Gainesville City Commission begins process of repealing Renters’ Rights ordinances

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the July 27 General Police Committee meeting, the Gainesville City Commission began the process of repealing the Renters’ Rights ordinances that were passed in September 2020.

During an agenda item titled “Housing Programs Update,” Andrew Persons, Special Advisor to the City Manager, provided information about two bills that were passed by the legislature in the 2023 session. 

Live Local Act

Persons told the commission that the Live Local Act, championed by Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, is a major piece of housing legislation that touches on areas including funding, tax exemptions, and local government zoning regulations. The Act provided $100 million in funds for the Hometown Heroes program, which provides down payment assistance that was initially for first responders but has been expanded to benefit other low-income workers. The Act also allocated $252 million in Sadowski funds for affordable housing, which is expected to result in an additional $300,000 allocation for the City of Gainesville. 

The legislature also preempted local government requirements regarding zoning density and height: if a development meets specific requirements, local governments can’t require a zoning change or Comprehensive Plan amendment. The Live Local Act also states that a local government can approve affordable housing projects on property that has a non-residential land use without a zoning amendment and also removes local governments’ ability to have rent control. 

House Bill 1417

Persons said House Bill 1417 preempts regulation of the landlord-tenant relationship, and that will affect the City’s Residential Rental Unit program that was designed to eliminate substandard residential rental units by creating a permanent inspection program in which Code Enforcement performed quadrennial inspections of rental properties that are between one and four units. Persons said that after discussion with the City Attorney’s office, staff believes that the ordinance has been invalidated, along with other provisions in the City Code that regulate rentals. However, Persons said they believe that the Fair Housing ordinance prohibiting landlords from discriminating based on source of income may still be valid, but it’s “all sort of in flux; it’s still being discussed.”

Persons said staff also believes that the occupancy limitation in the City’s code has been invalidated by the new law. He said the preemption does not include local regulation of minimum housing standards, “but with all that said, the existing ordinances need to be repealed.”

Eliminating inspections will eliminate 11 staffed positions

Commissioner Bryan Eastman said it felt like “an M. Night Shyamalan movie twisted ending here. This is huge. This rental housing ordinance was years in the making.” He asked what sort of direction the commission needed to give staff.

City Attorney Daniel Nee said they would need direction to repeal the Residential Rental Unit permit program, and then staff would try to determine which parts of it can be replaced. He said they would bring back that repeal to the commission “promptly,” but the occupancy limit will have to go through the Plan Board first. 

City Manager Cynthia Curry said there are 12 positions funded in the FY24 budget for inspectors in the rental unit permitting program, 11 of which are filled. 

Eastman asked about the landlord license program that existed before the current ordinance was passed, and Persons said it was an annual license fee that landlords paid “for the right or the privilege to rent their property. There were bad landlords, the CIty would assess points on them, but there was no inspection component, there was no minimum housing code part. And there was certainly no energy efficiency, which are hallmarks of the program that we have now.”

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker asked about the status of a Housing Summit that had previously been discussed. Curry said staff had paused that, given the budget concerns and the Gun Violence Summit, “but it’s still on the agenda. We just have not pursued it.”

“Find some way to accomplish… the policy goals of the commission”

Commissioner Reina Saco, who was participating remotely, suggested reaching out to other municipalities that have implemented various pieces of Gainesville’s Renters’ Rights ordinances: “That would be my request, for staff to see–does anybody else see anything? Because we might be so hard-pressed from other issues through Tallahassee that maybe we’re just not seeing it.” Nee said staff is already working on that, “and we will continue to cooperate with our Housing and Sustainable Development Department to find some way to accomplish… the policy goals of the commission.”

Saco responded, “I’d be grateful for any one element that we can preserve, given that all of them were pretty significant, especially the components that went into the human rights–protection against income discrimination or citizenship status.”

Saco continued, “We have fewer and fewer tools in our toolbox every year; every session, we lose tools. So I think we have to really buckle down and accept the reality that we live in… As a commission, we are charged with making sure our community is safe… One of the elements of being safe is being housed.” She said she would support “any small or large change… just to make sure that we are moving forward and not backward and are giving every opportunity to develop housing, whatever type that might be.”

Commissioner Casey Willits said, “Sometimes it feels good to, you know, just fight, say ‘We’re not going to,’ right? Because in some instances, we do push back. But this is pretty clear from the legislature that they just fully intend to preempt us.”

Proactive inspection “really set the City’s program apart from all the others”

Eastman said he would be looking for two main policy outcomes: one is a process for renters to complain about housing conditions that don’t meet minimum codes, and the second is a way to hold landlords accountable for noise violations in neighborhoods. 

Persons said staff is looking for direction on how much to “explore what options exist for reshaping something new… that’s on firm legal footing.” He said the inspection portion of the rental housing program was “critical” because of concerns that landlords will retaliate against tenants that complain. He said the City does have a minimum housing code and does respond to complaints, but “it’s that proactive inspection component [that] really set the City’s program apart from all others,” along with the energy efficiency component.

“I’m not interested in skirting the law”

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said she wanted to “be very careful; I’m not interested in skirting the law… So if you have to create something new, do that. But if this is what is prohibited, that is what we must follow.” Nee said they would bring back the repeals as quickly as possible, and they will need to go through first and second readings; the land use piece has to go to the Plan Board first. 

“This is collateral damage”

Mayor Harvey Ward said he didn’t believe HB 1417 was passed in response to Gainesville’s Renters’ Rights ordinances: “This is collateral damage to other things that [the legislature was] working on… It’s the result, frankly, of sloppy bill writing… Having inspectors go through apartments [and flag violations is] a basic consumer protection that we were able to offer, and we’re not going to be able to offer that any more. The burden is back on the renter.”

Ward reminded commissioners that the Renters’ Rights ordinances never applied to large apartment complexes, just properties with one to four units. “But the opportunity to provide those protections and to evolve that set of rights was a good thing that we were able to do… I’m disappointed to see us have to get rid of it… I would very much hope that we will get some good creative thinking on ways we can achieve means that we’re trying to achieve that do not violate state law.”

After public comment, Ward asked that any motion include a dashboard showing the number of housing starts over at least the past few years and how much of that is “guaranteed to be affordable.” Persons told him the dashboard already exists, thanks to the City’s online permitting system, although staff would need to add information about affordable units.

Motion to begin repealing the ordinances

Saco made a motion to direct the City Attorney’s office to begin drafting an ordinance to repeal the landlord/tenant program. “And to make it clear, just begin the drafting… we have many, many meetings to go before anything happens there. And also repealing the occupancy limitation, as that’s invalidated. And third, starting anew, look at what actions the City can take in compliance with the new law that can meet some of the same goals as our previous ordinances as far as protections and inspections of units for safety.” Willits seconded the motion.

The motion passed unanimously.

Property tax exemptions for affordable housing

Since the Live Local Act offers the opportunity for local governments to offer ad valorem tax exemptions to developers who build affordable housing units, Chestnut made a motion to ask staff to return with an ordinance that offers those exemptions for property owners who dedicate units for households earning 60% of area median income or less. Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker seconded the motion. 

Commissioner Ed Book said he was concerned about reducing potential revenue when the City is in “incredibly uncertain budgetary times” and that it “could actually have a lot of deleterious effects for others who are vulnerable, maybe just not at this level of 60% of AMI.”

Eastman agreed that he would prefer to see “a couple of cities that are not going through the hard difficulties that we’re going through” pass those ordinances first and “figure out the process of this a little bit and then kind of see where they are after that point.”

Chestnut asked whether Eastman would prefer to ask staff to look at what other cities are doing, and Eastman said it was probably too soon for that, but he was happy to support research. Ward suggested that Chestnut ask staff to bring back a report instead of an ordinance.

Chestnut said, “I’m adjusting the motion to bring back a report to explore options on how we can address this.”

The motion passed unanimously.

Affordable housing map

Duncan-Walker said she wanted staff to work with the County to put together an affordable housing map: “I’ve just fallen in love with what Miami has done. They have subsidized housing communities, census tracts, Section 8 data, historic properties, boundaries, climate resiliency, all of that, baked into a map, and it continues to expand.”

Duncan-Walker asked staff to work with the County on a map showing affordable housing, and “if the City is going to be providing input [to an existing County map], I would like to see it be obvious that it is a City/County partnership.” Persons agreed to bring it up with the County

Single Family Zoning proposals deferred to August 10

The agenda backup included a proposal from Eastman that would enable homes to be built on smaller lots, allow cottage neighborhoods, simplify the platting process, and reduce utility connection fees for smaller houses. Due to the length of the discussion on the Renters’ Rights ordinances, that proposal will be discussed on August 10.