AUSTIN, Texas — On Thursday, the Austin City Council will vote on two pressing tenant rights topics, codifying an ordinance to include the right to organize without retaliation from landlords and creating a renters' rights program.
"Renters do not have a lot of rights in Texas," said Councilmember Vanessa Fuentes. "The rights that renters do have, we don't know about them."
As so many Central Texans struggle with unaffordability, city leaders say over half of Austinites are renters, yet renters' rights are very minimal.
Fuentes hopes that will change once the council votes on codifying the ordinance to include tenants' rights to organize without retaliation.
"Enshrining that protection so that any renter can have conversations with their neighbors without the fear of retaliation and with that protection that what they're doing is totally legal," said Fuentes.
Fuentes said this would help weed out bad landlords who take advantage of renters.
"An elderly man shared with me that he was once yelled at by his property management team because he was having conversations with his neighbors," said Fuentes. "That is simply not OK."
The council will also vote on creating a tenants' rights assistance program that would provide counseling and resources to help tenants and managers resolve issues.
"It's the same sentiment here," said Principal of Metric Property Management and head of Austin Apartment Association Lyndsay Hanes.
Hanes said she agrees that education is the right move but codifying the ordinance, not so much.
"Rental housing providers have state laws in place that cover retaliation, so adding that additional and unnecessary layer has some really significant unintended consequences that could complicate the housing providers' ability to enforce the apartment lease contract," said Hanes.
"As long as a landlord can show that they are in good faith conversations with their tenants, then they'll be fine," Fuentes said.
If you would like to weigh in, there is still time to sign up to speak at Thursday's city council meeting.
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