Tenant Rights
Keep people in their homes
Just Cause Eviction
Just Cause Eviction laws empowers and provides stability to tenants.
Passing legislation would:
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Protect renters from evictions for no fault of their own.
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Deliver a sense of stability to tenants.
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Discourage renters from self-evicting when they receive eviction notices from landlords.
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Empower tenants experiencing poor living conditions, discrimination, or other illegal landlord behavior to advocate for improvements with landlords or file complaints without fear of retaliation.
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Protect tenants from arbitrary evictions, foreclosure related evictions, and landlord retaliation for asserting tenant rights.
Right to Counsel
Evictions are about power
Less than 1% of tenants in Lehigh County win their cases. Landlords evict tenants because they have power, not because the law supports them. Most landlords have attorneys in the court with them, but even when they don't, landlords still have more power.
Tenants are worthy to be represented, to know their rights and to advocate that they be respected and that our city will help create a more equal playing field.
Tenant Right of First Refusal
Opportunities for ownership
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Gives tenants the right to purchase a rental unit, or to purchase an entire rental building collectively, before the owner puts it on the market or accepts an offer from another potential buyer.
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Laws typically allow residents to assign their “right of first refusal” to other entities, such as nonprofit partners that help the residents form a limited equity cooperative, or affordable housing providers that agree to maintain the property as affordable rental housing.
Rent Stabilization
The rent is too damn high
Limits how much a landlord can increase rent in a given period and set conditions for when and how much they can raise rents.
More than 180 jurisdictions throughout the nation have adopted rent stabilization policies of some kind. Allentown must pressure state lawmakers to adopt a statewide rent stabilization.