Two bills to make life easier for renters are headed to NM House floor

Bills that would crack down on rent price-gouging and expunge old eviction records successfully cleared their second committee hearings Monday evening and are now headed to the House floor for consideration.

House Bill 215, sponsored by Reps. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe) and Angelica Romero (D-Las Cruces), prohibits the use of artificial intelligence to manipulate rent prices. The bill seeks to prevent out-of-state companies from using an algorithm to coordinate rent prices, which has been done in other areas with housing shortages. 

Committee Chair Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos), in announcing her support of the bill, compared it to the ways airlines use “dynamic pricing” for tickets to maximize profits in periods of high demand.

Bill banning ‘source of income’ discrimination fails in narrow House committee vote

“It’s all in this algorithm. A black box. It’s run by a company, and they can help the landlord squeeze out every penny in a profit,” she said. “I do think we need to start getting a handle on this stuff.”

The committee passed the bill, a substitute for an earlier version, on a 6-4 vote. The new version specifies that algorithms used by governments or for research are exempt.

Later Monday evening, the committee passed another bill that would expunge eviction records for an aspiring tenant after five years. That bill passed 5-4. 

Sponsors Rep. Janelle Anyanonu (D-Albuquerque) and Rep. Wonda Johnson (D-Church Rock) said the bill is necessary to help renters move past an old eviction and into stable housing. 

Now that they’ve passed the House Judiciary Committee, both bills now head to the House Floor. 

Another bill, also of interest to renters, would prohibit landlords from refusing to rent to tenants who receive Section 8 or other subsidies. So-called “source of income discrimination” ordinances have been adopted in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and other cities. 

House Bill 339, also sponsored by Reps. Rubio and Romero, is on the calendar today at 1:30 p.m. in the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee. It’s been introduced for the last several years but tabled.