Under current tenant-landlords laws, once a lease expires, landlords may end a rental tenancy for any reason at all. Because of this, many landlords-- especially those who rent to households with low incomes-- offer only month-to-month leases or allow longer-term leases to expire without offering an option to renew. As gentrification occurs and landlords seek more profit, many families are kicked out of homes with short notice, through no fault or control of their own, and too often left homeless without other options.

Good Cause Eviction laws help to protect against this practice. The Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless has proposed a Good Cause Eviction ordinance in our city that would permit a landlord to terminate a residential tenancy (or refuse a lease renewal) only for one of the following reasons:

• Tenant fails to pay rent

• Tenant materially violates the rental agreement or legal obligations regarding the residence

• The residence will be occupied by the landlord or a family member

• To perform repairs necessary to make the rental residence safe and habitable and the performance of the work will make the residence temporarily uninhabitable while the work is being done

• To comply with city orders to vacate the property

A lease provision that waives a tenant’ rights under the ordinance would be void and unenforceable.

Until the Good Cause Eviction ordinance is passed, this initiative also calls for a moratorium on the city’s use of property tax abatement, tax increment financing, or any other city financial incentive or pass-through funding on properties from which tenants were required to move without good cause (as outlined above) within the past 24 months.