From: Stephanie Zhang
Columbus
A safe home is the foundation for a thriving life and community. Our homes are where we should feel safest in the world. I know all of us in Columbus want this for our families and neighbors. But for so many renters, it is nearly impossible to find and keep a safe, quality, affordable home.
Hoosier renters are worse off and less protected than almost any other state in the country. Indiana has a lower rate of “affordable and available rental housing” and a higher rate of “severe housing cost burden” than the Midwest average, according to a report from the Health and Human Rights Clinic of Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. We are only 1 of 6 states in the US without health and safety protections for renters such as rent escrow, where tenants would be able to pay rent to an escrow account if their landlord is failing to make essential repairs in a timely manner.
In a real effort to protect Hoosier families, our state Sen. Greg Walker wrote and championed a bipartisan bill, Senate Bill 277, this year to keep our families and homes safe. SB 277 would have given us rent escrow, required landlords to make prompt repairs for basic essential systems and services, like heating, plumbing, and mold, and required unaccountable out-of-state corporate landlords to have an office or employee in Indiana.
However, other state senators killed this bill and all efforts to advance safe housing protections. Why? Look no further than housing industry lobby groups like the Indiana Apartments Association and the Indiana Multi Family Housing PAC, the latter of which contributed more than $764,000 to our state legislators in the 2021-2022 election cycle. These industry lobby groups kill good housing bills every year and put their bottom line profit over the lives and safety of our families.
We need our elected officials at all levels of government to intervene in order to have any chance at changing the tides. But year after year, our state legislature fails to pass protections for tenants and continues to strip power from our local governments to intervene, all because corporate interests are buying influence and preventing Hoosiers from getting what is a basic human need: good, safe housing.
We need our elected officials to stand up for everyday families. We need more everyday people coming together to call on our elected officials to stand up for everyday families. It’s possible to win an Indiana where more renters are protected, but it’s going to take more of us coming together.
Editor’s note: Stephanie Zhang is Bartholomew County Community Organizer for the independent citizens group Hoosier Action.
