Attendees to a rally calling for Little Rock officials to declare a “housing crisis” because of a lack of affordable options sign a letter indicating their position. Photographed at City Hall on Sept. 26, 2024. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)
Little Rock residents who have struggled to find affordable housing rallied on the steps of City Hall on Thursday and asked officials to declare a “housing crisis.”
Their request came in a letter signed and delivered by about 30 people who attended the rally. In addition to the declaration, the letter expressed disappointment in officials’ absence at housing meetings and their code enforcement efforts. It also asked city officials to explore sustainable and affordable rental units.
“We’re frustrated. We’re fed up,” said Redonia Harshaw, chair of Arkansas Renters United, a nonprofit that advocates for balanced landlord-tenant laws. “More and more people are becoming homeless. …We’re tired of paying all our money to live in substandard housing and be treated less than humans.”
Arkansans who attended Thursday’s rally were part of a larger day of action organized by The Center for Popular Democracy, a national nonprofit that focuses on building an equitable society. Similar rallies or press conferences were held in six other states and Washington D.C.
Five members from Arkansas Renters United in Fayetteville traveled to the nation’s capital to participate in a demonstration at U.S. Rep. Steve Womack’s office, R-Arkansas, according to a press release from the advocacy group.
Womack, as the chair of the House’s Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Subcommittee, proposed a $7 billion decrease in annual funding that includes cuts to several HUD programs. Womack’s communication director was unavailable Thursday for comment.
Harshaw led Thursday’s rally in Little Rock, which included a number of group chants and testimony from tenants who described living in rental units with mold, rats, roaches and leaks.
Arkansas law largely favors landlords.
Renters typically accept their unit “as is” and landlords aren’t required to provide additional maintenance before the tenant moves in, according to the attorney general’s website. If landlords promise repairs, but do not complete them, the tenant should continue to pay rent. Landlords also have the authority to terminate any lease at any time, even for model tenants.
Al Allen, a leader with the grassroots group Arkansas Community Organizations, spoke about her experience living at what she said “should have been a luxury apartment” in West Little Rock, where housing units are typically known to be newly built or remodeled.
After spending several thousand dollars to move to the city, Allen said she discovered “six square feet of mold.”
“Even as a housing organizer, it took me months to get it not even fully remedied, and I eventually had to break my lease and spend thousands more because Little Rock is not standard,” Allen said.
Harshaw said people were leaving Little Rock in droves for other nearby areas that have better and more affordable options. But not everyone can afford to make the move, so they remain in conditions that are not ideal, she said.
“I live in a neighborhood that’s falling apart,” she said. “What happens when a neighborhood falls apart? Schools move away, businesses move away – then you have boarded up abandoned buildings and no community life.”
City response
Arkansas Community Organizations has frequently led a fight for affordable housing and safer living conditions in the state. The group played a critical role in the shutdown of a troubled Little Rock apartment complex, Big Country Chateau, and they worked with city officials to implement a policy that provided more support for renters.
The city ordinance outlines what living conditions renters in the city are entitled to, including hot and cold water, electricity, plumbing and a functioning roof and building envelope. Units must also have a working heating and air conditioning system if one was available at the time the lease was signed, according to the ordinance.
“The ordinance falls short in actual instrumentation and holding landlords accountable,” Harshaw said.
Antwan Phillips, a Little Rock director who sponsored the tenants’ rights ordinance, attended Thursday’s rally. Though he hadn’t planned to speak prior to his arrival, he shared the megaphone with activists and assured them their concerns were heard.
During his youth, Phillips said, he lived in an apartment complex that eventually was condemned, and he understands what it is like to live in substandard conditions. He also vowed to continue the conversation with tenants living in unsafe housing.
Regarding residents’ concerns that the city ordinance doesn’t have teeth, Phillips said the state Legislature has limited what can be passed for a warranty of habitability. He disagreed, though, that the ordinance falls short of holding landlords accountable.
“Now the city has the opportunity to take those properties away from the landlord,” Phillips said. “To me, that is some teeth. Hopefully we will have landlords who take this seriously now and do what they should be doing anyway. This ordinance shouldn’t even be necessary.”
Phillips also touted the city’s proposed sales tax initiative, which goes before voters this November and has a $10 million allocation for affordable housing and $5 million for code enforcement staff.
The proposal would increase the sales tax by one percent and generate an estimated $650 million funds for improvements over the next 10 years. The initiative would implement a permanent three-eighths cent tax.
Mayor Frank Scott Jr.’s chief of staff, Kendra Pruitt, met with rally-goers when they entered City Hall to deliver their letter. Scott was not available Thursday because he had a pre-scheduled conflict, Pruitt said.
Crammed inside the pre-security section of the rotunda, questions arose about when discussions with leadership could be expected, and what exact powers city officials have.
“We are committed to making sure that we can find every opportunity to make sure that we hold folks accountable within our power. Obviously, there are some things that are outside of our control – our hands are tied,” Pruitt said from the opposite side of the security check-in.
Pruitt told rally attendees that she would visit with the mayor and go “line by line” through their letter. She also assured them a further discussion would be scheduled “as soon as possible.”
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