As Jay Osborne with the Connecticut Tenants Union in Windham and many other advocates across the state have explained, expanding just cause eviction protections will reduce experiences of discrimination for tenants, ensuring that they can assert their rights to safe living conditions without facing retaliation from landlords who are not adequately maintaining their properties.
Just cause protections also preserve housing choice for tenants by keeping them stably housed and evictions off of their public records. Just cause protections are critical and should be implemented alongside other policies and investments to improve housing stability, safety, and affordability for renters.
In the last three years, the cost to rent in Connecticut has increased 20%. Thirty-one percent of renters in the state are spending more than half of their earned income just to keep their homes. One-third of all Connecticut households rent, and the average hourly wage of a renter, $22.29, falls below the wage necessary to afford a typical one-bedroom apartment at $25.90 per hour. With the cost of rent soaring alongside inflation and the stagnation of wages, renters are left with very little in their household budgets for other important necessities or expenses, which puts more households at risk of losing their home.
For over 40 years, Connecticut has prohibited no-fault evictions against renters who are aged 62 or older or have a disability and live in a building with five or more units. In the aftermath of the 2008 housing crisis, and the more recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, more renter households outside of those protected classes are vulnerable to eviction and should have additional protections.
According to a 2022 report by the Center for American Progress, “Due to market pressures, the most economically vulnerable suffered the highest housing precarity. As a result, millions of Americans have experienced eviction, homelessness, and housing insecurity.”
In 2023, landlords in Connecticut filed 2,224 no-cause eviction notices (around 11% of all evictions filed statewide). The need to ensure more renters are protected from no fault evictions is growing more important by the day. Evictions are detrimental to many different parties — individuals, families, communities, local businesses, children’s educational outcomes. They worsen housing insecurity, increase homelessness, and make communities less stable, safe, and cohesive. The mark of a so-called “no fault” eviction follows a tenant making it even harder to find a landlord willing to rent a new home to them.
When we aim to achieve housing stability and affordability for all households in the state, everyone benefits. This is not a zero-sum game, where for one group to gain protection, another must lose theirs. Protecting our lowest-income renters builds a stronger baseline for the safety and stability of all residents. When households have a stable home, they are better able to meet other important, basic needs, and are more likely to invest in their communities and local businesses, creating healthier communities, and more active local economies.
For landlords who express concerns about just cause protections limiting their ability to evict problem tenants, it is important to note that if they have determined a justifiable cause for an eviction, they are still able to begin that process. Grounds for eviction still include nonpayment of rent, lease violations, refusal to agree to reasonable rent increases, the landlord’s permanent removal of the unit from the housing market, or bona fide intention of the landlord to use the property as their principal residence.
We are asking the state legislature to support the passage of S.B. 143 – An Act Concerning Evictions for Cause during the 2024 legislative session. We also encourage community members and advocates to reinforce this message to their elected officials — it takes a village to build healthy communities, and affordable, safe, and accessible housing is an issue that has a direct impact on each and every one of us.
Connecticut is not alone in efforts to expand protections for renters either. As of last year, New Jersey, California, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Washington have passed a version of statewide just cause eviction protections. Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, and Colorado have also introduced pending legislation.
Expanded just cause eviction protections is a necessary start, however it is important to remember that it alone will not address the housing crisis many families face. We still need to build thousands more homes. We need additional investments in rental assistance. We need significant zoning reform. But importantly, none of these policies will matter if renters do not have adequate protections to the housing stability all of us deserve.
Danielle Hubley is Advocacy and Education Manager for the Partnership for Strong Communities.