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Tenant organizers urge Lansing council to expedite review of draft 'Tenant Bill of Rights' ordinances
Summary
Tenant organizers told the Lansing City Council they have drafted five ordinances — including fair chance access, right to counsel, repair-and-deduct expansions, and a 90-day right-to-renew — and urged the city attorney to review them after submissions in June; organizers say they have gathered over 1,000 community signatures.
Tenant organizers and residents urged the Lansing City Council on Oct. 13 to move quickly on a package of proposed tenant-protection ordinances they have submitted to the city attorney’s office.
Speakers, including Kyle Rouchard and Ross Fisher, said they have drafted five ordinances and delivered them to the city attorney in June. Fisher summarized key proposals: fair chance access to housing (limiting criminal-history screening), protections for tenant organizing, the right to counsel in eviction cases, expanded repair-and-deduct protections consistent with state law but strengthened locally, and a right-to-renew that would extend notice to 90 days for tenants in good standing.
Organizers said they have collected more than 1,000 signatures supporting the package and reported repeated outreach at the South Lansing Farmers Market. Anuja Sudarshan described housing conditions she and petitioners have documented — including long-term water outages, rodent infestations and leaks — and urged the council to prioritize the attorney review and provide timely feedback so ordinances can proceed through council or committee deliberation.
Speakers asked the council for more urgency and for clearer lines of communication with the city attorney’s office; they said they had emailed and sought meetings with council members earlier in the year with limited response. Council did not act on the draft ordinances during the meeting; organizers asked the council to expedite review and return comments to the group as soon as possible.
