There are more landlords than renters in Connecticut’s General Assembly. How does that affect policy?
WSHU’s Ebong Udoma spoke with CT Mirror’s Ginny Monk to discuss her article, “Nearly 1 in 5 CT lawmakers are landlords. Could that affect policy?” as part of the collaborative podcast Long Story Short. Read Ginny’s story here.
WSHU: Hello, Ginny. Why did you decide to investigate whether being a landlord affects Connecticut lawmakers as they craft state housing policy?
GM: So this is something that particularly tenants' rights advocates have asked me about every legislative session for the past couple of years, and I think this year in particular, we heard a lot of discussion from legislators about their personal experiences as landlords. So I decided to dig into it by looking at their financial disclosure reports.
WSHU: And what did you find?
GM: Based on the reporting from the financial disclosure reports, about one in five Connecticut lawmakers are also landlords, and this varies a lot in scale. So some folks only rent out one additional property. One rents out nearly 60 properties. And there was also sort of a variety in how thoroughly people filled out the forms. So some people listed LLCs that own rental properties, but didn't list the individual properties on their forms. So there's still a good deal unknown, but I think we are able to quantify at least a bit how many lawmakers are also landlords.
WSHU: You didn't take into consideration that many lawmakers are lawmakers who have landlords as clients as well, right?
GM: Right, so, many, many lawmakers are also lawyers, like you said, who have landlords as clients. We also didn't count the number of people involved in real estate, which has some obvious ties to the landlord industry.
WSHU: Now you've talked to some of the lawmakers. What did they say?
GM: So it was really a wide variety of responses on how much lawmakers thought that this influenced policy. Some, particularly Democrats, said, yes, absolutely. This is influencing policy. It's making it difficult to pass bills that are favorable to tenants. It's watering down these bills. And then some said, of course, landlords should be lawmakers. They have expertise in providing housing.
WSHU: Yeah, you mentioned Rob Sampson (R-Cheshire), the ranking Republican on the committee, and he feels that his experience comes to bear when he makes his decisions, and it's important to have that experience.
GM: Yeah, and he's one who often mentions during particularly public hearings and public debates, his own experience as a landlord with some good tenants and some not-so-good tenants, and he's opposed to many of the bills that tenant rights advocates have championed.
WSHU: Now tell us about the bills tenants' rights advocates have championed and where they stand this year.
GM: Yeah, so particularly this year, they're working on a bill that would reform eviction law in Connecticut. It would expand some existing protections that right now are only available to seniors and to people with disabilities. Essentially, it would end no-fault evictions. So these are evictions that typically occur at the end of the lease, and the expansion would apply to larger apartments, so five or more units. This is something they've worked on for the past couple of years. It hasn't passed. This year, it's gotten through committee. So we'll see where it lands as we go to the full House and Senate over the next few weeks.
WSHU: You talked with Larry Butler, the Democrat. How's he looking at it this year?
GM: Yeah, so Larry Butler is a long-standing member. He's not the current chair of the Housing Committee. He was on one end of the spectrum, saying, you know, I didn't realize that so many lawmakers are landlords, because I hardly ever hear about it, whereas the current chairs sort of said, you know, I hear about this more frequently.
WSHU: And right now, how does it look as far as passage of the tenants' rights bills this year?
GM: Yeah, so it's hard to say at this point. There seems to be a good amount of support, particularly from freshmen lawmakers. There's a lot of support from folks who have historically been interested in housing and landlord-tenant issues, but there's still a way to go. It got a couple of no votes from Democrats on the Housing Committee, which isn't terribly common, and Republicans have been really staunchly against this bill.
WSHU: If this passes, would it be a first for the nation? Is this the first of this kind of bill, or do we have similar bills in other states?
GM: There are similar bills in other states, and I think that's one of the points that advocates are making to folks who say this would drastically change the landscape of the rental industry in Connecticut. They're saying other states have done this and made it through, and Connecticut already offers these protections to select groups of renters.
WSHU: Those are the associations that have this provision.
GM: Yeah, there are certain Connecticut folks over 62 and people with disabilities as well as the people that are caring for them, who are not subject to no-fault eviction.
