Welcome to the third week of the 2021 legislative session. We have bills up this week that need your support!

Dear fellow housing advocates,

The 2021 Virginia legislative session is in its third week now. We have made great progress on tenants’ rights in this short session and have more to go!

With the help of your support, we are making progress on tenants’ rights this session:

• – Delegate Hudson’s bill to increase protections against unlawful evictions (HB1900) passed the House and is headed over to the Senate!
• – Two more bills reported out of the House General Laws Committee and are headed to the floor for a vote: Delegate Price’s bill to give families more time to pay rent and stay housed (HB1889) and Delegate Carr’s bill to protect vulnerable tenants during the pandemic (HB1981).

There are several more tenants’ rights bills up this week that need your support:

• – This afternoon: increase protections against unlawful evictions (SB1215, Senator Ebbin) in the Senate General Laws Committee.
• – Thursday, 1/28 at 7 am: end the limit on the right of tenants to pay what they owe and stay housed (HB2014, Delegate Price) in the House General Laws Housing Sub-Committee.

How to support tenants’ rights bills:

You can provide written comment and sign up to speak in support of House bills by visiting hodspeak.house.virginia.gov. Sign up closes an hour before the committee meeting begins. The sign-up to speak in the Senate General Laws Committee is available here.

Thank you again for your support!

Best wishes,

Christie Marra
Director of Housing Advocacy

Laura Wright
Equal Justice Works Housing Justice Program Fellow