Orlando Rep. Anna Eskamani re-files bill to create state housing department and bolster renter protections

After a year of attacks by Florida’s Republican-dominated state Legislature on renters’ rights, from banning rent control in Florida to wiping out local tenant protections, Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani has re-filed legislation for consideration in 2024 that would establish a state housing department and bolster statewide consumer protections for renters.

The Orlando-area Democrat filed similar legislation during the 2023 legislative session, but the bill was ignored by the Republican-controlled Florida House and died without even reaching a vote.

Eskamani’s new bill, titled the “Keep Floridians Housed Act,” would direct the state to create a state Department of Housing & Tenant Rights — an agency the state currently lacks. Among other things, the agency would work with the state Legislature, state agencies and other stakeholders to come up with and implement strategies “designed to combat affordable housing and homelessness issues in the state.”

Currently, the implementation and enforcement of state housing policies is a patchwork affair, spread out across various state agencies, including the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, which is tasked with carrying out a variety of responsibilities. The Office of Florida’s Attorney General, on its frequently asked questions page, simply directs Floridians to a nearly blank page of Florida’s statutes to learn more about their rights as tenants and suggests readers consult an attorney. The Florida Housing Finance Corporation, which serves as the administrator of state affordable housing programs, has been the subject of significant scrutiny this year over questionable leadership.

A presentation by Orange County’s local housing and tenant services office, provided to county leaders in October, explained it plainly: “There is no State agency identified in Ch. 83 [the section of Florida statutes that outlines housing law] for enforcement.”

Chapter 83 of Florida statutes outlines landlord and tenant obligations and rights under state law. But state law is notoriously friendly to landlords, leaving tenants with crumbs for protection from predatory practices. A Republican-backed law (HB 1417) passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature earlier this year preempted all regulation of landlord and tenant issues to the state, wiping out dozens of city and county laws that offered protections for tenants that were stronger than what’s provided under state law.

A spokesperson for the FDACS confirmed to Orlando Weekly over email this fall that the department can “serve as informal mediator” in landlord and tenant disputes, but that “the only formal remedy for disputes like these is through the civil court system, which the department does not have a role in.”

That is, if you can’t afford or otherwise access private legal help for a housing issue, you’re essentially out of luck.

This isn’t a uniquely Florida problem. Tenants nationwide — particularly poor tenants with fewer resources — face an uphill battle of the weak rights enforcement. “The underenforcement of housing standards is a classic case of ‘underenforcement’ on behalf of communities that have not been a political priority,” wrote Rutgers University law professor Kathryn Sabbeth in an article published by the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law & Policy in 2019.

“At the same time that poor people of color are disproportionately targeted by criminal law enforcement, the harms they experience receive inadequate attention,” she continued. Insufficient funding for agencies tasked with enforcing housing standards, Sabbeth wrote, “is a political choice.”

The Keep Floridians Housed Act, filed by Eskamani, would also also bolster certain protections for renters statewide, which could help level the playing field between tenants and landlords. For example, the bill would make it illegal for landlords or property managers to refuse to lease to tenants just because they plan to use a housing voucher, child support, alimony, or another lawful source of income to help cover their rent.

Currently, it’s perfectly legal in most parts of Florida to do so. Only a handful of cities and counties in Florida — including Orange — have laws specifically forbidding source-of-income discrimination on the books. And some of those were wiped out by the preemption bill signed into law earlier this year. In Orange County, at least, it’s unclear whether it even actually helps: Landlords continue to blatantly ignore the county’s local source of income nondiscrimination law anyway, with little accountability.

Florida rent prices and home insurance premiums have skyrocketed in recent years, establishing Florida as one of the most unaffordable states to live in. The issue of unaffordability is particularly pronounced in major metropolitan areas such as Orlando, Miami and Tampa.

To help alleviate common problems, the new proposal would add consumer protections for renters under law  and outlaw certain predatory practices by landlords. For instance, it would prohibit landlords from charging “an excessive rental application fee” (if they do, and the unit is unavailable anyway, they’d be required by law to refund the tenant). The bill would also establish a process for expunging an eviction from the record of tenants if certain conditions are satisfied, and prohibit landlords from evicting a tenant for an incident of domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking in which the tenant (or a child who is a minor) is the victim of such violence, and not the perpetrator.

Under the proposed legislation, the new state department would be headed by a secretary who would be appointed by the governor and subject to confirmation by the state Senate.

Rep. Eskamani told Orlando Weekly in an emailed statement that she’s proud to re-file the proposal. “This landmark legislation would even the playing field for renters in Florida, a goal that has become even more important for our state following last year’s preemption of rental protections via HB1417.”

“Rent has skyrocketed in our state,” she added, “and as a renter myself I know how important it is to implement the protections outlined in this legislation.”

The 2024 legislative session, whereby this bill could be heard or ignored again, begins Jan. 9, 2024, and will end March 8. Other proposals filed by Democratic lawmakers include bills to limit rent increases to no more than 30% annually, expand eligibility for Citizens Property Insurance policies (a bill filed jointly with a Republican state representative) and require landlords to provide tenants with functioning AC.

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This article appears in Dec 20-26, 2023.