INDIANAPOLIS — Hoosiers from all across the state, from both urban and rural communities, were at the Indiana Statehouse Monday to demand better protections for people who rent their homes and apartments.
Lawmakers in both the Senate and House have written bills dealing with protecting tenants, Senate Bill 202 and House Bill 1148. Only SB 202 is getting a hearing this week in front of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee.
“I’m mentally scarred,” said Rhonda Cook, explaining that she used to live on the city’s east side, in an apartment complex with boarded-up windows, no place to put the trash and mice infestations.
“I went, in 2020, seven to eight months without windows due to my apartment being shot up,” Cook explained.
Cook spoke out Monday at a housing rally at the Statehouse, telling those gathered what she said she went through while living at Cheswick Village Apartments.
In December, 13News talked to residents at the same complex about similar issues, including trash piling up because there weren’t any trash bins.
“Mold was growing through the carpets, ceilings were collapsing, HVAC systems not working,” said State Senator Fady Qaddoura, D-District 30, of Lakeside Pointe Apartments, a complex in his district.
The Indiana Attorney General sued the complex's out-of-state owner, trying to get a court to appoint a third party to run the complex after the utility companies threatened to shut off residents’ water for unpaid bills which the owner was supposed to be paying with part of the tenants’ rent.
“We are one of very few, only five states nationwide, that do not have tenant protections in state law,” said Qaddoura, who hopes to change that with SB 202, which he authored.
It’s set to be heard Wednesday in the Senate’s Judiciary Committee.
The bill would require landlords to fix an essential service, like water or heat, within 24 hours of a tenant reporting a problem. It also calls for the court to hold rent in a separate account, only releasing the money once the landlord corrects the issue.
Landlords would also have to either live in Indiana, have a physical office there, or appoint a licensed real estate broker to manage the property if the landlord lived out of state.
HB 1148 has similar measures but is currently not on the House Judiciary Committee schedule.
Rhonda Cook said she’ll be following what happens after her experience with poor living conditions.
“It’s stressful to be living like that,” she said.
She’s been there, done that and moved because of it.
“Whatever laws need to pass; they need to pass them,” said Cook.