Skyrocketing rent prices have swept across South Florida, and lawmakers have been pressed to answer the growing concern. As a result, the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners have unanimously approved a Tenant’s Bill of Rights. After the approval, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava praised the vote, calling it an effort to “preserve housing” across the county.
In early April, Mayor Levine Cava was joined by the Board of County Commissioners in declaring an affordability state of emergency across the county.
In making the April announcement, she informed that she had signed executive actions to bolster the ERAP program, a fund for emergency rental assistance, by $13 million.
Mayor Levine Cava released a statement in response to the Tenant’s Bill of Right, reaffirming that she is “committed to meeting the housing needs of all our residents.”
One effort to combat rising rent prices is “the Building Blocks program which invests in two simultaneous tracks: increasing the supply of housing units and creating a comprehensive suite of housing stability efforts.”
“I issued an executive directive to my staff to take aggressive steps to cut red tape in permitting new housing units, to identify new private sector funding for housing development, and the accelerate the development of affordable and workforce housing,” Levine Cava added, updating that “in the coming weeks, I will convene the municipal mayors of Miami-Dade County to develop intergovernmental solutions to the affordability crisis.”
Levine Cava praised the voted, saying that it “could not come at a more critical juncture and formalizes the creation of our Office of Housing Advocacy,” which will “ensure that the Tenant’s Bill of Rights is faithfully administered.”
The Tenant’s Bill of Rights provides protections for withholding rent to pay for neglected repairs, it will ban landlords from asking about prior evictions on rental applications, it will require landlords to notify tenants of a new owner, it will establish a county office on Housing Advocacy, and it will protect tenants from retaliation if they seek government help with a landlord.
