Senators Irwin and Bayer asked and were granted unanimous consent to make statements and moved that the statements be printed in the Journal.
The motion prevailed.
Senator Irwin’s statement is as follows:
Mr. President, I rise to ask all my colleagues to support this important package of legislation. As you all know, we have people all over our state who are struggling to find housing and this bill package is a series of legislation meant to make it easier for folks to find the housing they need to thrive. These bills prohibit discrimination based on source of income, and although we’ve provided exemptions for very small mom-and-pop landlords to make this easier for everyone to comply with, this policy is going to be important to make sure people who have public benefits because they served in the U.S. military or they have public benefits because they are in poverty, to make it so those folks can find housing in our state. These people are important parts of our community, they’re important parts of our economy, and we need to make sure that in this chamber we’re making space for all people to find stable housing so they can continue to live and contribute to our communities.
I also want to just take a moment to say how important stable housing is to the health of our residents and to the education of the next generation. We need to be doing more in this chamber to fight the affordable housing crisis and to make a space for all people to find stable housing in our state. This is a small step but it’s an important step, and I welcome the support of all my colleagues. I’m really pleased we’re here today discussing legislation that’s going to make it easier for folks to thrive here in our state in this tough, tough economy.
Senator Bayer’s statement is as follows:
Just to reinforce what my colleague so clearly explained, these housing bills use existing programs that have been known to work for a long time and it simply allows people who are receiving food stamps, people who have children getting child support, people who are already getting reliable sources of income, to count as part of their income when doing a formula calculation of whether or not they can afford rent. It is not a lot of overhead, it is not a lot of untested programs, it’s just about recognizing sometimes people need some help and if we don’t give them the opportunity to have housing, they will spiral into a worse circumstance. Once you’re homeless, the odds of being able to survive that and keep your work and take care of your kids and get their education goes in the tank. This is a simple process. This is a simple step for existing landlords to use existing resources and existing information to help people have a home.
The following bill was read a third time:
Senate Bill No. 206, entitled
A bill to amend 1972 PA 348, entitled “An act to regulate relationships between landlords and tenants relative to rental agreements for rental units; to regulate the payment, repayment, use and investment of security deposits; to provide for commencement and termination inventories of rental units; to provide for termination arrangements relative to rental units; to provide for legal remedies; and to provide penalties,” by amending section 1 (MCL 554.601), as amended by 1995 PA 79.
The question being on the passage of the bill,
The bill was passed, a majority of the members serving voting therefor, as follows: