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Adopt a right to organize ordinance for mobile home residents

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Highlights

  • Empowers mobile home park residents to establish and operate tenant associations and to negotiate with their landlords for improvements to their housing conditions

Background

Several states and cities have passed laws that protect tenant organizing and outreach activities at mobile home parks and apartment complexes, supporting residents’ ability to form tenant associations, advocate collectively for improvements to their property, and participate in acquisition opportunities. In Texas, mobile home park residents have the right to meet on a mobile home community property without interference from their landlord but otherwise do not have the right to participate in outreach activities at the property, such as door-to-door canvassing to form a residents association or discuss issues at the property. Invited tenant organizers also do not have the right to support residents on the property in organizing activities and face arrest for participating in such activities.

Texas cities can play a key role in supporting tenants through the adoption of an ordinance protecting tenant organizing. In drafting a model ordinance, it is useful to think about the two populations who need protections: (1) tenants and (2) tenant organizers (that is, nonprofit staff and volunteers who are not tenants but work to support tenants in the creation and operation of tenants’ associations). Successful tenant organizing would not be possible without also protecting the work of this latter group—tenant organizers—who provide tenants with the critical outreach support, leadership training, and other support needed to launch and operate a new association. Tenant organizers are especially critical in the early stages of forming a tenant association, when tenants are usually too afraid to participate by themselves in any organizing activities on the property.

Model Ordinance

Here is a model tenant organizing ordinance for Texas cities, which builds off national best practices and covers tenants living in mobile home parks as well as those living in apartment complexes.

The ordinance also protects organizers invited by tenants, providing them with a right to conduct door-to-door outreach to identify common issues, educate tenants about their rights, ascertain interest in establishing a tenant organization, and offer information about tenant organizations and educational events.

Examples

Seattle, Washington; Washington, D.C.  (Tenant Right to Organize Act); East Palo Alto, California (Tenants’ Right to Organize ordinance); Florida

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Right of tenants to organize. Tenants shall have the right at multi-family properties where they reside to:

a. Self-organization;

b. Form, join, meet, or assist one another within and without tenant organizations;

c. Meet and confer through representatives of their own choosing with an owner;

d. Engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid and protection; and

e. Refrain from such activity.

Entry on property for purpose of tenants’ rights.

a. “Tenant organizer” means a person who:

• Works or volunteers for a nonprofit organization that assists tenants in establishing and operating a tenant organization; and
• Is not an employee or representative of the current or prospective owner, the current or prospective manager, or an agent of such persons.

b. If a multi-family property has a consistently enforced, written policy against canvassing, then a tenant organizer who is not a tenant must be invited by a tenant to participate in protected tenant organizing activities. Upon the invitation of a tenant, a tenant organizer has the right to enter the multi-family property and communicate with tenants on the rental premises, including within a rental unit or in a tenant common area; to assist tenants in establishing and operating a tenant organization; and to participate in protected tenant organizing activities.

c. If a multi-family property has a written policy favoring canvassing, any tenant organizer who is not a tenant may participate in protected tenant organizing activities without an invitation from a tenant. A tenant organizer has the right to enter the multi-family property and communicate with tenants on the rental premises, including within a rental unit or in a tenant common area, to assist tenants in establishing and operating a tenant organization and to participate in protected tenant organizing activities.

d. If the multi-family property does not have a written policy on canvassing or does not have a consistently enforced, written policy against canvassing, then the multi-family property shall be treated as if it has a policy favoring canvassing. In these multi-family properties, any tenant organizer who is not a tenant may participate in protected tenant organizing activities without an invitation from a tenant. A tenant organizer has the right to enter the multi-family property and communicate with tenants on the rental premises, including within a rental unit or in a tenant common area; to assist tenants in establishing and operating a tenant organization; and to participate in protected tenant organizing activities.

Protected tenant organizing activities. No owner or agent of an owner of a multi-family property shall interfere with a tenant or tenant organizer conducting one or more of the following activities related to the establishment or operation of a tenant organization:

a. Distributing literature in common areas, including lobby areas;

b. Placing literature at or under tenants’ doors;

c. Initiating contact with tenants;

d. Conducting door-to-door surveys of tenants to ascertain interest in establishing a tenant organization and to offer information about tenant organizations;

e. Posting information on all building bulletin boards;

f. Assisting tenants to participate in tenant organization activities;

g. Convening tenant or tenant organization meetings at reasonable times and in an orderly manner in any appropriate space that is open for the use of the tenants and would reasonably be interpreted as areas that the tenant had access to under the terms of their lease, including any tenant’s unit, a community room, a common area including lobbies, or other available space; provided, that an owner or agent of owner shall not attend or make audio recordings of such meetings unless permitted to do so by the tenant organization, if one exists, or by a majority of tenants in attendance, if a tenant organization does not exist;

h. Formulating responses to owner actions, including:

i. Rent increases or requests for rent increases;
ii. Proposed increases, decreases, or other changes in the housing accommodation’s facilities and services; and
iii. Conversion of residential units to nonresidential use or condominiums;

i. Proposing that the owner or management modify the housing accommodation’s facilities and services; and

j. Any other activity reasonably related to the establishment or operation of a tenant organization.