An effort to ban evictions “without cause” in Burlington hit a major speed bump Tuesday, as Gov. Phil Scott vetoed legislation to give city leaders the authority to pass tighter restrictions around rental housing.
H.708, an amendment to Burlington’s city charter, would empower city councilors to enact an ordinance limiting when landlords could evict or not renew a tenant’s lease. The measure was passed by 63% of Burlington voters in March 2021, and then by the Vermont House and Senate (with some tweaks) this year.
With Scott’s rejection, the future of the charter change is now uncertain. It would take a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the Legislature to override the veto.
In the House vote on Feb. 18, the measure received 98 votes, though two of the body’s 150 members were absent. The bill cleared the Senate on April 7 in a voice vote, but at least a handful of dissents could be heard among that body’s 30 members.
Since the bill originated in the House, that chamber would need to override the governor’s veto before the Senate could make an attempt.
As of Tuesday evening, House leadership had not yet convened to discuss whether they would attempt a veto override, said Connor Kennedy, a spokesperson for House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington.
The Senate is preparing for a potential override attempt, according to Carolyn Wesley, a spokesperson for Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham.
“Sen. Balint is a strong supporter of the Charter, and will be doing a vote count on the Senate side,” Wesley said in a statement.
The charter change, in Scott’s view, threatened to worsen the state’s housing crisis.
“By making it exceedingly difficult to remove tenants from a rental unit, even at the end of a signed lease, my fear is this bill will discourage property owners from renting to vulnerable prospective tenants, or to rent their units at all,” Scott wrote in a letter to lawmakers explaining his veto.
“More preference will be given to renters with high credit scores, no criminal history, and positive references from previous landlords, creating further disparity for Vermonters,” Scott said.
Instead of passing the charter change, the governor said, his administration was addressing the state’s affordable housing problem by promoting more development of residential properties.
“We must build new and revitalized housing more quickly, support exemptions from permitting in designated areas, and stop making it more and more expensive to rent, own, build and live in Vermont,” Scott said in the letter.
Scott’s claims cut against arguments made by proponents of the bill, who contend the legislation would save vulnerable tenants from unwarranted evictions by landlords.
“It’s a false debate,” said Burlington City Councilor Zoraya Hightower, P-Ward 1, one of the charter change’s lead proponents, after the veto was announced on Tuesday. “People are using racial justice, social justice language to criticize something that without question would support vulnerable renters.”
The charter change’s supporters also noted that several municipalities and states around the country have already placed restrictions on “no-cause evictions,” apparently with no grave effects on housing markets.
“This is not some, ‘Wow, Vermont is going to pass this new, cutting-edge law,’” Rep. Barbara Rachelson, D-Burlington, said of the measure during a debate on the House floor earlier this year.
As passed by the Legislature, the charter change would ultimately forbid landlords from evicting a tenant, not offering a lease renewal, or raising the rent enough to cause a “de facto eviction,” with a number of exceptions.
Committing a crime on the rental property, violating one’s lease (including failure to pay rent) and “adversely affect(ing) the health and safety of the other tenants, the landlord, or the landlord’s representative” would all count as a “just cause” for which a landlord could evict a tenant, according to the bill.
In addition, property owners can opt not to renew a lease if the landlord or an immediate family member plans to occupy the unit, or if the unit “is in need of substantial renovations that preclude occupancy,” the legislation states. Duplexes and triplexes where an owner lives in one of the units would be exempt from the ordinance.
The bill says that landlords can choose not to extend a tenant’s lease during a “reasonable probationary period” after they move in, but does not define “reasonable.”
If a landlord does evict or not renew the lease of a tenant, the ordinance created by the charter change would require the landlord to provide the tenant with a relocation stipend that cannot exceed a month’s worth of rent. The ordinance is also supposed to “mitigate potential impacts on small landlords.”
After news of the veto broke Tuesday evening, Hightower and other supporters of the charter change called on constituents across the state to petition their lawmakers for an override.
“Anyone who lives in Burlington knows we need this,” Hightower told VTDigger. “I think some of the folks in the House and the Senate who don’t live in Burlington … don’t know that.”
Rights and Democracy, a progressive interest group that campaigned on behalf of the charter change in Burlington, blasted Scott in a statement, and vowed to rally the support needed to override his veto.
“With this veto, (Scott) shows his blatant disregard for municipal rule when he does not agree with how municipalities use their democratic power,” housing organizer Tom Proctor said in a statement. “It also shows that he has no interest in protecting the basic right to safe, affordable, and secure housing for low income Vermonters.”
When asked what the City Council could do if the veto override failed, Hightower declined to speculate.
“Unfortunately, the city doesn’t have more authority than the charter gives us,” she said, “so we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
