It is a beautiful and cold afternoon in downtown Grand Rapids today.
We head into 2018 with some Michigan Bills that affect Real Estate Investors, Landlords and Veterans.
Veterans.
The Michigan Legislature is pushing hard to protect those who have served our country.
Yesterday MLive posted that the Michigan Legislature is taking up some 50 bills that will affect Veterans
One such bill I highlighted in a post last summer. On August 16, 2017 HB 4872 was introduced into the Michigan House.
The Bill would amend the “Elliott-Larsen civil rights act,” and would provide that veterans are included in the list of those protected by Michigan law against housing discrimination.
The Bill would define Military Service as:
“STATUS OF BEING AN ACTIVE DUTY MEMBER OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED STATES OR A VETERAN WHO RECEIVED AN HONORABLE OR GENERAL
ADMINISTRATIVE DISCHARGE FROM ACTIVE DUTY WITH THE ARMED FORCES F THE UNITED STATES.”
The Bill brings two thoughts to mind:
- Our Veterans and those who served our country deserve to be treated fairly in housing and all other areas of life.
- This Bill brings up a fundamental question: are Veterans being discriminated against in housing? Does it happen?
According to statistics recently published in the Bridge with insight from Dennis Van Kampen of Mel Trotter Ministries, there are fewer homeless veterans than ever in Michigan today, but more homeless youth.
The Bill was sent to the committee on Military and Veteran Affairs. No action has been taken on this bill since I posted in August, but I will continue to track this bill.
I look forward to hear comments from the public on this issue: are we in Michigan protecting our Veterans access to fair housing?
“Nuisance Property”: Bill Would Protect Those in Affordable Housing from being penalized for calling 911.
On November 28, 2017 Senate Bill 667 was introduced.
The bill is intended to prohibit local units of government from penalizing tenants, occupants, or landlords of rental dwellings for contacts made for police or emergency assistance in certain situations.
Presumably, the Bill is intended to restrict those municipalities that have ordinances that punish landlords and tenants by labeling a rental property a “nuisance” when a certain number of calls to police or emergency assistance.
The Bill in its current form, generally, holds a “reasonableness” standard – meaning the emergency call must be reasonable under the circumstances – the person making the call must reasonably believe they, or a person they are calling on behalf of, is a victim of a crime; and the intervention is needed to prevent a crime, or respond to an emergency.
This appears to be one of several Bills that would potentially address the affordable housing crisis.
As a reference, I would highly recommend reading Matthew Desmond’s book “Evicted” It is no secret that Michigan, particularly Kent County, is experiencing an Affordable Housing Crisis.
One potential way to address this crisis is providing Landlords and Tenants security that their local government unit will not unreasonably label properties as nuisances if the police are called for real emergencies. It appears this Bill is attempting to address such a scenario.
Questions? Comments?
email: Jeshua@dwlawpc.com
Twitter: @JeshuaTLauka
Purpose Driven General Counsel 