On the Home Front

Affordable, safe, stable, and accessible housing is a key part of the foundation of any just, equitable, and thriving community. Unfortunately, the lack of uniform renter protections at the federal level and the shortage of affordable and available rental housing for the lowest-income renters leave many tenants in precarious positions when it comes to housing stability. In particular, the power imbalance between renters and landlords puts low-income renters at greater risk of harassment, discrimination, eviction, and in the worst cases homelessness.

Tenant protections – i.e., rights for renters that are codified into law through legislation, policies, and programs and that can be passed at the federal, state, and local levels – are critical to preventing evictions and keeping renters stably housed. When passed, tenant protections can help level the playing field between landlords and renter households. When renter protections are strengthened through legislative means, tenants are in a better position to assert their rights and defend themselves against threats to their housing stability.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers at all levels of government recognized the crucial importance of tenant protections and passed many short-term policies to provide support to renters during the public health crisis. These policies included federal, state, and local eviction moratoriums, emergency rental assistance programs, landlord-tenant mediation and eviction diversion programs, pay-to-stay provisions, right-to-counsel programs, and even eviction safe-harbors that delayed the eviction process while tenants applied for emergency rental assistance support.

Due to these supports and others, eviction filings decreased nationwide during the pandemic. According to Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, pandemic-era policies resulted in eviction filings falling by more than half of their historical average between March 2020 and December 2021 in the 31 cities tracked by the researchers. At the same times, the federal eviction moratorium, which lasted until July 2021, helped prevent at least 1.36 million eviction cases in 2021, according to the Eviction Lab.

Now, however, with many of these policies having expired or been rolled back, the need for stronger renter protections is more urgent than ever – especially at the state and local levels.

Why are renter protections needed?

Stable, secure housing is often out of reach for the lowest-income renters, many of whom are seniors, people with disabilities, or members of working families. One of the main causes is the shortage of affordable and available housing: in 2023, the U.S. was short 7.3 million affordable and available homes for renters with extremely low incomes. When coupled with rental costs that rose by more than 26% during the pandemic and worker wages that have not kept up with the high cost of housing, it is no surprise that a staggering number of renter households have become cost burdened.

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, housing is considered “affordable” if a tenant pays no more than 30% of their monthly income towards rent and utilities. By this definition, not one state in the U.S. has enough affordable and available housing. As a result, more than 21 million renter households were cost-burdened in 2023, while 11.7 million renter households were “severely cost-burdened,” meaning they were paying at least 50% of their monthly income on rent. When renters overextend their budgets to cover the cost of housing and utilities, little money is left for other necessary expenses, such as healthcare, childcare, and transportation.

Who is impacted by evictions?

Evictions can impact everyone, though the risk is disproportionately higher for members of the lowest-income and most marginalized renter groups. Between 2007 and 2016, the Eviction Lab found that, on average, 7.6 million individuals were threatened with an eviction annually, with an average of 3.9 million people receiving an eviction judgement in each year during the period. Of those who face eviction, the most impacted are children, individuals with the lowest-incomes, and Black households, who according to the Eviction Lab represent over half of all eviction filings (51.1% between 2007 and 2016).

What tenant protections exist for renters?

Tenant protections can be passed to protect renters at all stages of their lease terms. Not only are renter protections passed to ensure that tenants can access housing free of discrimination, such as through source-of-income anti-discrimination policies or policies that regulate tenant screening practices, but tenant protections also protect tenants when they are faced with eviction, including through legal assistance programs or relocation support.

There are five main categories of tenant protections: (1) protections that prevent discrimination; (2) protections that ensure a tenant’s right to organize; (3) protections that uphold a fair and transparent application process; (4) protections that guarantee rights during tenancy; and (5) protections that apply to the eviction process. Within these categories, many different types of individual and standalone protections can be passed, though renters’ rights are strongest when they are passed in tandem with each other.

Here are examples of some of the kinds of tenant protections from each of the five categories:

• Rights Preventing Discrimination: Renter protections that fall into this category prohibit prejudice against tenants based on protected characteristics such as race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), familial status, disability, and even income source. Existing renter protections that are commonly passed under this category include source-of-income protections, language-accessible lease laws, and eviction record sealing and expungement protections.
• Rights Protecting the Power to Organize: Renter protections that fall into this category protect a tenant’s ability to advocate for their own rights, such as through joining a tenant union. Existing renter protections that are commonly passed under this category include measures guaranteeing a tenant’s right to organize free from retaliation.
• Rights Upholding Fair and Transparent Application Processes: Renter protections that fall into this category ensure that tenants are able to secure housing in a fair and equitable manner. By promoting transparency in the application process – and throughout a tenant’s lease – tenants are better positioned to remain stably housed in housing of their choice. Protections in this category include laws and policies that regulate tenant screening practices, such as by clarifying the criteria by which a tenant can be screened. Additional protections include measures that regulate or limit rental fees.
• Rights Guaranteeing Protections during Tenancy: Renter protections that fall into this category ensure that tenants on signed leases are protected from arbitrary and discriminatory evictions. Protections commonly passed in this category include laws that prohibit unreasonable lease terms, rent stabilization and anti-rent gouging laws, laws that promote habitability standards, “just cause” eviction laws, and anti-retaliation laws.
• Rights Applying to the Evictions Process: Renter protections that fall into this category ensure that tenants who are faced with eviction are protected as they move through the court process. Existing protections commonly passed in this category include stronger notice requirements for when an eviction is filed against a tenant, emergency rental assistance protections, right-to-counsel laws, increased funding for legal assistance or mediation programs, and relocation or housing navigation services.

NLIHC launched its State and Local Innovation (SLI) project in April 2024 to support state and local partners in advancing, implementing, and enforcing state and local tenant protections. The project, which works to strengthen tenants’ rights and prevent evictions, also involves advocating for permanent emergency rental assistance programs, preventing the criminalization of homelessness, providing technical assistance around state housing trust funds, and supporting the advancement of housing innovations that keep eviction rates down and prevent homelessness.

NLIHC’s SLI project supports its partners by providing technical assistance and research support. Not only has NLIHC tracked the passage of more than 650 renter protections, but the SLI project has also released a set of toolkits and case studies as part of its State and Local Protection Series: A Primer on Renters’ Rights. The toolkits cover four key protections: just cause eviction standards, rent stabilization policies, laws that strengthen habitability standards and code enforcement procedures, and laws that limit excessive rental fees. Each toolkit provides an overview of one major tenant protection, details the common components of the protection, lists information about state and local jurisdictions that have adopted the protection, suggests provisions that should be taken into consideration when enacting the protection, and highlights complementary policies that can be passed alongside the protection to ensure the greatest impact possible. The toolkits can be found here.

More information about NLIHC’s SLI project can be found here.

Every month, NLIHC’s SLI project hosts a meeting for state and local organizational partners working to advance tenant protections in their jurisdictions. If you are part of an organization interested in joining this Tenant Protections Network, consider signing up here.

If you are an individual interested in learning more about our tenant protections work, join our “Tenant Talk Live” meetings here or contact the NLIHC Field team member representing your region!