See YOU at the Capitol Today?

Solidarity Sing A-long, Tenants’ Rights and Local Control Rally and Get Well Soon Unions!

SOLIDARITY SING A-LONG
So, by now you know the drill. Noon, capitol, no security to go through! Hopefully no need for steel toes or mouth guards.

TENANTS’ RIGHTS AND LOCAL CONTROL RALLY

March: 5:00 pm
Begins at State St. entrance to the capitol.

We will circle the capitol once before proceeding to the City – County Building.

Rally: 5:30 pm
City – County Building, 210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.

SB 107 / AB 155 will roll back over a decade’s worth of tenants’ rights legislation in Madison. It is an assault on tenants’ rights and an affront to local government.

The bill nullifies ordinances developed over many years and with careful attention to the special issues faced by both tenants and landlords in Madison, and it severely limits the power of municipalities to regulate tenant-landlord relations in Wisconsin.

In effect, this is the state government telling municipal governments that they are incapable of governing themselves.

It is time to stand up for local government! It is time to stand up for tenants’ rights!

You can read the text of the bill here: http://tinyurl.com/6998dkw

Read a response to the bill by Brenda Konkel, the executive director of Madison’s Tenant Resource Center, here: http://tinyurl.com/634qh9x

A NOTE EXPLAINING THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TENANTS’ RIGHTS BILL
by John Quinlan

In the absence of clear and reasonable guidelines, like those we worked so hard to put into the Madison landlord-tenant ordinances and county fair housing laws, a significant minority of area property owners/managers may very well end up doing lots of stupid things that hurt everybody, including other landlords. Things like asking for multiple months worth of security deposits; showing someone’s apartment with little regard for the privacy of those living there currently; allowing those owners who allow their properties to fall into disrepair to get away with it, not only endangering tenant health and safety, but decreasing the value of neighboring housing; and making outrageous demands of tenants in contracts and other practices that eventually get those landlords in significant legal trouble anyway. And things like turning away tenants from housing based on gut feelings rather than objective criteria, exposing tenants to discrimination, and opening themselves up to costly lawsuits.

Why aren’t there more “pro-landlord” clauses in our ordinances? It’s because the tenant is the consumer and needs to be protected, because tenants literally have to live with the consequences of the tenant-landlord relationship, while the landlord does not. The landlord writes the lease contract, and therein lies great potential for abuse, if its provisions remain unchecked by local laws. In fact, the ability for a landlord to dictate the terms of the lease produce an environment where otherwise the landlord holds all of the chips. In the absence of counter-balancing legislation that protects basic tenants’ rights, this often leads to excesses and abuse by a small but significant number of landlords. And that hurts everyone.

Dane County’s fair housing laws aren’t unreasonable; they simply ask a property owner to apply consistent standards when seeking tenants—objectively-applied standards that don’t discriminate against people, intentionally or otherwise. This kind of consistency of practice is a good business tool. Madison’s housing ordinances are far from excessive; they’re commonsensical, and seldom involve more than providing clear ways for people living in unsafe conditions to seek remedies, and to have basic rights of privacy. Those of us who’ve counseled tenants from both inside and outside of Madison know how few basic protections people have in the rest of the state. It’s poorly-written and ill-defined state law that should be brought into agreement with Madison’s laws, not the other way around.

This proposal to gut local tenant-landlord laws represents greed in action, pure and simple, and will only result in increased antagonisms in tenant-landlord relationships, or more people living in homelessness or dangerous housing circumstances. All but the most extreme ideologue recognizes that legal ambiguity in areas addressing basic needs like food, medicine, and housing is not a good thing. Government can and should have a role in establishing basic standards in these areas. Unless you want to establish a system where all landlords become legally liable for the actions of their most irresponsible peers, strong local laws are needed to insure good practices, where both tenants and owners and managers are protected from the excesses of these irresponsible landlords.

These ordinances spanning many decades were not produced in a vacuum; landlords had a place in the table. These ordinances were drafted in a spirit of compromise, and to say otherwise is being disingenuous. To property owners and managers (and it’s not all of them) speaking out in support of this usurpation of basic rights, I ask you: why do you think landlords are now entitled to special rights? In what other business is it good to support laws that promote conflict rather than clarity with one’s customers? Why do you think it’s OK to be above laws that are reflective of good business practices of the kind that retailers and other providers of service simply take for granted as good business practices? Business people need protection from those customers who do harm to their property and their livelihoods, but these protections are already on the books. As someone who’s been both a landlord and a tenant advocate, the injustice happening here is extremely apparent to me. Whether you’re a homeowner, a rental property owner, or a tenant, please come out on Wednesday to protest this usurpation of local rights in the name of greed. We all deserve better.

Recipient of the city of Madison’s 2008 Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award, John Quinlan has worked as a property manager, and his family has owned Madison area rental properties. He is also a past director of the Tenant Resource Center, past president of the Fair Housing Council, and was a longtime housing counselor. In those positions, he has seen countless examples where property owner/managers and housing consumers have come together in common cause, reflective of the values of our local community. This draconian bill would roll back that history significantly.

GET WELL SOON UNIONS
9:30 am to 8 pm

On Wednesday, June 29, the attack on unions will begin to be implemented. Let’s gather to wish the unions a speedy recovery.

Let’s let the unions of Wisconsin know that we are hoping they get well soon. We, the people of Wisconsin, are here to support the unions in their struggle to regain full strength.

We will have balloons and cards, but please BRING YOUR OWN GET WELL SOON CARDS, bring balloons, stuffed animals, or anything else that will help the Unions get well soon.

We are encouraging people to come out after the Solidarity Sing-Along, and to come out after work and after the 5pm rally for Tenants Rights.