Members of the Virginia General Assembly are about to consider a number of bills aimed at what they are calling an affordability agenda. That includes some efforts aimed at helping renters.
Two months’ rent in advance is often a requirement to move into a new place. Jay Speer at the Virginia Poverty Law Center says laying down two months of rent just to be able to move into a new place is a barrier for many low-income people.
"So, it keeps them from getting into decent housing. We also find that a lot of folks tell us that they don't get their security deposit back at the end of the tenancy," Speer says. "And so, when you have two months that you're not getting back, that’s obviously an even bigger of a problem for people who are already struggling to pay the bills."
One person who may have a solution is ACLU attorney Charlie Schmidt. He’ the Democrat running in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Delegate Mike Jones, who is running to fill the Senate seat vacated by Ghazala Hashmi, who was recently elected lieutenant governor. Schmidt says if elected to the House of Delegates on January 6th, he'll introduce a bill to limit security deposits to one month’s rent because most renters don't cause damage.
"The one that just completely trashes the unit, and that's an outlier. And we don't need to legislate for those outliers," says Schmidt. "We need to legislate to provide affordability and relief to tenants."
House Democrats are also working on a bill that would require landlords to notify tenants of rent increases 60 days in advance and another bill that would prevent landlords from charging junk fees for collecting trash, pest control and maintaining HVAC units.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
