This commentary was coordinated by Chris Donnelly of Champlain Housing Trust, and co-authored by nine executive directors and CEOs of Vermont’s housing nonprofits, which collectively own and manage over 8,300 affordable apartments across the state.
While Vermont’s visible challenges with drug trafficking may be happening in our downtowns and in parks, what’s happening inside residential apartment buildings is also putting citizens and their neighbors at risk in the very places they call home. This trafficking is surprisingly often operating under tacit protections from state law as property owners cannot prohibit guests of tenants from being in the building even if they are selling drugs or preying on vulnerable tenants. The resulting risks are exacerbated by a lengthy court process that takes months to resolve. And we see that this is putting vulnerable Vermonters in harm’s way.
H.772 addresses some of these issues. Known at the Statehouse as the “landlord-tenant bill,” it is working its way through the Legislature and gained passage by a 120-21 roll-call vote in the House a couple of weeks ago. The Senate is now taking up the bill.
H.772 makes changes to expedite rental termination and eviction processes when there’s a real reason, while lengthening the time for no-cause evictions. Following compelling testimony by advocates, it offers tenants the opportunity to ask for part of their security deposit back early. It also prevents landlords from raising rent more than once per year. The bill attempts to balance the need to move faster to remove threatening tenants and give more time when tenants have done nothing wrong.
Vermont’s mission-based housing nonprofits cover every county of the state. We manage about 8,300 apartments, and we support this bill.
Our tenants are working Vermonters, older Vermonters and Vermonters living with disabilities. Roughly a quarter of them were unhoused before securing their apartment.
Our organizations have been tasked by the state to serve the most vulnerable people in our communities, particularly since the pandemic. This is our mission, and we have been trying to meet the needs of our tenants across the state by increasing the services we offer.
When someone lives in one of our apartments, they have security of tenure, meaning that if they abide by the lease and pay the rent, their lease will be renewed. Rents are stabilized and only increase with the actual cost to operate the property, which includes property taxes, as our properties are not tax-exempt. According to one survey, our residents rent their apartments for an average of about six years.
We promise our tenants housing that is safe, secure and stable. But too often we have been unable to fulfill this promise because of limitations in the state’s laws and lengthy court processes. That’s why we support H.772.
Specifically, the bill does four things:
It addresses threats to the safety of others. When a tenant or guest engages in violent, illegal or threatening activity toward others, currently we don’t have the tools to protect the people living around them, or our staff. H.772 allows us to move quickly to prevent harm to others by reducing the notice time for a lease termination, accompanied by a sworn statement that identifies the risk. If the threat remains, the bill allows a motion to be filed requesting an expedited process that mimics other timeframes in Superior Court. The threshold for this process is that there’s an ongoing risk; the ability to move faster is critical to supporting the vulnerable tenants living in the building.
It also enables no-trespass orders. When tenants are preyed upon by others, we currently have few tools to support them. As victims, they often feel threatened to the extent that they will not speak up. Drug dealing enterprises, especially, have exploited this loophole in the law as it allows people to set up their business under the safety of someone else’s home. H.772 allows us to be our tenants’ advocates and rid a property of people taking advantage of them and others by adding specific conditions that allow a property owner to issue a no-trespass order.
It will protect staff safety. Our organizations all have stories of violence, threats or other concerns that current law prevents us from addressing, which is extremely frustrating. Most of our organizations have apartments that are on watch lists requiring two staff to visit; some apartments are assessed as too dangerous for us even to enter. Current situations are also causing enough stress and concern among staff that we are having a hard time retaining and recruiting, even as all of us have increased our resident services staffing to engage with tenants and connect them to other services and work to prevent evictions.
Finally, the bill will support sustainability. While our primary concern is the safety of our tenants and our staff, we are also seeing a significant impact on our financial stability. When the aspirational goal of resolving an eviction case in the courts is six months, and by the court’s admission, they meet that goal only 80% of the time, it means that 20% of the time it’s not met. We now spend more money on security and attorneys and carry greater rental arrears than before the pandemic. Collectively, this amounts to hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars that could be spent more productively. It also threatens the long-term financial stability of our properties.
Collectively, our organizations ask for action now to protect our tenants, staff and properties.
Elise Shanbacker, executive director of Addison Housing Works; Kim Fitzgerald, CEO of Cathedral Square; Michael Monte, CEO of Champlain Housing Trust; Mary Cohen, CEO of Cornerstone Housing Partners; Angie Harbin, executive director of Downstreet Housing and Community Development; Nancy Owens, president and co-founder of Evernorth; Patrick Shattuck, executive director of RuralEdge Housing and Community Development; Andrew Winter, executive director of Twin Pines Housing; and Elizabeth Bridgewater, executive director of Windham and Windsor Housing Trust.
