Governor adds rent reform to packed session schedule, but one big provision missing, advocates say

Lawmakers will soon consider a bill that would help tenants avoid becoming homeless in the middle of a public health emergency, the governor’s office confirmed Thursday.

A spokesperson for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said a rental reform bill will be on her agenda for the 30-day legislative session that begins Tuesday. 

The housing issue will join a packed session schedule that includes figuring out how to spend record-high revenues and the remainder of the American Rescue Plan Act funding, plus addressing voting rights and climate change. Though it will be in the session, housing did not make it into the list of the governor’s priorities released Friday.

The housing bill  – a draft of which is published below – was produced in consultation with the Apartment Association of New Mexico, which represents landlords, and various groups representing tenants, according to spokesperson Nora Sackett.

The bill, if passed, would close a loophole many landlords used to evict tenants during the pandemic, one that circumvented a Supreme Court order banning evictions for non-payment of rent. Under the new law, landlords will not be allowed to refuse to renew a tenant’s lease – effectively evicting them – while a disaster or emergency is declared by the governor or a joint act of the Legislature. 

It would also extend the amount of time tenants have to come up with rent when they get a written eviction notice from their landlords, from three days to 11 days. There are other changes too, like preventing tenants from being evicted if they come up with rent money by the time a sheriff’s deputy arrives to kick them out. Those changes would be in effect regardless of whether an emergency is declared. 

“We appreciate that the sponsors worked with stakeholders to come to a productive consensus that will improve landlord-tenant relations and allow housing-insecure New Mexicans greater opportunities to remain housed,” Sackett told Source New Mexico.

The bill, however, does not include a ban on so-called “source-of-income discrimination,” a provision that some lawmakers and advocates have been calling for throughout the pandemic.

Current law allows landlords to refuse to rent a tenant who is paying with a Section 8 voucher. Those vouchers are provided by the federal government to low-income renters and allow them to pay 30% of their income toward rent, with the government picking up most or all of the rest of the rent bill. 

New Mexico is one of 19 states where it is still legal for landlords to reject a tenant based on how they’re paying rent, be it a Section 8 voucher, a Veterans Affairs benefit or some other subsidy, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council.

Advocates — like the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and the Chainbreakers Collective — also note that banning the practice would have meant landlords would not legally be allowed to refuse rental assistance money made available to tenants and landlords during the pandemic. 

The state Emergency Rental Assistance Program has so far provided about $85 million from a $170 million federal fund to landlords on behalf of tenants who couldn’t make rent during the pandemic. 

But at least 2,000 times between late July and late September (the most recent data available) landlords refused to accept or ignored rental assistance money that their tenant qualified for, the state previously told Source New Mexico. Those landlords frequently go ahead and evict their tenants, often to move in a new tenant at a higher rent or to sell the property during a hot housing market, advocates have said. 

Landlords refuse emergency rent money and Section 8 vouchers

If the ban on “source-of-income discrimination” had passed when it was considered during the 2021 regular session, those tenants could still be housed today, said Maria Griego, attorney for the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty. 

The Apartment Association of New Mexico during last year’s session fought against requiring landlords to accept Section 8 tenants, Griego said, which is her best guess as to why it wouldn’t be included for consideration this time around. 

“They were really opposed,” Griego said. “And so the governor knows that this is a bill that is supported by both housing advocates and landlords’ group, and so I think that’s probably why she’s willing to stand behind it.”

Sackett did not respond to a question about whether the governor supported a ban on Section 8 discrimination. 

The Apartment Association of New Mexico did not respond to a phone call or email Friday.

State Rep. Angelica Rubio (D-Las Cruces), a sponsor of the bill, said she hopes to fight for the ban in future years, along with other reforms. She hopes this 2022 bill will pass quickly through both chambers, given the Apartment Association’s support and the governor’s endorsement. The Senate, where the bill died last year, will be the legislation’s biggest test, she said. 

“I’m hoping that within the interim we can come up with a comprehensive housing plan that is going to address a lot of those issues,” she said.”I know that we have the support right now with the current version of the legislation of the landlord Association, which is why I’m hoping that the Senate will will defer on any amendments.”

Read the bill below: