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‘LANDLORD’
A FEUDAL, OUTDATED TERM
THAT HELPS PAINT HOUSING FPROVIDERS AS VILLANS
BY ROGER VALDEZ
irst of its kind legislation has been proposed in Ohio to change references in state law from “landlord” and “tenant” to “housing provider” and “resident.” It may seem like a small change, but the shift is tectonic for housing. Oddly, the proposal will prove controversial.
It would mean feudal terminology would be replaced in order to reflect the real relationship between people who provide and who need housing.
Often, housing providers in Ohio and the United states are small family-owned businesses, not powerful land barons. Updating language is an important first step to accurately reflect this in the law, and it should lead to better policy. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) “there are between 10 million and 11 million individual investor landlords managing an average of two units each, many with just one unit.” Overall, about half of the 45 million rental units are owned and operated by individuals, ordinary people. Of those, a Harvard study found that “a decline in low- cost units brought their share of the national rental stock down from 33% in 2012 to just 25% in 2017, with decreases in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.”
If you ask the people who provide these small portfolios of housing why low-cost housing options are disappearing, they will cite the swarm of rules and regulations combined with COVID-19 eviction bans encouraging residents to withhold rent. Worse, these small businesses, many operated by people of color serving other people of color, have been made the villain in anecdotal stories about evictions. Meanwhile, providers who rent single- family homes are seeing the value of their asset skyrocket. The pressure to simply sell a rental house to a buyer who will live in it is enormous. This is a dangerous loss of low-cost housing supply.
And eviction is a rare occurrence. In Cincinnati, for example, data from a recent analysis of eviction by 76 AUGUST 2021 - APARTMENT MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE AMM1/6
The Center for Housing Economics found that the rate of actual removals — not filings — is about 1% of the more than 160,000 rental units in the city. Eviction is a costly, lengthy, and emotionally draining last resort, especially for smaller family business serving other families.
Changing the term “landlord” would mean the laws in Ohio would reflect this reality; people who work hard every day to serve their customers are housing providers, not impersonal, wealthy interests bent on eviction. The entity with the most evictions in Cincinnati is the Hamilton County Housing Authority, a government agency.
WHO WILL OPPOSE THIS?
Groups that benefit from evictions, like attorneys who represent defendants in such actions. They like the notion that their clients is like a feudal “tenant,” bound to the land and subject to the whim of a lord. But if there is a power imbalance between consumers and providers of housing it isn’t the wealth and power of people who provide housing, it’s scarce housing.
More housing supply means better prices for families who need it and more choices in the market. Ohio can lead nationally by changing this archaic terminology to reflect the reality of the housing economy. Housing providers work as hard and as close to the margin often as the families they serve.
The best way to solve housing problems is not with adversarial language in the law, but collaboratively to increase housing supply and options for all Ohioans and Americans.
Roger Valdez is a public policy expert in the areas of education, health, and housing. Most recently he served as housing director at a large regional non- profit organization. He has been an advocate for progressive supply side solutions to housing scarcity. This article is being reprinted with permission from the author and was previously published by Forbes.