MONTPELIER – After hearing from housing advocates and those who struggle to find housing without social security numbers, chair of the House Committee on General and Housing, Rep. Marc Mihaly (D-Calais), said the next step is for committee members to weigh in.
The bill being considered, H.169, adds several new provisions amending current legislation about discrimination in public accommodations and housing. It would prohibit charging an application fee to those applying for rental housing or requiring applicant’s Social Security numbers with the applications or to conduct criminal background or credit checks.
Mihaly, who says he wasn’t expecting to become chair of the housing committee, said he’s spent much of his life working on housing. Before coming to Vermont, he started an environmental law firm in San Francisco that grew to have 25 associates. While there he represented “lots of cities involved with low-income housing issues and large developments with as much as 20% [low-income occupants].”
In Vermont he’s worked on other things, but now finds himself “back at it, working on housing.”
In considering H.169, the committee has received testimony on both sides of the issue, but Mihaly said they had testimony from Vermont’s largest landlord, Burlington’s Champlain Housing Trust. Initially the organization said it would be difficult to vet potential renters with their Social Security numbers, said Mihaly. A week later they came back to the committee, saying they’d studied the issue and come to the conclusion they could review applications, get credit ratings and conduct background checks with just the name, date of birth, prior addresses and other forms of government.
Mihaly said he believes anyone living in Vermont deserves the opportunity to obtain housing. “I favor the idea that people should be able to rent regardless of whether they carry green cards, are foreign nationals or have an undocumented citizenship status.” These are people performing necessary jobs and it’s important to provide them with housing, he said.
Mihaly said he believes the bill can be evaluated independently of federal threats to immigrants based on what’s important to Vermont.
He expects there’s time for the housing committee to make a decision on the bill and refer it back to the full house so it can be sent to the Senate for consideration before this session is over.
Leanne Harple (D-Glover) is among those who signed on to introduce the bill. “I am proud to have sponsored H. 169, which I believe is an important consumer protection bill for all Vermonters because in a time of increasing fraud and identity theft, it safeguards sensitive information for all renters. Perhaps even more importantly though, I want to live in a world where we lead with compassion. Housing is a human right, and amid federal discrimination tactics and mass deportations that are creating an America of fear for so many of our neighbors, I want Vermont to be on the right side of this dark time in history. That is why I have sponsored this bill,” said Harple.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
