Michigan House Democrats are introducing more than a dozen bills they say would give tenants more protections against evictions and unfair housing practices.
The package includes bills to conceal eviction records, and stop landlords from denying a place to someone solely because of bad credit.
Khadja Erickson is with the Mid-Michigan Tenant Resource Center. She said landlords often use past eviction filings against potential tenants, regardless of how long ago they were or other context around them.
“Providing ways for people to seal an eviction record, but also forcing [landlords] to provide real reasons to deny people and then revealing those reasons so that a tenant could then take that information and increase their chances of finding tenancy elsewhere is really, really important for reducing the amount of people going into homelessness,” Erickson said during a press conference announcing the legislation Thursday.
Another bill in the package would limit the miscellaneous fees landlords can charge.
Package co-sponsor state Representative Jason Morgan (D-Ann Arbor) said people are being priced out because of what he calls “junk fees.”
“Whether it’s a move in fee, a move out fee, redecorating fee, whether it’s a technology fee, whether it’s a -- in Ann Arbor, we have waitlist fees for housing that may never become available in the first place -- and folks don’t get that money back,” Morgan said.
Morgan said the legislation builds upon renters' rights bills that didn’t pass last term, when Democrats controlled the House of Representatives.
One bill, concerning application fees, ran into opposition from small business and realtor groups, which argued the legislation would just lead to higher rents or overregulation.
The current package is likely to face similar setbacks now that Republicans are in control of the House of Representatives.
Morgan said he doesn’t have any illusions about that. But he said the current bills aren’t just “messaging.”
“We’ve got to keep doing this, fine-tuning these bills, packaging solutions to the complex problems that residents are facing with their housing. Getting that ready so that when we have a majority again, we can get these things passed,” Morgan said.
House Republicans approached for comment Thursday said they did not know enough about the newly-introduced legislation to weigh in on the matter by deadline.
