Renting Sucks in Watauga County, Part II
Renting Sucks in Watauga County Part II continues a series of zines for WNC Renters Help published by Free Radical Books and distributed by Curio and other fine collaborators. Find and grow our library zines and free resources online on the Booneiverse!
Read the first one: Renting Sucks in Watauga County
Hi friends,
Sorry to take so long on the follow-up. After posting the first Renting Sucks in Watauga County zine, an owner of one of the largest landlord companies let me know that if I followed through on hosting the promised landlord ratings and reviews database, I could expect to be sued for defamation. So that took some time to navigate. It doesn’t matter which company or person tried to do this. This isn’t about them, and in fact I am extremely grateful for them for two reasons:
First, if you’re going to retaliate against someone for speaking generally about renting conditions in Boone, you’ve proved my point that you have more interest in maintaining your market dominance than listening to the community you serve.
Second, you made me do a lot more research about online defamation law, so I know the right and wrong ways to go about this now.
But long story short, what I've come to is that no matter how I could host a website featuring user-submitted reviews (especially anonymously), there is a high risk that I could get sued. And reviewers could too.
As much as I think more landlord accountability is needed, putting myself or others at legal risk doesn't move housing issues forward. Because simply, even if I were in the right, the cost of going through the court process could put me in debt for years, and if I were unsuccessful because of a mistake or not being able to afford a high caliber lawyer, I could accidentally set a legal precedent that would make it even easier for landlords in North Carolina to snuff out reviews they didn't like. So, as driven as I am by the desire to follow through on my initial intention, I've had to ask myself if it was worth it and concluded that it is not.
Another part of this is redundancy: Yelp, Google, Facebook, etc. all host reviews and there are plenty there for Watauga County landlords already. Which makes me worry that putting up another reviews site might just be reinventing the wheel, and that no one would use it.
Instead what I've come up with is this: I've created a page on the Booneiverse that lists all of the rental companies in Watauga and links to their website, Google, Yelp, and Facebook reviews, as such:
I know this isn't the anonymous database I promised, but I said I'd host something in October and now two months past my self-called deadline I want to get something up. My hope is that this at least makes it easier to explore rental options and compare their existing reviews when you're looking for a new place. I am still trying to think what else I could put on this page to make it more useful, the only other thing on there now is a link to sign a petition in support of the long-term housing ideas proposed in WNC Renters Help's solutions platform (see last page), but I am open to any other suggestions (also let me know if I missed any companies, there are a lot, help!).
One other thing I've asked myself if cataloging landlord reports really accomplishes the goal of truly helping make Watauga County better for low-income renters. It could possibly help some people avoid a bad situation, but the real problem is just there isn't enough affordable housing in Boone. Even if you don't rent a place because of a review you read, someone else will, because there just aren't enough options or alternatives.
Anything that could be done now is just a first step. With so little concerted activity to create housing alternatives in Watauga, we can't be expected to create new places to live in one go. But still, starting with a landlord reviews site feels like a shallow harbor– harder to push out from to the real journey. I am wary about making the focus on current housing issues, instead of future housing possibilities. I think we can and should expect reform/incremental change from the landlords that be, but not at the opportunity cost of working for new, radically-different solutions that actually get new affordable homes built.
This is my chosen community and long-term solutions are what I am interested in, more than calling out bad landlords and chancing a court battle. I take it for granted that as long as there is a profit motive to do so landlords will continue to increase rates and spend only as little on positive renter experience as the law requires. There is no incentive to do otherwise, or to shift the form that housing arrangements take. Nothing will change unless A) there is a profit motive to create affordable housing or B) a new motive equivalent to profit for affordable housing creation arises.
Option A) is possible by
1. Making the market for affordable housing more visible and quantifiable by identifying the number of long-term residents interested in affordable housing, so developers feel justified investing in new housing developments that take advantage of government rent subsidies and affordable housing incentives to build lower rent units;
2. Actually creating new local market incentives like a Watauga Affordable Housing Trust Fund or other government-supported program (a private investment loan pool might work too) to offset the costs of developing affordable housing. This would take a campaign to show mass support for the local government to take action, and then apply for grants and other funds to establish.
Option B) is possible by
1. Creating structures like a Community Land Trust that gives people not solely motivated by profit the means to develop their own housing alternatives. There are plenty of other motivations besides profit out there nowadays– social justice, ecological protection, or other ideology clusters that influence human behavior as strongly or stronger than the dollar does. This too would require enough people showing their support and participating in the building and capitalizing a CLT or other democratic funding structure, through a combination of community organizing and political petitioning.
2. Getting outside-the-community organizations or a conscientious wealthy person to put up enough money for a non-profit-motivated group to buy land and develop their own affordable housing ideas.
I fully believe these things are doable, but this basic webpage is what I can accomplish right now. If there are any lawyers out there with a personal interest in this, I’d love to talk to you, but I’m just not in a position to hire one myself. There is a limit of what I can do on my own for this issue. That’s what the petition is about, bringing together enough people in support of affordable housing for Watauga to make it possible to do more in the future.
So check out what I’ve got– this bundle of ideas is the platform of solutions developed by WNC Renters Help earlier this year, a slate of ideas citizens and the local government could do, starting with the easiest/short-term impact tactics and ending with long-term strategies. If you support these ideas, sign your name to the petition form and use this list when making your next rental decision. I know its not the boldest or most exciting start, but it’s permanent at least– we can build from here. The wiki format the site is published on is designed to provide free webspace for other projects as well, you can learn how to add your own project pages through the front page of the Booneiverse, so consider that open to you as well.
That’s all I got for now, hopefully something this simple doesn’t get me sued, lol. Here’s the full WNC Renters Help platform: if you’re interested in organizing around any of these ideas, follow the QR code to sign the petition or reach out to wncrentershelp@protonmail.com, With this up and running, I am going to switch to a few other projects for a while and circle back after I see what level of interest this all generates. Til then let me know what you think. More soon.
Viva la and love y’all,
-Ben
WNC Renters Help Solutions Platform
1. Report unfair rental practices
In April 2020, the Town of Boone unanimously passed a resolution calling on the State Attorney General to investigate unfair and deceptive practices against renters in our town. The Attorney General Josh Stein has indicated that more reports of abusive rental practices (withheld security deposits, evictions without due process, hidden fees, etc.) are needed to trigger an investigation. By adding your story of unfair rental practices in Boone, you can help hold our town’s rental agencies and landlords accountable.
To submit a complaint, use the consumer complaints portal on the NC DOJ website. The Boone Fair Housing Task Force has a step-by-step guide for submitting complaints on their Instagram: @boonefairhousing.
2. Support new legislation to better classify unfair landlord practices
Many unfair practices witnessed in Boone are still legal under state law. At its June 2020 meeting, the Boone Town Council called for state law revisions to broaden the definition of unfair rental practices. Adding these provisions to state law will close loopholes that allow rental agencies to exploit and overcharge their tenants. These changes will reduce the cost of finding rental housing, and reduce situations where renters are unduly burdened or evicted due to circumstances beyond their control. Read the full town resolution text here and support this legislation by contacting your State Representative, Senator, or other official.
3. Update the R1 zoning code
The R1 zoning code states “no more than two unrelated persons may live in a single-family residence”, and the biggest percentage of residential areas in the Town of Boone are zoned as R1.
The R1 zoning code in its present form represents a de facto exclusionary housing law. While intentioned to create stable, long term residential neighborhoods, the manner in which the rule is interpreted has the unintended effect of reducing Boone’s viable working class housing stock, by unnecessarily precluding individuals who cannot afford to live without roommates from suitable 3+ bedroom homes in town.
We recommend the Town of Boone takes action to increase the limit of unrelated family members allowed to occupy R1 housing to match the number of existing bedrooms on a property.
4. Form a Watauga County Renters Union
Renters unions are nonprofit citizen-controlled legal structures, designed to provide advocacy to renters. A renters union for Watauga County would fill functions that are currently borne entirely by individuals, such as negotiating with landlords claiming lease violations. In most cases, the cost of taking legal action against a landlord is higher than the monetary damages renters face, allowing landlords to take advantage of renters for lease violation and security deposit disputes. A Renters Union provides recourse for renters in these situations and holds landlords accountable to their tenants. A Renters Union may also fulfill other functions to support affordable housing, such as roommate matching and raising funds to prevent evictions and utility shut offs that are currently dependent on renters’ time and resources, making it easier for individuals to find and remain in stable housing situations.
We recommend that citizens of Watauga County organize to form a new advocacy organization to support the needs of renters.
5. Form a High Country Affordable Housing Trust Fund
An Affordable Housing Trust Fund is an entity supporting the production, preservation, and rehabilitation of owner-occupied housing for low-income households as well as enhancing rental opportunities. It administers funding that is granted to developers by application, as well as other local development incentives, in conjunction with other government housing programs to meet affordable housing needs. These needs include construction of new buildings, rehabilitation of old buildings, education programs for homeownership/ foreclosure prevention/ etc, rentals, domestic violence shelters, and many more. An Affordable Housing Trust Fund was recommended in the Watauga County Citizen’s Plan, and past projects to initiate such a Fund have been supported in resolution by the Town of Boone, but the idea has never reached fruition.
We recommend citizens discuss with Town and County governments to revisit the Affordable Housing Trust Fund structure and address the challenges and barriers of past efforts, then develop a funding plan for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund involving allocations from government budgets, contributions from developers in exchange for development incentives, and state/federal grant funding.
6. Watauga County Community Land Trust
Community Land Trusts are public-private partnerships administered by a nonprofit to purchase land parcels to be occupied by low-income renters and homeowners. The cost of renting and purchasing Community Land Trust units is reduced by nonprofit funding and covenants to cap the sales price of homes and/or monthly rental costs. Community Land Trusts are administered differently in different communities, but have overall been shown to contribute to a permanent stock of housing for low-income and working class residents by removing land parcels from the speculative housing market.
Community Land Trusts can take many years to develop, but offer a documented, financially-sustainable solution to create and conserve affordable housing in growing communities like ours.
We recommend that citizens begin discussing with local government entities, affordable housing nonprofits, and citizens about how a Community Land Trust in Watauga County could be implemented. Citizens, developers, and the local government can then raise funds via government budget allocations, grant funding, partnership with developers, and outside Community Land Trust advocacy groups to fund the entity’s initial formation and land purchases.
7. Adopt form-based coding in new neighborhoods
A form-based code is a land development regulation that fosters predictable built results and a high quality public realm by using physical form (rather than separation of uses) as the organizing principle for the code. A form-based code is a regulation, not a mere guideline, adopted into city, town, or county law. Form-based codes address the relationship between building facades and the public realm, the form and mass of buildings in relation to one another, and the scale and types of streets and blocks. The regulations and standards in form-based codes are presented in both words and clearly drawn diagrams and other visuals. They are keyed to a regulating plan that designates the appropriate form and scale (and therefore, character) of development, rather than only distinctions in land-use types.
We recommend citizens discuss with Town and County planning committees to explore new developing areas in Boone as places to implement form-based coding.