This commentary is by Kiah Morris of Essex Junction, Rights & Democracy’s executive director and a former two-term state representative.
This past summer, I learned that my family was going to have to leave our home in Colchester and find a new place to live — in the midst of spiking rents and a severe housing shortage, and with my son recently settled into a new school after we were forced to leave Bennington just a couple of years earlier.
I found out in June that my family would be evicted, along with my whole neighborhood, because the corporate landlord planned to sell the properties. We were all given just two months’ notice, via a letter that was not notarized or signed.
No-cause evictions like the one I experienced — evictions without a legally justifiable cause — are an increasingly common experience for Vermont renters. I have heard numerous stories from friends, colleagues and community members throughout the state that painfully resemble my own.
According to Vermont Legal Aid, in 2021, no-cause evictions represented 50% of cases filed in court, up significantly from prior years. Without protections in place, corporate landlords are free to evict tenants simply to sell buildings or raise the rent, while abusive landlords may do so in retaliation for a tenant raising concerns about lease or code violations.
After having our peace and stability stripped from us and scrambling for over a month to find housing, my family is now safely housed in Essex Junction. But for many tenants with a lower budget, no reliable vehicle for a work commute, a chronic medical condition, or any combination of circumstances, a no-cause eviction can easily lead to crisis, and homelessness. Nationally, Black and women renters are disproportionately impacted by the ongoing legacy of unjust housing policies and the threat of eviction.
The situation for people who experience a no-cause eviction is particularly dire, given that the median price of a Vermont home jumped by 15% in 2022 and rental housing availability is at its lowest point in decades, as low as 0.4% in population centers like Burlington. Meanwhile, Vermont now has the second-highest homelessness rate of any state in the country, after California, with homelessness rising 259% between 2007 and 2021.
This March 7, voters in my neighboring town of Essex, as well as in Winooski and in Brattleboro, have the opportunity to say yes to ballot measures that will make it possible to protect renters from no-cause evictions.
By passing Article 9 in Essex, Article 4 in Winooski, and Article 2 in Brattleboro, we can establish the basis for enacting policies to require landlords to have a legally justifiable cause for an eviction and ensure that tenants who have followed the rules of their lease will be safe from eviction.
As a person who has experienced the impacts of no-cause evictions, and as executive director of Rights & Democracy, a grassroots organization committed to winning changes that improve the lives of working Vermonters and our most impacted communities, I believe just-cause eviction is a critical and common-sense policy. Just–cause eviction is already law in five states, including our neighboring state of New Hampshire, and our federal administration supports it too: “To prevent evictions,” the Biden White House wrote last month, “renters should have access to just- or good-cause eviction protections.”
Just-cause eviction alone will not solve our housing crisis, but it will provide needed relief and protections as we continue the work for policies that will permanently guarantee safe, stable housing for all. And for landlords who are acting in good faith, there is no reason for concern; in fact, given that no-cause evictions represent such a high percentage of cases in court, just-cause eviction will have the benefit of freeing up eviction courts to more quickly process justified eviction cases.
With just-cause eviction as a reality, I would not have had to pack up my family, scramble for housing, and change towns this past summer. Our landlord would have been required to provide a legitimate reason for eviction. My neighbors would not have been displaced, their lives would not have been disrupted, and we would have continued to live in community together. And my fellow renters throughout Vermont would not be housed one day and homeless the next as the result of a corporate landlord’s decision to evict and raise rents for profit.
If you are an Essex, Winooski, or Brattleboro voter, please vote yes for just-cause eviction on your ballot this March 7, so that we can establish meaningful protections for renters. We all deserve a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.
