For many Arkansans, renting a place to live is just a stop on the way toward home ownership. For others, home ownership isn't a priority or isn't yet achievable. No matter which group one happens to be in, having a safe and secure place to call home is an almost universal desire.
Arkansas, for all its efforts to overcome stereotype images as a backward state, still manages from time to time to affirm its place near the bottom of national rankings that might be said to measure principles of decency and basic human respect.
One of the areas where Arkansas manages to do this is in its legal maltreatment of renters. State lawmakers appear so committed to unadulterated property rights protections for landlords that they can't see their way clear to adopt even basic assurances for people who rent -- people who are paying hard-earned money for places to live.
We're not talking some guarantee of luxury. These basic guarantees involve such cushy protections as measures to control health dangers like mold and vermin, the presence of smoke or carbon monoxide detectors, the availability of hot and cold running water, working locks, windows and doors and a few other minimum standards.
None of the standards demand gold-plated bathroom fixtures. Imagine, instead, the kind of basic living conditions you'd want for your grandparent or a son or daughter just venturing out into the world -- conditions that ensure the place being rented to them promotes their safety and security rather than threatens them.
In recent years, legislative efforts to provide some of those protections have faltered, resisted by landlord and real estate interests. In the current legislative session, Rep. Jimmy Gazaway, a Republican from Paragould, is pushing House Bill 1563 to create statewide standards for upkeep of rental properties. It would also ensure that tenants would get at least a hearing during eviction proceedings in court.
Today, the deck is heavily stacked against renters, unfairly so. This newspaper on Monday featured reporting on current law that renters facing eviction can't even get a hearing in court unless they deposit the amount their landlord claims they owe into a state court registry. If renters can't come up with the money -- and how many do you think can do that? -- they must move out while the matter goes through the courts.
Even if a renter has a legal defense against eviction, the renter won't get to make their case before a judge unless they put up the money first.
Such a system sounds about as fair as a poll tax, which were designed to prevent people who otherwise had a right to vote from being able to cast a ballot. If you couldn't afford the poll tax, you couldn't register vote, except that some states exempted people who were allowed to vote prior to a poll tax's implementation. Yes, it was institutionalized racism and a barrier to poor people.
Landlords should be at the forefront of a campaign to ensure these basic protections within their industry, but that's not how it is. Ethical landlords already deliver on such protections, and we applaud their decency, but there are plenty of property owners who do not. It seems entirely reasonable that landlords across the board ought to meet such basic standards.
Unfortunately, some advocates for such measures argue housing is a "human right," such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Believe that all you want, but it's not going to win the day in conservative, Republican Arkansas. Make this a fight about a right to housing and nothing will change.
It is, however, a debate over human decency, public health and minimum expectations of people who offer their properties to others in exchange for payment. Fairness suggests the state has an interest in promoting extraordinarily minimum standards that all renters should be able to expect.
Arkansas ought to treat renters with respect rather than delivering one more affirmation of those backward perceptions. Lawmakers should embrace just a little more decency in its treatment of renters.
More News
What’s the point?
Arkansas lags so badly on protections for renters, even a minimum level of change would improve conditions.