New Tenant Rights Association advocates for North Dakota low-income renters, combat daily evictions

Association seeks lawyers to help renters

When Susie Halsey arrived for a renter’s rights speaker series sponsored by a local resource center that serves the Bismarck-Mandan area, she couldn’t stop thinking about the sewage smell in her apartment.

Halsey has experienced many maintenance problems in her apartment. She’s always reported each issue to the property owners, including the rotten smell. But the owners have been slow to address her concerns. In the meantime, Halsey tries to leave the fans on all day to minimize the headaches she’s been experiencing.

“I’m not afraid to speak out, but it’s just that if they evict me, I don’t have anywhere to go. I can’t afford to be homeless,” Halsey said.

In response to area renter’s dilemmas, the Sacred Pipe Resource Center in Mandan – scheduled to relocate to Bismarck on Oct. 1 –  is organizing a 12-part housing rights speaker series. Halsey attended the first meeting, Know Your Rights: Housing Eviction on Sept. 18 at the Dream Center in Bismarck.     

Organizers addressed a number of issues, such as leasing documentation, eviction and landlord disputes. The plan is to develop new topics every month based on feedback from speaker series meetings, calls from community members and Sacred Pipe community council meetings.

Burleigh County has had 1,174 evictions filed since 2020, according to the Civil Rights Data Initiative. Landlords filed 42 eviction cases in May. While 90.5% of rental property owners are recorded to have legal representation, only 3.2% of tenants did in 2022.

The Sacred Pipe Resource Center receives daily calls on evictions, said Executive Director Cheryl Kary. Often, people don’t know where to go, so they reach out to the center to find support and professionals who will advocate for them. Together with organizations such as Global Neighbors and Fair Housing, Sacred Pipe collaborates with groups that will help with these situations.

Due to the community’s need for assistance in housing, Sacred Pipe is starting a Tenants Rights Association, which will help renters advocate for themselves.

“I want people to have rights too,” said Halsey. She and other tenants are tired of having to constantly remind property management of maintenance issues, only for landlords to shove those concerns to the back of the burner.

Landlords and rental property owners are becoming too profit-oriented, which is causing the average person problems because the job economy isn’t keeping up, said Kary. When excessive fees, discrimination, maintenance issues and eviction occur to low-income tenants, they often need a lawyer.

“Housing is a place where profit shouldn’t take precedence over getting people a home,” said Kary. “If you’re in the housing business, you should be in the housing business to give people homes and get people housed – not just to make money.”

Since Ashley Jahner began her position as Sacred Pipe’s director of advocacy in April, she has been supporting American Indians with housing by searching for affordable apartments, waiving application fees and navigating difficult landlord situations.

She has experience as a social worker assisting those struggling with homelessness and works to guide individuals through the housing system. “You don’t always have to take what the landlord or the renting agency is saying and blindly follow it. There’s ways to combat and to resolve those issues,” Jahner said.

Sacred Pipe has a working relationship with legal aides on and off reservations. Currently, they are trying to find an attorney in the Bismarck-Mandan area to partner with who will provide legal assistance to the Tenant Rights Association. The goal is to file a class action lawsuit to represent all tenants.

“This is how we fight back,” said Kary. “The only way that we become a threat is if we band together.”

The tenant association wants to put forth a bill in the 2024 legislative session to limit landlords from overcharging renters and to prioritize maintenance issues. Sacred Pipe is working with tenants to help them testify before legislators. The Tenant Rights Association will also keep a scorecard for members of the community to track which landlords are good and which ones aren’t.

Jahner wants tenants to know they aren’t alone in their struggle and the Sacred Pipe Resource Center is available to help.  “Sometimes it is a really tough pill to swallow,” she said. “They don’t have to do that alone because when you’re in those situations it’s scary and emotional. And making those decisions and navigating through that can be very difficult, on top of all the stress.”

Before leaving the meeting, Halsey filled out a form to become a member of the Tenant Rights Association. She plans to attend future meetings to learn how to advocate for herself.