Tenant Bill of Rights

In our state, the most basic rights for millions of renter households are not a guarantee. This power imbalance has endangered the safety, finances, and shelter of far too many Texans. In fact, most tenants may be unaware how few rights they have when legally challenged by a landlord. Expanding rights for tenants across Texas is a primary goal for Texas Housers.

We have to start somewhere, and there’s no better place than San Antonio. This is why we, along with many others including community members and the Texas Organizing Project, wanted to help create the San Antonio Tenant Bill of Rights. This is the start of what we hope to be statewide protections and rights for Texas renters.

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This is what the San Antonio Tenant Bill of Rights Does: 

1. Ensures that every unit rented in San Antonio meets minimum health and safety standards of basic utilities and facilities. 
2. Ensures that all repairs done by landlords are made in a good faith.
3. Makes it so that Military Veterans cannot be denied housing based on the Veteran’s lawful source of income to pay rent, which includes funding from a federal housing assistance program.
4. Gives a tenant proper notice of a pending eviction, including an opportunity to cure for non payment of rent before an eviction filing is made.
5. Gives the tenant a right to privacy and sets up guidelines for when management or landlords can enter into a tenants space. 
6. Gives all tenants the right to organize, without ever having to worry about the threat of eviction or a decrease in services. 
7. Creates a renter oversight commission that holds landlords accountable for their actions.

Esto es lo que hace la Carta de Derechos del Inquilino de San Antonio:

1. Garantiza que todas las viviendas alquiladas en San Antonio cumplan las normas mínimas de seguridad y salubridad de los servicios e instalaciones básicas. 
2. Asegura que todas las reparaciones hechas por los propietarios se hacen en buena fe.
3. Hace que a los veteranos militares no se les pueda negar la vivienda basada en la fuente legal de ingresos del veterano para pagar el alquiler, que incluye la financiación de un programa federal de asistencia a la vivienda. 
4. Da al inquilino una notificación adecuada de un desalojo pendiente, incluyendo la oportunidad de remediar la falta de pago del alquiler antes de que se presente una solicitud de desalojo.
5. Da al inquilino el derecho a la privacidad y establece directrices sobre cuándo la administración o los propietarios pueden entrar en el espacio del inquilino.
6. Da a todos los inquilinos el derecho a organizarse, sin tener que preocuparse nunca por la amenaza de desalojo o la disminución de los servicios. 
7. Crea una comisión de supervisión de los inquilinos que hace que los propietarios sean responsables de sus acciones.

If this sounds like something you are interested in joining, you can view our petition for a Tenant Bill of Rights here. For additional information, you can email macuna@organizetexas.org.

We are ready to make real change for tenants in San Antonio and across the entire state of Texas.

If you’d like to learn more about how you can protect yourself as a renter in San Antonio right now, you can check out our San Antonio Renterzine.