Landlords sometimes need help, but Missouri needs to protect renters, too | Opinion

Republicans in the Missouri House of Representatives passed a bill last week that would forbid localities from enforcing moratoriums on eviction proceedings. It’s an unnecessary sop to landlords that proves well-heeled backers are more important to the GOP than its avowed principles of limited government and local control.

Evictions are one aspect of a multifaceted housing and homelessness crisis underway in Missouri and the nation. Zero KC: A Plan for Ending Homelessness in Kansas City, a study completed last August, found that the city needs 27,563 more units that are affordable and available to low-income residents. About 1 in 5 renters pay more than they can really afford for rent. Black and Hispanic households are particularly cost burdened by high rent.

Those figures probably understate the problem. The city based its report on data up to 2020. Since then, there’s been a pandemic, economic turmoil and rampant inflation. Many renters are one unexpected medical or car repair bill away from homelessness.

State lawmakers could focus on helping those people. They could encourage construction of affordable housing, better assist low-income renters and support housing-first strategies that get people into homes and off the streets. Instead, the laws they pass are focused on ineffective camping bans and putting landlords’ minds at ease.

Last week, the Republican-controlled House passed H.B. 730 on a mostly party-line vote. If the Republican-controlled Senate also passes it and Republican Gov. Mark Parson signs it, the state would forbid localities from enforcing eviction moratoriums without legislative permission. Cities and counties could neither impose a local moratorium nor uphold a national one.

The idea that eviction moratoriums should be rare is correct. Landlords deserve an opportunity to earn a profit on their properties. It’s not their responsibility to subsidize tenants who are unable to pay the rent, who damage property or who otherwise break the terms of a lease. Eviction is the tool of last resort to remove problem tenants who refuse to leave.

But eviction also is a tool that abusive landlords use to prey on struggling tenants. Small numbers of buildings in Jackson County are responsible for a disproportionate number of eviction filings. Many of them are owned by out-of-state interests proficient in using the courts. We hope Kansas City’s new Right to Counsel program will help low-income tenants facing eviction exercise their rights.

An eviction lingers, too. Once on a renter’s record, it inhibits the ability to secure future housing at an affordable price. Many landlords understandably err on the side of caution when considering whether to risk renting to someone who was recently unable to pay the rent elsewhere.

Yet a temporary moratorium on evictions is sometimes necessary. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the national economy went into shutdown and unemployment spiked. It made sense to tap the brakes on evictions lest a wave of homelessness ensue. Jackson County and St. Louis circuit courts stopped evicting people for a few months in the spring of 2020. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under the Trump administration followed with a national eviction moratorium that lasted a year until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned it.

That was not without headaches for landlords. Tenants continued to owe rent each month, but recouping it was not always easy. It was a hard time all around.

But the General Assembly is overreacting to local and federal responses to a pandemic the likes of which America hadn’t seen in a century. It’s not as if cities are imposing eviction moratoriums with wild abandon. The proposed ban is a solution in search of a problem and prioritizes landlords above tenants.

Republican lawmakers are ignoring the complexities of housing and homelessness. What might work in Kansas City or St. Louis might not be suitable for Benton County. Local governments that are connected to their communities are best able to decide that and to respond to a housing emergency, not state lawmakers.