St. Pete HLUT Committee Obstructs Tenant Protections...Again!

This morning, by a vote of 3-1 the Housing, Land Use & Transit committee voted to obstruct an ordinance which would require landlords to give 6 months notice for notice of rent increase, instead opting for a mere 60 days for those on year leases, and 21 days for those with monthly agreements. Despite receiving 180 emails in support, council members Gabbard, Driscoll & Montanari sided with corporate interests and the city’s tiny landlord minority over the needs of tens of thousands of St. Pete tenants.

Committee Chair Brandi Gabbard, former chair for the Pinellas REALTORS® & current trustee for the Pinellas REALTOR® Foundation, spouted off inaccurate statistics & disingenuous industry talking points, claiming that tenants would actually be harmed by a stronger protection. The Pinellas chapter which Gabbard belongs to is an offshoot of National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), a radical special interest group which views nearly all tenant protections, including rent control, as infringements on the right to property & profit. The group’s website states that “any restrictions placed on a property owner…reduces freedoms inherent in our society.” The REALTORS® were responsible for suing to overturn the moratorium on evictions last summer, which has resulted in countless families being made homeless in the midst of the ongoing, deadly COVID pandemic, and is the 2nd biggest lobbying organization in DC, having spent over $700 million on these efforts since 1998.

The NAR often evokes the plight of so-called “mom & pop” landlords as a cover for their corporate agenda. Indeed, the vast majority of the country’s rental stock is owned by corporations, a number that has only grown during decades of NAR influence on policy. Regardless of size, any hardship facing landlords comes nowhere near that of tenants. For perspective, there are estimated to be around 10 million landlords in the US, compared to 109 million people living in renter households. Around 70% of households earning income from rental properties make $90k or more annually, compared to renter households who have a median annual income of $42k.

Today’s vote is not a loss. Every time politicians shamelessly expose themselves as servants of the corporate class, it only draws more support into our camp and bolsters our fight for an economy that serves the needs of ALL people. We will continue to fight like hell before this ordinance reaches full council for a final vote. From city hall, to the door of every slumlord & into the streets – we have a city to win, we have a world to win!

✊All power to the tenants! 🔥

✊All power to the workers!🔥

✊All power to the people!🔥