BOISE, Idaho — With a 13-4 vote, the House Business Committee sent a controversial rent bill to the floor Monday.
If signed into law, local governments could not make landlords accept federal housing assistance programs, including Section 8 vouchers. Cities or counties also could not regulate rent, fees or deposits.
Representative Brandon Mitchell, R-Moscow, sponsored HB 545. He said it would help protect the private property rights of small business owners.
"Local governments shouldn't be able to force a company to do something that they may not want to do," he said. "When you have Section 8, it comes with a lot of different regulations, a lot of different responsibilities that you have. Some smaller companies don't have the manpower to actually run something like that."
Much of Monday's testimony focused on two City of Boise protections for renters. The first, passed in 2019, ensures rental application transparency. The second, passed last fall, states landlords cannot discriminate against a potential applicant's source of income.
Kathy Griesmeyer, director of government affairs, said the bill would overturn both those protections.
"We might lose a really meaningful tool to help protect some of our most vulnerable community members," she said. "Voucher holders in Boise are working-class employed families with children; they are seniors; they are individuals with disabilities. These are folks who are really having a difficult time and might be income limited."
No other communities or cities in Idaho have adopted similar ordinances, said Griesmeyer.
"So, I think the argument that these policies are going to spread like wildfire across the state and that Boise is dictating policy for the state are really inaccurate," she said.
One landlord in Donnelly, who testified in favor of the bill, shared her poor experiences while accepting various types of payments for rent.
"Forcing landlords to accept Section 8 and/or forcing us to charge a certain amount of rent is against our private property rights," she said.
But, Deanna Watson, Boise City/Ada County Housing Authorities executive director, said landlords can still deny those renters based on other screening criteria. Even if the city they live in passes non-discrimination policies.
She hopes "more logical common sense prevails."
"What they're doing would cause a lot of people to have more difficult lives than they already do," Watson said.
Before the committee voted to send the bill to the floor, there was a motion to hold the bill in committee. Several lawmakers worried it was "too heavy-handed" and said local governments should be able to decide what works best for them.
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