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Committee adopts amendment to HB 457 prohibiting municipalities from requiring occupants be related by blood or marriage
Summary
The Special Committee on Housing adopted an amendment replacing the bill’s text to add a prohibition on municipal requirements that occupants of housing units be related by blood or marriage, and advanced the bill on a 16-1 vote.
The Special Committee on Housing adopted an amendment that replaces the text of House Bill 457 to prohibit municipalities from mandating that occupants of housing units be related by blood or marriage. The committee advanced the bill with a 16-1 recorded vote and placed it on the consent calendar.
Chairman Alexander moved the replacement amendment (20250917h); Representative Grant seconded. The amendment’s language adds to the commission for human rights statute (equal housing opportunity) a phrase stating that “cities, towns, and municipalities shall not mandate that occupants of housing units be related by blood or marriage.” The amendment also clarifies that the change does not prohibit enforcement of local fire codes or the operation of local boarding houses.
Representative Howland later offered an alternate amendment that would have defined lodging-house occupancy by per-occupant square footage drawn from examples in other states and referenced NFPA 101 (the state fire code reference). That alternate amendment was debated in committee and then failed on a recorded vote (6 to 11). The committee proceeded with the chair’s replacement amendment, which passed on a recorded roll call 16 to 1; the committee put the bill on consent.
Votes at a glance - HB 457 (as amended by 20250917h): Ought to pass as amended. Motion carried 16 yes, 1 no, 0 abstentions.
Context and clarifications The adopted language focuses on preventing municipalities from imposing relationship-based occupancy rules (blood or marriage) while explicitly preserving the authority to enforce state and local fire-safety requirements and to regulate boarding houses under local codes. The alternate lodging-house amendment sought to set per-occupant square-foot standards (for example, 80 sq ft per occupant in a single bedroom and 60 sq ft per occupant in shared bedrooms) and to reference NFPA 101; that approach was discussed but the committee rejected that alternate amendment. The transcript records debate about complexity and competing approaches; members described the chair’s amendment as a simpler, narrower fix to the statutory language.
Procedural notes Representative Howland cast the lone recorded no vote on the final ought-to-pass motion; the committee recorded the outcome as approved and placed the bill on consent.
