bills have already been introduced in both the State House and State Senate. Housing Justice League is continually monitoring developments at the state legislature, and we strongly encourage our members and other concerned citizens to engage with their state legislators around these proposed bills that have the potential to either advance or hinder the movement for housing justice in Atlanta and across the state of Georgia. Below we’ve provided details on a number of bills of particular concern and whether we believe they should be supported or opposed. While we particularly encourage our members and allies to focus on the three priority bills related to landlord-tenant law and rent control, we’ve also provided details on a number of other bills of interest. (Updated as of February 21, 2023)

HJL’S PRIORITIES

HB344 - Changes to Landlord-Tenant Laws

HJL’s Position: STRONGLY SUPPORT

HB344 was introduced by Democratic State Representative Marvin Lim and co-sponsored by fellow Democratic Reps. Spencer Frye, Becky Evans, Mesha Mainor, Karen Lupton and Jasmine Clark. HB344 is most notable for making explicit the implied "warranty of habitability", which requires landlords to maintain a safe and livable residence for tenants. Currently, Georgia is one of just three states where this is not explicitly guaranteed by state law. HB344 would also provide better mechanisms by which tenants can hold their landlords accountable when landlords do not meet their obligations, including the cancellation of the lease or withholding of rent payments, neither of which are currently allowed under state law. HB344 is currently referred to the House Judiciary Committee, along with a similar bill…

HB404 - The Safe at Home Act

HJL’s Position: OPPOSE UNLESS AMENDED

Like HB344, HB404 has been introduced as a way of responding to the shortcomings in Georgia’s landlord-tenant laws as outlined in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s “Dangerous Dwellings” series from last summer. But unlike HB344, HB404 was authored by Republican State Representative Kasey Carpenter, and co-sponsored by three Republicans and two Democrats. The bill has also garnered the support of Republican House Speaker Jon Burns, suggesting the bill has a higher chance of being passed into law than HB344, and so should be treated on its own terms.

HB404 would also make explicit the implied "warranty of habitability", as well as introduce a three day "right-to-cure" period after missed rental payments, during which time landlords would not be able to file for eviction. Both of these are significant positives and should be supported, though we would also like to see these provisions strengthened even more to include a more explicit description of habitability and a seven day right-to-cure period. HB404 does not, however, include the same mechanisms for tenants to hold landlords accountable for these obligations, and therefore raises questions about how effective it would be without those supports.

More importantly, HB404 also contains a provision that allows for evictions to be expedited for tenants who are convicted - or even charged - with certain crimes. HJL stands opposed to any laws that would facilitate an already expeditious eviction process across Georgia, especially without due process for affected tenants accused of criminal offenses. HB404 has also been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.

SB125 - Repeal of Statewide Ban on Rent Control

HJL’s Position: STRONGLY SUPPORT

SB125 is another priority bill introduced in the current legislative session, introduced by Democratic State Senator Donzella James. While the bill does not currently have any co-sponsors, HJL strongly supports Rep. James and her efforts to repeal Georgia’s statewide ban on rent control. At present, Georgia State Code Section 44-7-19 explicitly prohibits any local governments from enacting statutes that regulate rents within their jurisdiction, a crucial tool for combating the housing affordability crisis currently plaguing renters across the city of Atlanta, the state of Georgia and the entire country. As part of the Georgia For All Rent Stabilization Coalition, HJL is an ardent advocate for rental regulation in Atlanta and elsewhere across the state, and we strongly believe that municipalities should be able to design and implement their own laws related to rent control. SB125 has been referred to the Senate State and Local Government Operations Committee.

OTHER BILLS WE’RE MONITORING

HB108 - Updates to Georgia Fair Housing Act

HJL’s Position: SUPPORT

HB108, introduced by Democratic State Rep. Sandra Scott along with fellow Democratic co-sponsors Viola Davis and Kim Schofield, would extend the Georgia Fair Housing Act (along with other state laws covering public accommodations and employment) to explicitly bar discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and age. HJL remains firmly committed to building a fair and just housing system free of discrimination of any kind, and therefore we support HB108.

HB304 - Uniform Residential Landlord-Tenant Act (URLTA)

HJL’s Position: OPPOSE

Like two of our priority bills listed above, HB304 would enact changes to Georgia’s landlord tenant laws. But because HB304 does not currently have any co-sponsors apart from Democratic State Rep. Yasmin Neal who introduced it, we are not currently considering it a priority.

Specifically, HB304 would enact the Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act (or URLTA), a piece of model legislation adopted by states and municipalities across the country in order to provide consistency in landlord-tenant law across jurisdictions. While URLTA represents an improvement on Georgia's current lack of tenant protections in some ways (e.g., making explicit the warranty of habitability like HB344 and HB404), it would also represent a step in the wrong direction in others. For instance, under URLTA, tenants are allowed to withhold rent in order to ensure that landlords make necessary repairs. However, once those repairs are made, tenants must pay back all withheld rent, no matter how long they were forced to live in substandard conditions. Given this and other provisions within URLTA that maintain and reinforce the considerable imbalance of power between tenants and landlords, HJL opposes HB304 and instead favors alternative bills like HB344 which contain none of these problematic elements.

HB329 - Require Landlords to Collect and Report Crime Data to Tenants

HJL’s Position: NEUTRAL

HB329 is another bill that addresses one of the major findings of the AJC’s Dangerous Dwellings investigative series. In the AJC’s reporting, it was uncovered that many of the same apartment complexes that have been allowed to deteriorate by their absentee corporate landlords are also havens for criminal activity, especially violent crime. While some landlords claim ignorance of what happens on their properties, HB329, introduced by Democratic State Rep. Mesha Mainor along with Democratic co-sponsors Marvin Lim and Mack Jackson, would amend the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act to require some landlords to collect certain data on crimes occurring at their properties and report that data to tenants on a regular basis. It would only apply to properties with 50+ housing units and would only require landlords to collect data on certain violent crimes, sexual crimes and felony drug offenses, and then report that data to residents every six months. While HJL stands in solidarity with tenants who are forced to live in substandard conditions due to the negligence of landlords, we also stand against any expansions of the carceral state as a solution to our housing problems and believe other solutions are more appropriate to addressing these issues.

SB62 - Anti-Homeless Bill

HJL’s Position: OPPOSE

SB62 represents something of a revival of a bill from last year’s legislative session, aimed at forcing municipalities across the state - especially Atlanta - to more strictly police homeless populations in public spaces. Introduced by Republican State Senator Carden Summers, along with twelve Republican co-sponsors, would require cities to enforce public anti-camping and anti-sleeping laws that target homeless individuals on public sidewalks. SB62 would also create designated camping areas for the homeless separated from their existing support networks and services, all without allowing municipalities to provide input or planning in the location of these camps.

While SB62 represents an improvement over a similar bill from last year's legislative session, we remain concerned about this bill, which originates from the right-wing Cicero Institute think tank. HJL strongly believes that all people have a right to shelter and autonomy, and that SB62 would have no appreciable impact on providing meaningful solutions to the lack of shelter available to our most vulnerable residents.

SB62 has already passed out of the Senate State and Local Government Operations Committee by a 4-3 vote, being referred back to the full Senate for further debate.