Section B of the RAD Just Cause amendment demands for tenants the privilege of an endless lease. RAD says the endless lease is compassionate. Let’s be real here. To demand the option of an endless lease while homeless people endlessly wait is not compassion, it is self-interest. To preach it as compassion shows no thought even of the existence of homeless people. Section B creates a class of priveleged landed tenants and an under-class of permanently homeless people.
Section B) “This charter provision excludes from ‘just cause’ the expiration of a rental agreement as sole grounds for termination of tenancy.”
In other words, when a lease is over a tenant doesn’t have to move out, regardless of the lease agreement, regardless of people that were waiting for that apartment, regardless of the homeless people waiting in the snow.
((BCS creates emergency housing; we advocate rent control and eviction control. Except for the lease privilege the proposal is our Just Cause amendment that we started in late 2020. RAD added the endless lease option and published it without our permission and without our attorney’s approval.))
How gross that Brattleboro is considering this while town government tries to evict our homeless shelter. This law pretends that homeless people don’t count, don’t even exist. Homeless people should protest around Brattleboro how gross this is !!
#BCS
RAD?
When using an acronym, it is best to spell out at once what it stands for.
Misunderstanding
Homelessness is indeed a serious problem in our community and many others. However, this proposal will not create a permanent “class” of homeless people. That would only be the case if there were adequate affordable housing (which there isn’t) and if landlords who would be prevented from not evicting people for no cause would otherwise evict those tenants in order to rent to a person experiencing homelessness. Even the landlords who are organizing against this reform are not claiming that it would keep them from evicting tenants for no cause in order to rent to people who are homeless.
Currently landlords are able to evict people without cause, and that is not solving the problem of homelessness so I think it’s misguided to think that maintaining the status quo will address homelessness.
Just cause eviction addresses one aspect of the housing problem. It provides protections for tenants who have abided by the terms of their lease. It means they can feel some measure of security if they abide by the terms of their lease, and speak up about health and safety violations without worrying that they will be evicted for a more “compliant” tenant. It is a step forward, and we need additional steps–with different tools–to address other housing issues such as homelessness and near-homelessness (being a paycheck away from losing a home).