SALT LAKE CITY — A bill prohibiting a municipality from requiring residential landlords to deny a tenant based on that individual’s criminal history was among four bills that passed through a House Business and Labor Standing Committee meeting Wednesday afternoon.

HB178, sponsored by House Minority Leader Brian King, D-Salt Lake City, passed through to the Utah House of Representatives floor with an 8-5 committee vote after a motion to hold the bill for a later discussion was defeated with a 7-6 vote.

“The business committee is a well-respected committee that has a lot of conservative Republicans on it, and quite honestly I think — generally speaking — the recommendations of the Business and Labor Committee carries some real weight when we get to the floor,” King said, with optimism regarding the bill’s fate heading to the next stage.

If passed, it would ban cities from withholding financial incentives to landlords under the Good Landlord Program, which is set in place for those creating clean and habitable housing options. The program has been around for 10 years, according to Ogden city officials.

The vote Wednesday to pass it on to a House vote came after more than an hour of input from supporters and opposers of the bill during the committee session.

Supporters during the hearing included the ACLU of Utah, the Coalition of Religious Communities and Utah’s Department of Corrections — among others. The largest opposers of the bill came from the city of Ogden, citing a new city program that it argued essentially solved the same problem HB178 sought, and the Utah League of Cities and Towns.

Ogden officials began a pilot program last year that allowed persons with a criminal history within the past four years to receive a one-year waiver to avoid being turned down by landlords within the program, according to Mark Johnson, Ogden’s chief administrative officer.

Johnson testified Wednesday that the program has already received 61 waiver requests from potential tenants and all 58 that had been completed had been approved since it began in October. He added the city works with Adult Probation and Parole officials and city police to review the risks before approving or denying any of the requests.

“If it’s a thumbs up, we give them a waiver and they can go out and rent with any landlord in the city of Ogden,” he said. “We asked that it be renewed in one year because we’re interested in them working to changing their lives and overcoming the reason they were in prison to begin with.”

Johnson said the pilot program would get axed with the passage of the bill, and that it wouldn’t help individuals after they’ve been released from a halfway house.

“We still don’t think there’s a problem with housing but we think we’ve come up with a better way of handling this,” Johnson testified. “Don’t think for one moment the major problem for felons being in apartments is because of the Good Landlord Program — the major problem is money. These felons when they come out of the halfway house, they don’t have enough money to rent anywhere. That is the problem that isn’t being solved by this bill or any other bill. It isn’t a problem the Good Landlord (Program) has created.”

Gary Williams, Ogden city attorney, said the Good Landlord Program has helped break up the concentration of crime in Ogden since it was implemented and that it may take a year under the pilot program to see if it works.

“If it doesn’t work, we should come back next year," he said. "… I guess what I’m saying is we think we’re there. We just have to now show the other cities that we’re there, it’s working well and by this time next year (this bill) won’t be necessary."

Though a supporter of the Good Landlord Program, King countered that if the waiver system is already passing every applicant through, then it is an unnecessary difficulty in the process of trying to help previously convicted criminals find housing. Instead, he proposed it should be on state record that landlords shouldn’t lose their incentives from a Good Landlord Program if they decide to let someone rent within four years of a conviction.

It’s a wrinkle in the system he said he’s been trying to remove for two years. Though Ogden was the most discussed city in the meeting, King pointed out that 11 other cities have similar restrictions regarding incentives.

King’s bill drew the support of various agencies during the meeting, as well as others that noted that turning down the bill could lead to higher-risk housing solutions for previously convicted criminals or homelessness.

Ron Gordon, executive director of the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, said the CCJJ supports the bill due to the barriers housing creates post-conviction.

“We have to do something to give every opportunity to individuals that have been convicted of a criminal offense to have adequate housing, and providing significant financial incentive to deny that opportunity is not going to be supportive,” Gordon told the committee. “We’re not suggesting that anybody be mandated to provide housing to somebody with a criminal record. We’re saying if there are those landlords out there that want to provide that (opportunity), then let’s not incentivize the opposite.”

Jennifer Valencia, director of the Sentencing Commission, said the bill wouldn’t require cities to do anything different, especially if they have a Good Landlord Program.

She added housing is a key contributor in whether there is a “revolving door” from persons in the criminal justice system that continue to return to prison after they are released.

“There is no quicker way to ensure there is a revolving door than to deny housing,” she said.

A couple of citizens also spoke during the meeting to explain the hurdles they have experienced in housing after trying to return to rebuild their life after a conviction.

Jason Thornton, a Utah citizen, testified in favor of the bill with his personal experience trying to rent in Ogden while coming off of a felony sentence. He said he bounced around several apartments, including once with both he and his then-pregnant wife unemployed. He since went on to move elsewhere and began a working career with his family.

That was before Ogden began its waiver program. However, Thornton said he was unaware at the time that the Good Landlord Program even existed.

“I wasn’t even told of the Good Landlord Program and the hell it would put me through,” he said. “We do need to leave these opportunities open … I was able to land with a solid career with people who trusted me and have only gotten further on in my career.”

Anna Thomas, strategic communications manager for the ACLU of Utah, added that after meeting with the League of Cities and Towns regarding the waiver program, organization officials decided that HB178 was a better route.

“We decided (the waiver program) wasn’t sufficient enough to help all of the people that we were hoping to help,” she said.

The committee eventually voted in favor of sending the bill on to the House of Representatives with its 8-5 vote.

King added after the vote that he was willing to work with opponents to ensure the bill works best for everyone before it reaches the House floor.

"I'm happy to talk with Ogden city and the League of Cities and Towns to see if there are some tweaks we can make to make it more palatable to them," he said. "Obviously we feel good coming out of the committee."

Other committee action

Three other bills passed through Wednesday’s meeting with little to no resistance. SB33, HB188 and HB196 each passed through to the House unanimously.

SB33, sponsored by Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, updates the list of statutes administered by the Division of Consumer Protection.

HB188, sponsored by Rep. Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, clarifies terminology of “citizen-led” groups in regards to historical districts.

HB196, sponsored by Rep. Gage Froerer, R-Huntsville, amends provisions related to reporting and licensing requirements under the jurisdiction of the Division of Real Estate.

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