State and Local Innovation

Affordable, stable, and accessible housing and robust housing choice are the foundation upon which just and equitable communities are built. However, the power imbalance between renters and landlords puts renters at greater risk of housing instability, harassment, and homelessness and fuels racial inequity.

Tenant protections, passed in the form of laws and policies, are critical to preventing evictions and keeping renters stably housed. During the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers recognized the importance of passing legislation aimed at diverting the threat of eviction. When the pandemic led to widescale job losses and increased housing instability, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a nationwide eviction moratorium in September 2020 to prevent renters from eviction. This federal moratorium lasted until July 31, 2021, and helped prevent evictions for as many as 1.36 million renter households across the country. NLIHC advocates for Congress to enact legislation to establish vital renter protections at a national scale, such as source-of-income protections, right to counsel, and the expansion, strengthening, and enforcement of the “Fair Housing Act.”

Action, however, should not be limited to the federal government. Recognizing the crucial role tenant protections play in preventing evictions and ensuring housing stability, states and localities have passed or implemented a variety of new tenant protections to prevent evictions and keep tenants stably housed.

NLIHC is tracking the passage of tenant protections in jurisdictions across the country and compiling this information into two digital resources featured on this page: a State and Local Tenant Protections Map and a corresponding database. The resources compile and present easy-to-access information about tenant protections around the country and serve as a resource to support renters who may be facing the threat of eviction and inform the advocacy efforts of local, state, and federal housing champions and tenant leaders to expand tenant protections in their communities.

Note: Many states and local jurisdictions had tenant protections in place prior to January 2021 that are not included in the database below. NLIHC began tracking tenant protections in January 2021 in an effort to identify those protections passed in conjunction with the implementation of the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program. For a comprehensive database of tenant protections existing before January 2021, please see the LSC Eviction Laws Database at: https://bit.ly/3KpK7yu. For more information, email [email protected]

Resources	Description
	Nationwide, over 6 million families live in housing with serious health and safety hazards, including holes in walls and windows, broken heating and plumbing, pest infestations, falling plaster, mold, missing smoke detectors, crumbling foundations, leaking roofs, and more. Currently, a patchwork of federal, state, and local laws and regulations establish a minimum set of quality standards for rental housing. This publication explores habitability protection measures passed recently in two jurisdictions: New Orleans, Louisiana and Cincinnati, Ohio.
	To support renters amid rapidly rising rents, lawmakers in some states and local jurisdictions have sought to pass “rent stabilization” laws. Known also as “anti-rent gouging” laws, rent stabilization laws place limits on the amount that a landlord or property owner can raise rents within a certain time frame. The intent of rent stabilization laws is to ensure that tenants are not displaced from their homes due to increasing rental costs. This publication explores rent stabilization laws passed recently in two jurisdictions: Prince George’s County, Maryland and Portland, Oregon.
	Rental "junk" fees - which can include rental application fees, application processing fees, pet fees, convenience fees, administrative fees, late rent fees, and other fees that raise total rental costs - increase cost burdens for low-income renters, exacerbating housing instability. Released in October 2024 as part of NLIHC’s State and Local Tenant Protection Series: A Primer on Renters’ Rights, this publication presents two case studies focused on laws limiting rental junk fees in Connecticut and Rhode Island.
	Code enforcement procedures and habitability standards aim to ensure the safety and quality of rental housing units. Part of NLIHC’s State and Local Tenant Protection Series: A Primer on Renters’ Rights, this Code Enforcement Procedures and Habitability Standards Toolkit, released in August 2024, provides an overview of code enforcement procedures and habitability standards, details common components of such protections, lists information about state and local jurisdictions that have adopted these protections, and highlights complementary policies.
	Rent stabilization policies limit the amount and/or frequency of rent increases to prevent excessive rent hikes that can price tenants out of their housing. Part of NLIHC’s State and Local Tenant Protection Series: A Primer on Renters’ Rights, this Rent Stabilization Toolkit, released in August 2024, provides an overview of rent stabilization, details common components of this type of protection, lists information about state and local jurisdictions that have adopted rent stabilization, and highlights complementary policies.
	“Just cause” eviction standards – sometimes known as “good” or “for-cause” eviction standards – define the reasons for which landlords can evict tenants or refuse to renew a lease when the tenant is not at fault or found to be in violation of any law. Part of NLIHC’s State and Local Tenant Protection Series: A Primer on Renters’ Rights, this Just Cause Eviction Laws Toolkit, released in August 2024, provides an overview of just cause eviction measures, details common components of this type of protection, lists information about state and local jurisdictions that have adopted just cause laws, and highlights complementary policies.
	Rental fee limits regulate the types of fees or fee amounts that landlords or property owners can charge renters over the course of a lease term and seek to increase transparency in the rental market. Part of NLIHC’s State and Local Tenant Protection Series: A Primer on Renters’ Rights, this Rental Junk Fees Toolkit, released in August 2024, provides an overview of rental junk fee laws, details common components of this type of protection, lists information about state and local jurisdictions that have adopted rental junk fee laws, and highlights complementary policies.
	“Just cause” eviction standards define the reasons for which landlords can evict tenants or refuse to renew a lease when the tenant is not at fault or found to be in violation of any law. Just Cause Eviction Laws: Two Case Studies, released in July 2024, highlights two successful efforts to pass just cause protections – one in Oregon and the other in Washington State – and is part of NLIHC’s State and Local Tenant Protection Series: A Primer on Renters’ Rights, a collection of resources aiming to shape the conversation about state and local tenant protections.
	The State Of Statewide Tenant Protections, released in May 2023, provides information highlighting the efforts of state-level lawmakers to pass tenant protections that keep renters stably housed and prevent unjust discrimination and harassment both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief also provides in-depth summaries of common tenant protections, details the challenges faced by lawmakers enacting protections, and offers recommendations for developing and implementing laws aiming to protect renters over the long term. The brief includes more than 64 state-level protections passed since the start of the pandemic, including protections such as the civil right to counsel, measures prohibiting source-of-income discrimination, eviction record sealing and expungement legislation, rent stabilization and anti-rent gouging legislation, and “just cause” eviction laws.
	This Eviction Record Sealing and Expungement Toolkit, released in April 2023, provides an overview of eviction record sealing and expungement protections nationwide, surveys record sealing and expungement legislation that is currently in place, identifies the core components of existing protections, and makes recommendations for lawmakers developing new eviction record sealing and expungement protections in their jurisdictions. The toolkit also brings together a wide range of information about the status and impact of evictions in the U.S. and existing eviction record sealing and expungement policies, as well as answers to frequently asked questions.
	Promoting Housing Stability through Just Cause Eviction Legislation, released in May 2022, provides an overview of the goals of just cause legislation, shares examples of existing just cause protections, and offers recommendations about ways to advance just cause legislation at the local, state, and federal levels. Just cause – also known as “good cause” or “for cause” – eviction laws are legal protections that make the lease renewal process more predictable, empower tenants to advocate for better living conditions without fear of retaliation, provide limits on exorbitant rent increases to prevent renters from becoming extremely rent-burdened or experiencing displacement, and promote long-term housing stability for low-income and marginalized renters.
	Tenant Protections and Emergency Rental Assistance During and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic, released in January 2022, provides a descriptive analysis of new tenant protections and emergency rental assistance (ERA)-related policies enacted or implemented by states and local governments in 2021. The report includes more than 130 state and local tenant protections, including state and local eviction moratoriums, pauses on the eviction process to allow for ERA processing, mandates to increase access to information and limit tenant fees, increases to tenant representation during the eviction process, and protections that reduce discrimination, as well as recommendations to advance protections moving forward.

State and Local Tenant Protections Database

The State and Local Tenant Protections Database provides information about protections passed or implemented that have assisted in preventing evictions and keeping renters stably housed. The database tracks state and local tenant protections passed since the onset of COVID-19 as well as specific tenant protections that were in place prior to 2021, such as right to counsel, source-of-income discrimination, eviction record sealing and expungement legislation, anti-rent gouging measures, and just cause eviction laws. The database also identifies states that have preemption legislation in place.

Information provided in the database includes the jurisdiction, implementing authority, year passed, status, a brief description of each protection, and a link to more information.

The information collected in the database was gathered through NLIHC research and tracking as well as through partnerships with our local, state, and national partners who have been working to collect and track the passage of tenant protections included in the database. These partners include members of the ERASE Cohort, the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel, Legal Services Corporation, and Power Switch Action.

• For more information on source-of-income discrimination laws, please visit the Poverty & Race Research Action Council’s website here.
• For more information on right-to-counsel laws, please visit the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel’s website here.
• For more information on eviction laws, including information about notice periods for nonpayment of rent, please visit Legal Services Corporation’s website here.
• For more information on state preemptions laws, please visit Power Switch Action’s website here.

Please contact the ERASE Project at [email protected] with any questions.

Are you aware of a tenant protection that is NOT currently on NLIHC's State and Local Tenant Protections database? Please email the ERASE Project team at [email protected] or complete this form (https://forms.gle/8zx2PU5QaxsrEoLP9) to submit a new protection for our database. With your help, we can make it easier for tenants and advocates to learn what protections are available in their states and localities to keep them stably housed.