Daniel Figueroa IV
Thursday, much to the dismay of Council member Luis Viera, the Tampa City Council voted down the second reading of an ordinance that would have created a tenant’s bill of rights in the city and offer protection against income discrimination.
Viera was one of six members on the seven-person board to support the measure when it first came before Council last month. But he was absent for the debate and vote on the second reading, which would have led to its adoption.
On Friday, he pledged to bring it back.
“I will make a motion next Thursday to have this issue come up again before Tampa City Council promptly so that we can, at the very least, reach common ground on a reformed tenants’ bill of rights that a majority of members can get behind,” Viera said. “We cannot leave this moral issue in our rearview mirror.”
The Tampa ordinance would’ve put the city in lockstep with the county. Hillsborough passed its own tenant’s bill of rights in March. That ordinance passed the county board with a 5-1 vote and also included language that would offer tenants protection against income discrimination. Specifically, the county and city measures would mandate landlords count Section 8 vouchers toward a tenant’s income.
Thursday’s discussion was brief. Most of the opposition came from Council member John Dingfelder who worried a provision of the ordinance requiring landlords to notify tenants of their rights would overburden the city and create an added layer of bureaucracy. He also was worried the city was forcing landlords to participate in Section 8 unwittingly. The city’s legal staff said that wasn’t the case.
“I think even if we adopt it and we say that that’s the case, it’s a fiction,” Dingfelder said. “And I don’t like to operate in a fictional world.”
The vote came as Tampa Bay is seeing the highest rates of rent and inflation in the country. In Tampa, the housing situation has become so dire, Tampa City Councilman Orlando Gudes described it as an “emergency crisis.” Viera said he was surprised the measure not only failed, but went down with no discussion of amending or redrafting the ordinance.
“We have an affordable housing crisis in this city. And we have a crisis of lack of dignity for many apartment dwellers and renters in marginalized communities. The message that voting this ordinance down with no vote on a replacement proposal sends to the community is not a good one — and it is not consistent with the hearts, I believe, of council members. I have faith that we will make this right for those in Tampa with their backs up against the wall in this housing crisis.”
Viera said he will attempt to bring the measure back during Thursday’s evening City Council meeting.
