MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Monday, the Shelby County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution calling for the governor and Tennessee General Assembly to allow the county to have public landlord registry.
The goal is to help renters contact property managers directly and allow the government to hold them accountable.
Passing this resolution is the Board of Commissioners official show of support for House Bill 34, which would change the qualifications for counties to have a landlord registry.
County Commissioner Erika Sugarmon says she hears the need for it all the time from Shelby County renters.
“Everywhere I go, people are complaining about the same thing: Blight, blight, blight,” she said. “They're also accusing the (Shelby County) Environmental Court of not doing their due diligence.”
But she says the environmental court often has just as much trouble finding property owners as these tenants.
“The issue is finding the owners and holding them accountable,” Commissioner Sugarmon said. “And this registry will allow the government to do this.”
That's is what led Commissioner Sugarmon to sponsor the resolution, which passed one day before the start of the Tennessee General Assembly’s 2023 Session.
“This is gonna give our state legislators more ammunition because they can say, ‘Look, the residents, the voters in Shelby County want this,’” she said.
County Commissioner Britney Thornton says it is especially important to the people she represents in District 10.
“We have, as documented by the assessors office, the highest amount of vacancies of all of the districts across Shelby County,” she said.
Joining as a co-sponsor of the resolution, Commissioner Thornton says a rental registry in Shelby County is not the end of the solution.
“When we have a rental registry, we're going to identify a significant portion of our landlords who do not meet that quality threshold and thus, have an exacerbated need for additional affordable housing,” she explained.
Commissioner Thornton says they are going to need to give resources to some local landlords to ensure their tenants don't end up out on the streets.
“Because (those landlords are) filling the gap,” she said. “They're providing housing to people that in their absence, we can't.”
Commissioner Sugarmon says the next step is to work with together with lawmakers.
“We're going to go out there and lobby, we're going to go (to the state legislature) and talk to lawmakers, because this impacts are the values of our homes, the values of our neighborhoods, our way of life,” she said. “So we're going to be up there fighting tooth and nail.”
Commissioner Sugarmon says she expects Shelby County will also get support from surrounding municipalities because of how wide-spread this issue is.