Latest news with #TenantBillofRights
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Most military families on base don't know their rights as tenants, survey finds
More than half of military families don't know about their housing rights, official feedback systems or the offices set up to manage issues with their private housing landlords, a survey found. Two out of three respondents said that issues with military housing had affected their family's quality of life, and almost half said they had paid out of pocket for repairs or improvements to their homes. The survey, conducted by the Military Housing Coalition and released today, found that nearly 56% of respondents were not aware of their tenant rights, and 48% did not feel their base housing office provided adequate oversight. The fiscal year 2020 national defense bill established the Tenant Bill of Rights, granting military families 18 rights around their privatized military housing, including access to a formal dispute resolution process with their landlords. The education around these protections and other housing resources are supplied by Government Housing Offices at each military base. Heather Hall, the founder of the Military Housing Coalition and a military spouse, told Task & Purpose that the last few years of advocacy work aren't meaningful unless families know about their protections and the help that's available to them. 'As much as people have been pounding the ground like myself and other advocates out there to say this is an oversight piece,' Hall said, 'they still don't know that that's an available resource to them.' The coalition received responses from over 1,100 active-duty members, military spouses, DoD civilians, and retirees — a small sample of the hundreds of thousands who live in private military housing. On U.S. military installations, these private landlords operate 99% of family housing, which is made up of more than 200,000 units, according to the GAO. 'We are committed to providing our warfighters and their families the safe and quality housing they deserve. We appreciate the support of military and veteran community partners on improving awareness of DOD's Housing Feedback System, and Congressional committees to make much needed housing reforms,' a Pentagon spokesperson said in a statement to Task & Purpose. Military quality of life had become a major topic in Washington, D.C. in 2019, leading to major changes and additions in the fiscal year 2020 defense bill. Separately, in 2021, Balfour Beatty, one of the military's largest private housing landlords, agreed to plead guilty and pay $65 million in fines for 'pervasive fraud' which included falsified maintenance records. Hall said the momentum around improving private military housing from the beginning of the decade seems to have dissipated post-pandemic. Major changes were made to 2020 defense bill to address housing and in 2021, Balfour Beatty, one of the military's largest private housing landlords, agreed to plead guilty and pay $65 million in fines for 'pervasive fraud' which included falsified maintenance records But in recent years, a majority of military quality of life topics in Congress have addressed fixes to barracks, troop pay increases, and childcare. 'That's not an excuse to just completely be like, 'OK, we're done talking about housing. We're done having this conversation in Congress, we're done having hearings.' And essentially, that's what happened,' Hall said. 'It's sad that we've put all of this legislation into place over the years and yet we're still fighting that original battle that we still have bad actors.' Across bases, Government Housing Offices go by different names, which the coalition thinks should be standardized. Personnel in these offices are directed to hold information sessions with families who are new arrivals to the bases and present them with their bill of rights and offer resources for any issues that may arise. According to the survey, 26.5% of respondents didn't know about the office's role in the first place, which mirrored findings from an April 2023 Government Accountability Office report that described confusion over implementation of the dispute resolution process and the roles of official Department of Defense military housing advocates. In August 2024, the Department of Defense launched its Housing Feedback System for active-duty troops and their dependents 'to submit feedback on their current leased unit, ensuring that their voices are heard and their concerns are addressed in a timely manner.' But in the MHC survey, 67.5% said they were unaware of the feedback system. At the time of the survey, there were 34 public entries despite 183 respondents indicating they submitted their own feedback, which the coalition said raised transparency concerns. 'Many respondents reported being unaware of their rights as tenants and the resources available to them – factors that critically undermine their ability to seek help or resolve problems effectively,' according to an executive summary of the MHC survey. 'These findings reinforce the urgent need for stronger communication, improved tenant education, and coordinated, systemic reforms across the military housing landscape.' 'The reason I do this is because I don't want anyone to feel like they're in a situation like I was back then — that I didn't feel like I had anyone,' Hall said. 'Maintenance and the community management, sometimes they get the angry spouse, but you have absolutely no idea what this spouse is dealing with at the time.' Military spouses made up nearly 82% of responses, 'highlighting the critical role they play in identifying and reporting housing issues,' the coalition noted in survey materials provided to Task & Purpose. The coalition advocates for adding spouses as tenants on private military housing leases since oftentimes they aren't, which restricts their access to certain rights like the dispute resolution process. Nearly 63% of respondents said on the survey that their housing conditions had negatively affected them or their family's quality of life, especially their mental and physical health. The majority of problems reported on the survey were about mold, mildew, pest infestations, HVAC failures, water intrusion and appliance issues — issues that have been reported countless times by news outlets and have been the subject of concern at Congressional hearings on military budgets. The coalition is asking for the DoD to standardize the way private landlords address mold and water intrusion in military homes. 'Some companies are doing the right thing and trying to implement policies and asking that their contractors have certifications for handling those kinds of issues,' Hall said. 'But then we still see residents that are staying in other housing providers, that mildew and mold are being painted over or it's being dismissed as dust and not being taken seriously and it's resulting in physical health issues to our families.' While Hall's husband was deployed, her daughter was in and out of the hospital with respiratory issues, which she believes was the result of mold exposure. Sometimes her daughter would run a 102 fever and have symptoms come and go. Hall said it made her own family members question the validity of her daughter being sick. 'I couldn't prove that it was the home, but she didn't have it before and she didn't end up having it after and I looked like a crazy person. I felt like I was crazy,' Hall said. 'My husband was gone. If it wasn't for my mom coming into town and helping me, I have no idea what I would have done because I was just physically and mentally exhausted.' When maintenance workers pulled up her kitchen flooring, they discovered black mold. Hall said she 'lost it.' She was in the middle of managing the housing problems, maintaining her son's school and sports schedule and driving her daughter back and forth to Kansas City for a pediatric pulmonologist. Around the same time, an administrative error interrupted her husband's pay so sometimes she wondered how she was going to pay for gas to get her daughter to the pulmonologist. She was mentally and physically exhausted. 'That's the mental strain on these families is, they know something's wrong but they can't prove it,' Hall said. 'I understand the legalities behind it to these companies, and I don't think that there's willful negligence here. I don't think that anyone in any of these companies goes to work every day thinking that they're going to do something wrong and do something willfully, but you can't prove it.' Around 45% of respondents said they paid out of pocket for repairs or improvements for their military housing units. That result tracks with several complaints in another recent lawsuit against Balfour Beatty, which included a Navy family in Florida told Task & Purpose that the damages from mold and a broken HVAC system cost them thousands, including the husband's reenlistment bonus. 'The fact that anyone said yes that they have made a repair to their home, living on base out of their own pocket due to negligence, really that kind of stung a little bit. Nobody should have to fix their own home, especially when they choose to live on base,' Hall said. 'They should depend on the provider to fix their home.' A Marine Corps reply-all email apocalypse has an incredible real-life ending Army shuts down its sole active-duty information operations command Army plans to close more than 20 base museums in major reduction Former Green Beret nominated to top Pentagon position to oversee special ops The Navy's new recruiting commercial puts the 'dirt wars' in the past
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Erie City Co. votes to update ‘Tenant Bill of Rights' to remedy unfair landlord costs
Erie City Council passed an amendment Wednesday morning to the ordinance that has been referred to as the Tenant Bill of Rights. Council members call it a small change that puts the city's law in line with the commonwealth's. Fire marshals can now give citations to drivers parked by fire hydrants, in fire lanes It involves a $15 application fee that potential tenants pay landlords when they apply for housing. Under the old ordinance, if they were turned down, the tenant would get that fee back. Erie County Council votes on appropriation of ICE funds But since landlords do background checks that cost money to conduct, if they turn a tenant down, they'd be taking on that fee regularly. 'This ordinance not only is putting everyone's rights in one spot, but it's also allowed more conversations around the education on what renters need to know and what landlords need to know to work together. It's creating a new collaboration that we didn't see happening before,' said Erie City Council member Tyler Titus. Titus said this was about rectifying an unfair step for landlords and that no other language in the ordinance was impacted. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Worker's Bill of Rights, $20 minimum wage in Tacoma? Union begins gathering signatures
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union 367 chapter, with support of the Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America, is working to put a $20 minimum wage on the city ballot in November. According to two initiatives filed with the city of Tacoma last month, activists want to establish a Worker's Bill of Rights, which would raise the minimum wage in Tacoma, give workers more rights to fair scheduling and full-time hours, and improve workplace safety. Medium and small businesses would be phased into the $20 an hour minimum wage requirement over several years. Andrea Reay, who spoke on behalf of the Tacoma Pierce County Chamber of Commerce as its president and CEO, told The News Tribune on Monday raising the minimum wage in Tacoma would negatively impact small businesses and increase costs for consumers. She also voiced support for businesses to offer flexible hours and advocated for more creative solutions to address issues like affordable housing, economic inequality and workforce education. To get on the ballot, Worker's Bill of Rights advocates need to gather signatures from at least 10% of people who cast votes in the last election cycle. UFCW 367 community and labor organizer Colton Rose told The News Tribune on Friday they would have to gather about 5,000 signatures in favor of the initiative. Their goal is gathering at least 8,000 signatures by early July, he said. Rose said UFCW 367 is also pushing for a similar Worker's Bill of Rights in Olympia and would need to gather at least 15,000 signatures there by early July to put it on the ballot. The initiatives come on the heels of a citizen's petition to establish a Tenant Bill of Rights, which successfully passed in Tacoma in 2023 on a razor-thin margin. As of Jan. 1, 2020, employers in Tacoma are required to use the Washington state minimum wage. As of the first of this year the state's minimum wage was $16.66 an hour, 38 cents higher than 2024. Workers who are 14 or 15 years old must be paid at least $14.16 an hour. If successfully put on the ballot and approved by voters, the Tacoma initiatives would be enforced by private right of action, although there is language that would allow the city to vote on and develop its own enforcement mechanism. Two versions of a Worker's Bill of Rights have been submitted to the city of Tacoma. They are similar, but Version 2 has stronger penalties for violations and stronger language protecting workers' rights to fair scheduling and hours. Rose said UFCW 367 is testing public and business sentiment to determine which version it would push to get on the ballot. UFCW 367 wants the city of Tacoma to establish a higher minimum wage than the rest of the state. Upon the effective date, every employer in the city that employs more than 500 employees in its network would have to pay each employee at least $20 an hour, according to the initiatives. 'On January 1 of the next calendar year, and each January 1 thereafter, the hourly minimum wage must increase by the annual rate of inflation to maintain employee purchasing power,' the initiative says. Starting on its effective date, all employers in Tacoma that employ between 16 and 500 employees must pay their employees an hourly minimum wage of at least $18 an hour, and, 'The two-dollar reduction must decrease annually by one dollar on January 1 of each year thereafter until the reduction is zero,' according to the initiative. Employers that have 15 or fewer employees must pay their employees at least $17 an hour beginning on the effective date, and, 'The three-dollar reduction must decrease annually by 50 cents on January 1 of each year thereafter until the reduction is zero,' the initiatives say. Under the Worker's Bill of Rights, certain employers would need to give employees 'a good faith estimate' of their work schedules, give at least 14 calendar days notice of their work schedules, offer additional hours of work to existing employees before hiring additional employees or subcontractors, provide employees with written notice of their rights and provide a written response for why they denied a worker's request to a change in their schedule due to a major life event. Employers also would need to create a workplace safety plan to protect workers and consumers in the event of violence or natural disaster, according to the initiatives. Large employers would be required to protect workers in isolated or dangerous areas by providing panic buttons and maintaining safe staffing levels. Failure to provide a good faith estimate of work schedules could result in $500 penalties to the employer per failure, as could a failure to offer additional hours of work to existing employees, according to one initiative. A failure to provide employees with written notice of their rights could result in a $500 penalty and retaliation could result in $1,000 to $5,000 penalties to the employer. UFCW 367 president Michael Hines told The News Tribune on Thursday the union was one of the first to endorse the Tenant Bill of Rights in Tacoma and came up with the idea for the Worker's Bill of Rights after running into challenges with reduced hours and safety issues in area grocery stores. 'That was sort of the background of why we started thinking about, well, if they're not going to talk to us at the table, then we'll legislate it,' Hines said. 'We see ourselves as not just a labor union but part of the greater community, so we have a responsibility to raise the standards for all working class, not just those that belong to our union.' Hines said many of the union's 8,000 members are struggling to make ends meet, and some are living in their cars because they cannot keep up with the rising costs of rent and cost of living in Western Washington. 'Some people think that by raising the minimum wage, then the cost of everything is going to go up, but the truth of the matter is, we're chasing the cost of living. We're not ahead of it. We haven't been ahead of it in a long time,' he said. 'There's also those, like me, who have been around a long time. I remember working for $3.35 an hour as minimum wage. And so some people are like, 'Well, I had to work my way up. Why should some 19-year-old kid make 20 bucks an hour when it took me all these years to make that?' And the truth is, we're in different times.' Rose said the union doesn't want to burden small businesses, which is why it would phase in minimum wage increases. 'Cities around Washington, around the Puget Sound, for years now, have been raising the minimum wage, and we can see the direct impact. And that is when low-wage workers have more money to spend, they spend that money in their community,' he said. 'Workers who get the increased wages will directly benefit from being able to afford their rent and buy groceries and all the things that we need to do to live on a daily basis, and the community as a whole will thrive because of the increased support for local and small businesses.' Rikki Wood, the communications chair of Tacoma DSA, said their organization 'fully supports' the Worker's Bill of Rights and said wages should increase with the profit margins of their businesses. 'Corporate America's profits continue to skyrocket, while increases in pay have flatlined,' she said. 'In partnerships with unions pursuing collective bargaining, we believe in fighting for a living wage for the people in Tacoma.' In 2024 corporate profits in the United States saw a 16.9% growth in the last year, while wages and salaries in the same period increased 3.7%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Although Reay agreed that when lower-wage workers have more money to spend it strengthens the local economy, she said, 'the tough piece is that dollar will not go as far as we hope or we think it will because of the increased burden of the increased cost' businesses will push on consumers in order to recoup their labor costs. Of the more than 1,500 members belonging to the nonprofit Tacoma Pierce County Chamber, more than 85% are small business owners with 20 or fewer employees, Reay said. The initiatives are being proposed at a time when inflation is high and the United States is facing economic insecurity that is putting immense pressure on small businesses, she said. The U.S. Small Business Administration defines a small business as having fewer than 500 employees. If the Worker's Bill of Rights passes, Reay said, small businesses would be more affected than larger businesses 'because they have less financial flexibility to absorb what those higher labor costs can and could be … simply because of the economy of scale.' Depending on the industry, some business sectors have lower profit margins than others, like full-service restaurants, Reay said. Small businesses with thin margins are more likely to suffer from minimum-wage increases because 'the cost of everything is going up,' and 'there is a price cap [for what] the general public will tolerate for spending,' she said. Reay cited a 2021 University of Washington study that examined whether Seattle's phasing in of a $13 minimum wage from 2014 to 2017 lowered income inequality in the city. The study found that the lowest-wage workers in Seattle saw increases in hourly wages, but there was no evidence to suggest the higher minimum wage lowered overall levels of earning inequality for all workers in the city. Income inequality 'substantially increased' in that time period, 'likely for reasons unrelated to the minimum wage law,' and businesses reduced worker hours as a result of increased labor costs, wrote author Mark Long. 'The minimum wage was never meant to be a family wage or a living wage job. It's meant to be a training wage,' Reay said. 'When we're looking at how do we create more opportunities for equitable economic development, how do we create opportunities for workers to have more access to higher wage employment and skilled labor — those are more complex conversations. We are not going to create more economic opportunity and decrease the number of people living in poverty, or below the poverty line, simply by just increasing the minimum wage.' Reay said the chamber is advocating to look at 'what we're doing for workers holistically' through training and skills programs, investment in child care programs, investing in industries like manufacturing that have a higher earning potential with lower barriers to entry, in addition to building more types of housing and affordable housing. 'It's not as simple as just raising the minimum wage,' she said. 'It's more complex, and it requires more new policy and smart policy solutions. And I would say it's a comprehensive approach.' When asked about the chamber's stance on the scheduling and hiring conditions outlined in the Worker's Bill of Rights initiatives, Reay said flexible scheduling for hourly employees can be good for both workers and employers. Reay said she understands workers' desire for a predictable work schedule but said anecdotally that most employers people want to work with 'ensure that they have a schedule that works for them and for their needs, for their families.' When asked her opinion on the safety protections for workers outlined in the initiatives, Reay said, 'If the problem that we're trying to solve is that there is data on businesses that are taking advantage of workers or not creating safe environments, etc., then, let's solve that problem.' 'Businesses absolutely want to be part of the solution finding, and we want to find a solution that works for business and for workers,' she said. 'We don't want to have unintended consequences.'
