Rookie Reps Target Evictions

By Paul Bass, New Haven Independent

HAMDEN, CT — Laurie Sweet is headed back to the state Capitol to push a tenants’ rights bill — this time to help pass the law rather than push someone else to.

Sweet, an activist used to lobbying elected officials, begins her first term as state representative from Hamden’s 91st General Assembly District on Jan. 8. She joined another rookie Democratic state lawmaker and veteran activist, incoming 94th District (New Haven and Hamden) State Rep. Steve Winter, Tuesday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program to discuss priorities for the upcoming term.

Fresh from “civility training” at the Capitol, the two agreed they would like to see the legislature pass a “just cause eviction” bill to prevent landlords from refusing to renew a tenant’s lease without a reason like needing to undergo major renovations or leaving the property rental business.

Sweet called the bill her top priority.

“You would have to give a reason to evict somebody. Right now, you can serve a notice to quit. You have a short amount of time to get out, and there’s no recourse for the tenant,” said Sweet, who has worked to strengthen Hamden’s Fair Rent Commission and support the rise of tenants unions.

The state legislature considered the bill this past session. Sweet, a Hamden Council member, joined members of the Connecticut Tenants Union and Voices for Children, among others, at the Capitol to urge her state representative to support the bill. The bill didn’t make it to a vote. Legislators — now including Sweet — intend to bring it back this term. The bill would extend protections that already exist for seniors and disabled renters.

Sweet said she’s open to including a one-year test period in the bill to enable landlords to determine whether a tenant is going to work out.

“This has got to be a top priority. We have so many people who are struggling with cost of living, struggling with affordable housing,” Winter agreed with Sweet. He said the bill fits into the larger quest for affordable housing that he and other candidates have heard about so much from voters.

“There’s so many issues that I care about as an activist,” Sweet said. She said she decided to run for office “because I got frustrated being on the other side of the table, going to council meetings and asking the council to do things and being told we can’t, or maybe there just isn’t the will."

Winter said his top priority is to work with fellow lawmakers to push for more help to young people and working families in the budget, including increased aid to schools in cities like Hamden and New Haven. To that end, he and Sweet support revisiting the formula for a “volatility cap” created in a 2017 bipartisan compromise to free up more money.

Winter’s day job is serving as New Haven’s climate and sustainability czar. As a state representative, he’d like to promote the idea of creating geothermal energy hubs for neighbors centered in rebuilt public schools. (Read more about that here.) The legislature will probably reconsider a broad climate bill this term that failed last year; Winter would like to see his idea inserted into it this time. He pointed to similar programs in states like Colorado, Maryland and New York.

Not “Either/Or” On ICE

The two rookie reps may along with their colleagues face a challenge from the incoming Trump administration, which is promising a wave of immigrant deportation raids. The state’s TRUST Act prohibits local police agencies from cooperating in those raids. Sweet is currently working on a Hamden Council bill to reaffirm the town’s determination not to participate in such raids without a court order; the proposal would also charge federal authorities for any damage or other costs incurred during such raids.

Lawmakers may face the choice of whether to change their minds on cooperation if that means the Trump administration withholding other federal aid as a result.

Winter — echoing past comments on “Dateline” by State Sens. Gary Winfield and Jorge Cabrera — argued that the state should not weaken its immigrant protections because of fears over losing unrelated funding for other vulnerable communities. Rather, he argued, elected officials should prepare to fight to protect everyone.

“We cannot give in to blackmail from President-Elect Trump, to abandon our values,” Winter said. “We have to look for other resources, and we have to litigate to protect the resources that were owed or that were due from the federal government.”

Click on the video below to watch the full conversation with State Reps.-Elect Laurie Sweet and Steve Winter on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.