RENTERS BILL OF RIGHTS

Biden Administration announces Blueprint for tenant protections and affordability.

By GINA ERWIN, HAA Legislative Chair, with BRADLEY PEPPER, Vice President of Government Affairs

ON JANUARY 25, the White House announced a number of actions to advance President Biden’s housing agenda, which are intended to protect renters and promote rental affordability. These actions include:

• Introducing the “Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights,” which lays out five principles that President Biden would like to guide future policymaking;

• Proposing more than 20 federal agency actions intended to increase fairness in the rental market and further principles of fair housing; and

• Launching its Resident-Centered Housing Challenge, a call-to-action for housing providers and stakeholders to improve the quality of life for renters.

The steps taken by the administration come from an explicit campaign promise from President Biden. The National Apartment Association (NAA) engaged for months with the White House and other industry organizations prior to this rollout. NAA’s mission throughout this process was to maintain a seat at the table and ensure that the concerns of our industry were heard over the demands of housing advocates, which included a host of punitive actions like national rent control.

The centerpiece of the President’s plan, the “Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights” lays out a set of principles to drive action by the federal government, state and local partners, and the private sector to strengthen tenant protections and encourage rental affordability. They include the need for renters to have access to:

• Safe, Quality, Accessible and Affordable Housing;

• Clear and Fair Leases;

• Education, Enforcement, and Enhancement of Renter Rights;

• The Right to Organize; and

• Eviction Prevention, Diversion, and Relief.

To be clear, these principles and actions are nonbinding and are not federal policy. This is not an executive order from President Biden. There are no new requirements or policy changes that have been made. At this point, several federal agencies have only been tasked with exploring new housing policies and gathering information to help develop those policies. In addition, the administration calls on state and local governments to strengthen renter protections to align with these principles.

As this progresses long into the future, we will keep you updated on NAA’s federal advocacy as multiple federal agencies explore housing policy changes on a variety of topics.

City of Houston Adopts Changes to the Residential Buffering Ordinance

Last month, the City of Houston updated its existing Buffering and Standards requirements in Chapter 42 of the City’s Code of Ordinances. These amendments addressed four areas: residential buffering standards; garage screening and lighting standards; wall or pole mounted light fixtures standards; dumpster screening standards.

These updates were made in an effort to address the effects of newly constructed, mid-rise and high-rise structures that could result when they abut single-family and small scale multifamily residential structures. These only affect new construction.

Residential Buffering: The previous ordinance required that buildings with a top floor of 75 feet or higher provide buffering of 30 feet if taking access from a collector street and 40 feet if taking access from a local street. The city will now require that if a building is 65 feet to 75 feet and only on a local street, a 15-foot buffer must be provided.

Garage Screening and Lighting: The previous ordinance required that garages have an exterior cover of 42 inches. Originally, the city proposed going to 50 inches before negotiations with HAA and our stakeholder partners compromised at 48 inches. In addition, we were able to include a provision that if compliance of 48 inches would require the garage to have a mechanical ventilation system, the applicant may reduce the exterior cover enough to meet open ventilation requirements down to 42 inches. These only apply to new garages next to or across the street from any type residential property.

Lighting Fixtures: New updates for outdoor lighting will require that all outdoor fixtures (wall or pole mounted) on commercial developments abutting a public street or residential development must: direct light downward, be fully en closed in the fixture housing and prevent light trespass of more than 0.2-foot candles measured at the property line.

Dumpster Screening: The previous requirements were that bulk containers abutting public streets on the address side of the property be screened. Now there is required screening for the bulk containers abutting residential developments and all public streets and all new developments other than single family properties within the city must identify the bulk container on the site plan.

HAA and our stakeholder associates worked with the City for over two years to refine these proposals to be satisfactory for all those involved. We will continue to work with the City as they implement these changes moving forward.

City of Houston to Allow Paying a Fee in Lieu of Constructing Sidewalks

The City of Houston recently made changes to it’s 2020 Sidewalk Ordinance with the intent to create a complete sidewalk network in the city by providing more sidewalk options, establishing a sidewalk fund, protocols for constructing sidewalks and, most importantly, preventing “sidewalks to nowhere” being built in areas where property owners do not want to have sidewalks.

The biggest change is that developers will now have the option to pay a fee in lieu into a newly established sidewalk fund, instead of having to construct the sidewalk. The fee will be $12 per square foot, which is less than half of the City’s own estimated cost of $30 per square foot.

The new fee will be split so that 70% of it goes to building sidewalks in the area of the development paying the fee, with the remaining 30% going toward building sidewalks anywhere in the city. It is expected to bring in roughly $1.7 million annually.

There are 17 Sidewalk Service Areas identified on the Sidewalk Service Area Map. The Sidewalk Service Area Map is a map divided the city geographically service areas and based on population, size of the developable area, amount of recent sidewalk permit activities, freeway location which creates physical barriers and whether it is an appropriate size for effective fund management.