INDIANAPOLIS — Lawmakers on the Indiana Senate's Judiciary Committee heard testimony on Senate Bill 243 Wednesday afternoon that would require landlords in Marion County to fix issues they were cited for at a property before renting that property to a new tenant.
The committee voted 5-5 on the bill, essentially killing it, but not before housing advocates and tenants who testified told lawmakers there's a housing crisis in Indiana — one they ‘re seeing and living.
"I'm living in a prison instead of a home," Maria Rodriguez Jr. told lawmakers about the efficiency she lives in in Columbus in Bartholomew County.
Rodriguez was unhoused last year and is part of a program that gives people in recovery rental assistance. She told lawmakers the walls in her efficiency are insulated with newspapers and the place is infested with roaches.
"I'm bit up. My whole body is bit," she said, testifying that she sleeps inside a garbage bag every night to try to prevent more bites.
Had SB 243 passed out of committee and eventually became law, it would not have helped Rodriguez because she lives in Bartholomew County.
SB 243 focuses only on Marion County and would have given the Health and Hospital Corporation the ability to require landlords to fix issues they were cited for at a rental property, even after the tenant has moved out or has been evicted.
"This would allow us to tie the code violations to the property and not the tenant," said one of the bill's authors, State Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-District 46.
Right now, if a property becomes vacant, any code violations it had disappear, leaving the Health and Hospital Corporation no way to follow through to make sure a landlord fixes the problems for which they were cited.
Housing advocates who testified Jan. 31 said they'd like to see all counties in Indiana have a way to force landlords to fix issues, not just Marion County, which they said accounts for 40% of the state's evictions, with the other 91 counties making up the rest.
"There is such a shortage of housing in this state that unfortunately, tenants are forced into really bad situations simply because there's nowhere to go," said Judith Box, with the South Bend Tenants' Association.
That's the situation Maria Rodriguez said she finds herself in right now. Stuck between living with roaches, or being unhoused again because she can't afford to move, but can't afford to stay, either.
"I keep saying it's OK, but it's not OK. I want to cry," Rodriguez said. "Our home is where our heart is. You're taking my soul away and saying I have a home."