AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine’s housing crisis has affected the market for years and was made worse during the pandemic.
The shortage of new and affordable housing makes it challenging for folks of all income brackets to find units.
Katie Spencer White said the housing shortage is starting to manifest in a harmful way for people. She is the CEO of the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter & Services in Waterville.
“We were rehousing people experiencing homelessness at a rate of 25 to 30 households a month. We’re down to about three or four,” she said.
White said one significant factor preventing folks from finding a new apartment or house isn’t a lack of income. It’s because of their past tenant records. Even if it was through no fault of their own, White said evidence of evictions will stay on a tenant’s record.
“Once you’re on a tenant blacklist, it can be next to impossible to find permanent housing,” she said.
L.D. 913, titled, An Act To Enact the Maine Data Collection Protection Act, would protect Maine consumers and potential tenants by giving them the chance to explain their situation if they did have an eviction on their record.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Tavis Hasenfus, D-Readfield, explained some folks find themselves on these blacklists even if they were a solid renter for years.
“Nobody is giving the benefit of the doubt saying, ‘Why were you evicted? What happened?’ Instead, they’re saying, ‘Sorry, too bad,’” he said.
One example he gave is a landlord can provide a 30-day move-out notice to a tenant if the landlord is selling the property. If the tenant does not have new housing, the landlord is legally allowed to file a no-fault eviction claim, which goes on the tenant’s record.
“Once again, the renter did nothing wrong, but a complaint will be filed against him,” Hasenfus said.
White, who is studying evictions as part of her doctorate degree, added some people who try to apply to housing units could find someone with the same name had a prior eviction, which could prevent them from the new unit, even though it’s a different person.
“You don’t have the right to re-address those inaccuracies, so that’s why Maine getting out in front of this before it becomes a problem is vital,” she added.
It’s excellent timing, Hasenfus added, as this bill is going through the legislative process and Maine courts continue to release public information online. He said if this bill is passed, it’ll help tenants who were evicted through no fault of their own get off any blacklists. It’ll also help tenants facing restrictions when trying to find new housing.
White said when new apartments or housing units come on the market, landlords are flooded with dozens of applications that same day.
“If you have any scar on your record, you are not going to get selected for that unit of housing,” White said.
However, the bill would not prevent all tenant records from being kept offline. Hasenfus said if a judge rules in favor of a landlord and against a tenant, then that information should be publically available for future landlords to access.
“It won’t prevent landlords from having any information. It will prevent them from having bad information, and I think that’s in everybody’s interest,” White said.
The current language and bill’s title may change soon as the current legislative session started Wednesday. On Thursday, the Legislature’s Committee on Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement, and Business voted 10-1 to send this bill to the Judiciary Committee.
Hasenfus said the committee could workshop the bill further and hold an additional public hearing. The legislation’s first public hearing was held in May 2021, and two workshops were held in the weeks after.
Some organizations testified neither for nor against the bill in May, while the final language was being worked on. The bill was amended multiple times, and it could happen again.
