| Hello renters and allies! The Rent Is Too Damn High coalition is making our voices heard in the halls of power, but there’s a lot more work to do. Here are some recent political updates. |
| Ingham County close to recommending affordable housing millage Ingham County officials are considering a millage that would generate $5.6m annually for affordable housing and homelessness prevention in the greater Lansing area. The measure was officially recommended by an important county committee on Tuesday June 18. Now it needs to be passed by the full board of commissioners to be placed on November’s ballot for the voters to approve. Lansing Rent Is Too Damn High has been turning out local renters to comment in favor of the millage. If you are an Ingham County resident, consider contacting your commissioner to express your support for the affordable housing millage (find your commissioner here). We will continue to monitor this issue and keep you updated as it moves forward. |
| More renters’ rights bills introduced in state legislature, but passage uncertain A few more Democratic legislators have stepped up to introduce renters’ rights bills. Rep. Amos O’Neal of Saginaw introduced a package of 15 bills (HB 5753-5767). These bills range from very minor to quite significant, but on the whole they are worthy of support and fit into our call for a Renters Bill of Rights. The most exciting of all the bills in the package is a “Good Cause Eviction” law (HB 5756) sponsored by Rep. Natalie Price. This law, if passed, would strengthen renters’ right to renew their lease. This would give us all greater confidence that we won’t be pushed out arbitrarily by our landlords when the lease is up. In the Senate, Sen. Sarah Anthony of Lansing introduced bills (SB 900-903) to affirm and strengthen renters’ Right to Organize a tenants union, and Right to Repair our homes while deducting expenses from the next rent check. These bills join other important renters’ rights bills already in the House and Senate, including Rep. Dievendorf’s Renters Bill of Rights package and Rep. Rheingans’ Lift The Ban on Rent Control, among others. This session has seen more renters’ rights bills introduced than in any other recent legislature — but bills and press releases don’t strengthen renters rights. Laws do. Bottom line, we need these bills to become laws this year. That’s up to Democratic leadership, especially Governor Whitmer, and House Speaker Joe Tate. If we don’t see these bills move, it will mean that the most powerful Democrats in the state bowed to the landlord lobby rather than listening to renters. |
| Lansing Center picket results in meetings with MSHDA and governor’s office After we picketed the Building Michigan Communities Conference at the Lansing Center (check out the video from the picket!), the state housing agency MSHDA reached out to the RITDH statewide Steering Committee about having a meeting with us. Meanwhile, coalition members We The People – MI took the lead on scheduling a meeting with Governor Whitmer’s policy team. The MSHDA meeting happened last week, and the meeting with the governor’s team is coming up in mid-July. There isn’t much to report from the MSHDA meeting other than the news that they are considering doing a mixed-income social housing pilot, which would be a positive step towards implementing a full social housing program as called for in our platform. It also appears that MSHDA is sympathetic, or at least not opposed, to our demands for renters’ rights — but as an executive agency they are unable to advocate for these priorities without approval from the governor. As with so much in our state politics right now, it all comes down to the governor. Do renters play a role in her political future, or is she hoping to ride with the landlords and developers all the way to the White House? |
| Polling shows MI renters lean Democratic — But will they vote? Finally, I’d like to share some interesting data from the Center for Popular Democracy, which recently polled voters in five swing states including Michigan. Here’s what they found:Renters are more likely than homeowners to be DemocratsRenters are less likely than homeowners to voteHowever, renters are more likely to vote if they hear politicians fighting for renters rightsRent control, social housing, and other renters’ rights bills are all more popular among the electorate than merely increasing the supply of housing (Here’s the full report if you’d like to read it.) One would think that the Governor and Democratic leadership would take heed of this polling in an important election year. Yet all we keep hearing from the top is “build baby build”, and scarcely a word about renters’ rights. More organizing is required. We are being noticed, but disregarded. We are making allies, but our opponents are still more numerous. The only antidote is more power, the kind of power you build by organizing. Let’s keep building it, one day at a time. |
| That’s it for today. We’ll send another email soon with organizing updates from Rent Is Too Damn High member groups around the state. Please be in touch if you have local updates or organizing successes that you would like shared with the whole coalition via this email list. Will |
