Tenant Protections Undone: How Florida Organizers Are Moving Forward
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill in June that overrode dozens of local tenant protection laws won there in recent years. How are housing organizers in Florida fighting back? And what can other organizers do if they live in a state that is hostile to tenant protections?
By Natasha Ishak – October 24, 2023
Like many tenants who live in Florida, Karla Correa understands the struggle of living in a place that favors landlords over tenants. For the last five years, she’s lived in an apartment in St. Petersburg that has had ongoing issues with leaks and mold, and she’s fought her landlord to get those issues resolved. After learning about a local tenants’ group in another city, Correa was inspired to form her own organization in 2020.
“When I saw that . . . I was like ‘oh we can organize collectively as tenants, just like how we do as workers in labor unions’,” says Correa, who’s 23.
For a year, Correa and other tenant organizers with the newly formed St. Petersburg Tenants Union fought to strengthen local tenant protection laws. They organized community members online and through door-knocking, launched social media campaigns to raise awareness, and built relationships with elected officials on the St. Petersburg City Council. In 2021, their efforts led to several big wins for tenants. For one, the group successfully pushed the city to require that landlords give tenants more notice before a month-to-month lease is terminated. They also secured protections for prospective renters who would use vouchers or other government programs to pay for rent, as these renters are often discriminated against by landlords.
The wins were less than what the group had initially sought, but they were still better than the city’s existing Tenant Bill of Rights, Correa says.
Those protections, however, became moot after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1417 into law in June. The law gives preemption powers to the state against local ordinances that establish renter protections or regulations that go beyond those granted under state law. Not long after the new law went into effect, the St. Petersburg City Council repealed its own Tenant Bill of Rights.
It’s estimated that more than 45 ordinances in 35 municipalities and counties in the state will be affected, according to Florida House Rep. Tiffany Esposito, a Republican who sponsored the preemption bill.
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