‘Miya’s Law’ strengthening tenants’ safety heading to Governor’s desk

Messing with evidence could come with more consequences soon.

A bill intended to protect apartment tenants from the kind of tragedy that befell young Miya Marcano last September is on its way to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk, complete with a new provision that also goes after human trafficking.

The Senate Friday took up and unanimously passed Sen. Linda Stewart’s “Miya’s Law” (SB 898) for the second time, this time with a late amendment message from the House that calls for a ban of rent-by-the-hour hotel and motel rooms.

“We have made a giant step toward tenant safety. Miya will now have a legacy in death,” Stewart said afterward in a text message. “So happy for unanimous passage in House and Senate.”

The bill flew through this Session without opposition, though at one point many key provisions in Weston Democratic Rep. Robin Bartleman’s version (HB 577) were stripped away in a committee substitute bill.

In the end, it was Stewart’s bill that received a 39-0 Senate approval last week, and a 120-0 approval in the House after the motel amendment was attached Thursday. A follow-up Senate vote to square the two versions earned a 34-0 vote on Friday, the Session’s last day for non-budgetary legislation.

SB 898 is intended to create new safeguards that might save others from the fate of Marcano, a 19-year-old college student who hailed from Bartleman’s district and was murdered in Stewart’s Orange County district. The suspected killer was an apartment maintenance worker with a violent criminal background, an obsession with her and a master key that opened her apartment. He committed suicide before he could be arrested.

“Miya’s Law” would require apartment owners to conduct criminal background checks on employees who could enter apartments. It also would institute rigorous controls, including logs, over master keys to apartments. The law also would require apartment employees to give tenants at least 24 hours’ notice before entering an apartment, up from the current requirement of at least 12 hours.

Stewart on Thursday brought up a similar case that occurred in Kissimmee last week, in which an apartment maintenance worker is charged with raping a tenant.

“Everybody has come to realize we need tenant safety. This is one way that we can move forward, and we hope we can cut back on these offenses that usually end up in death,” Stewart said.

At a news conference afterward, Stewart and Bartleman were joined by some of Marcano’s family and friends, as well as Hudson Republican Rep. Amber Mariano, who was credited with helping restore the bill’s key provisions on the House side.

Bartleman told of how she also has a 19-year-old daughter who lives in a college apartment at the University of Florida. Like Miya’s family, she said, she had no idea her daughter might be exposed to dangerous people with master keys.

“Miya’s parents and I, we all have the same expectation: that our daughters are going to be safe, and they’re going to have a great school year. And that’s not necessarily the case,” Bartleman said.

She pleaded for DeSantis to sign the bill into law.

“Because of this bill, over two million Floridians are going to feel safer when they put their head on the pillow at night,” she said.

The motel hourly rate provision was revived from a dead bill (SB 1852) sponsored by Sen. Jennifer Bradley in the Senate.

Bradley said the provision is aimed at cutting down on human trafficking.

“It requires that hotels be rented by the night, and not be on an hourly basis,” Bradley offered to support the amendment.

Even with Bradley’s help, the amendment looked in peril Friday on the Senate floor. Both Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes and Democratic Sen. Jason Pizzo expressed concern for hotels that sometimes offer “day rooms” to people who might fly into town for a day meeting, or maybe for a wedding, and seek a place to “freshen up.”

In the end, they did not object. The debate might water down the amendment’s intended purpose. As Bradley, Brandes, Pizzo and Stewart explored the ramifications, they concluded that the amendment’s language explicitly bans hourly rates for lodging, but it does not clearly say anything about room rentals for fractions of days, such as “half a day,” that could provide for daytime rentals.