Notre Dame Students Report Indiana Tenant-Landlord Policies Have A Devastating Impact

By Alex Slabosky

The Student Policy Network, a student-run initiative at the University of Notre Dame, last month released a report, Tenant Protections: An Impact Analysis, that examined proposed policies aimed at providing additional security for Indiana apartment tenants. “My team, as part of the Notre Dame Student Policy Network, took a semester-long dive into the impacts of proposed tenant protections throughout Indiana. Identifying a lop-sided policy outlook in favor of landlords, we used health data, state comparisons, and advocate interviews to qualify the need for further tenant-focused legislation and recommend specific policy implementation. We hope our findings can be used by policymakers, advocates, and community developers to better understand the issues at hand in Indiana’s housing market, and find equitable solutions,” said Thomas Musgrave, Project Lead of the Notre Dame Student Policy Network.

The report concluded, “the current state of tenant-landlord policies in Indiana, especially considering the economic and demographic makeup of the state, leaves more to be desired. Tenants in Indiana, compared to other states, are extremely limited in ensuring basic habitability standards, and lack necessary legal support in fighting eviction and removing unjust eviction files from their record. As described in this report, the lack of these rights have devastating impacts on the most vulnerable Hoosiers”

The report revealed that Indiana is one of only five states that do not allow tenants living in rental units with health or safety violations to withhold rent or to repair the conditions and then deduct the cost of the repairs from their rent. Recent news reports about the horrific conditions at the Lakeside Pointe Apartments highlighted the inability, under current law, of tenants, as well as state and local governments to force landlords to comply with basic habitability standards. A letter signed by the Hoosier Housing Needs Coalition and over a 130 other organizations and individuals urges Indiana House Speaker Todd Huston, Senate President Pro Tempore Rod Bray, and Members of the Legislative Council to consider the enforcement of habitability and housing standards as topics for interim study.