Housing legislation in Virginia would require landlords give more notice for large-scale evictions

Liz Parker said lodging facilities across Newport News received calls from frantic families last month after an apartment complex gave tenants 30 days to vacate.

“A lot of folks were having a difficult time finding a place to stay,” she said. “Some of our hotels were receiving these calls asking if we could take families in at lower prices.”

As president of the Newport News Hospitality Association, Parker said she helped some families find discounted room rates, but there was only so much she could do. She wondered why tenants weren’t given more notice.

“From the humanitarian side, I thought this really isn’t right,” she said.

Landlords who terminate monthly leases are required to give 30 days notice in Virginia. But a bill in the General Assembly would, with some exceptions, double that time frame if a landlord is terminating a significant number of leases at once on the same multi-family premises. The bill, which passed the House of Delegates and a Senate committee, now looks likely to reach Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk.

Del. Cia Price, who introduced the legislation, believes having more time to prepare would help tenants and prevent social services from being hit with a sudden need to find housing for multiple families.

After St. James Terrace Apartments in Newport News issued roughly 100 eviction letters at the end of December, Price said various nonprofits that would normally take in homeless families explained their resources were already strained.

“They wanted to help but felt like they were being inundated,” said Price, D-Newport News. “When there is an influx of so many people at one time, they just aren’t able to keep up.”

The bill is co-sponsored by several other Hampton Roads legislators, including Dels. Mike Mullin, Jackie Glass, Nadarius Clark and Angelia Williams Graves.

Christine Marra, director of housing advocacy for the Virginia Poverty Law Center, said the situation in Newport News isn’t uncommon.

“We are seeing out-of-state corporations coming in and buying up naturally occurring affordable housing complexes — ones that are not subsidized but that have rent below $1,000 a month,” she said.

She said the new landlords then issue 30-day notices to residents on month-to-month leases and close for renovations so they can reopen at a higher rent.

More residents in Virginia are on monthly leases than many realize, and it’s not always because they want to be, Marra added.

She said some apartments let tenants start with an annual lease but then only offer a monthly option when the first agreement expires. With limited affordable housing, tenants on a tight budget don’t always have the means to go elsewhere.

Marra, who advocated for the bill before several committees, believes it would be helpful without hurting landlords.

“This doesn’t stop landlords from terminating anybody’s lease; it just essentially says to stagger it out a bit so the folks affected will have a better chance of getting assistance,” she said.

An amendment clarified that the 60-day notice would not be required in situations where tenants had failed to pay rent.

The latest version of the bill has support from the Virginia Apartment Management Association, which represents more than 260,000 rental units across the commonwealth.

“We definitely see the type of situations that the delegate is trying to get at, and I think the bill will end up benefiting folks in her district,” said Tommy Herbert, manager of government affairs for the association.

Herbert added that there can be a misconception about landlords.

“I think that a stigma is out there,” he said. “There are very high profile cases that undergird that stigma, but in the broad spectrum of things, 95% of landlords are really doing things right.”

Alison Grant, a tenant at St. James Terrace, said she thinks a longer time frame could be helpful.

She was surprised when she received a letter explaining the apartment had been purchased by Chasen Companies, a Baltimore-based real estate firm, and that her lease would not be renewed.

But she said she was more fortunate than most.

Grant moved into her apartment in August and was still on her initial six-month lease, meaning she doesn’t have to vacate until the end of this month. But she said some of her neighbors — who had resided there for years or even decades — already had been switched to monthly leases and needed to leave in 30 days.

Recalling how some residents broke down into tears, Grant said she’s especially worried for elderly tenants on fixed incomes, including one man who recently had heart surgery.

“It’s really rough, especially in this housing market,” she said. “People don’t know what they are going to do; one lady told me she doesn’t even have a car to live in.”

Chasen Companies did not respond to a request for comment.

Lynne Finding, executive director for LINK of Hampton Roads, which runs an emergency winter shelter, said the group is trying its best to assist those who were displaced from St. James, but it’s not easy.

The shelter is already crowded and dealing with extra challenges from influenza and COVID-19, she said. There is no space or resources to spare.

“(Mass evictions) create a big impact both on the unhoused community and it stresses an already stressed affordable housing market,” she said.

Finding said it’s an issue that deserves more attention.

“We need to look around a bit more,” she said. “This is not something that is invisible, but I think we tend to just close our eyes to what’s going on.”

Katie King, katie.king@virginiamedia.com