Idaho Governor Takes Big Blow to Boise: Renters’ Protections Axed

The cost of living in the Treasure Valley just isn't what it once was. If you've lived in the Treasure Valley for long, there's a good chance that you have seen the cost of rent go up year after year.  It makes the news, it makes headlines, and of course the price of just about everything else has gone up as well.

Recent ongoings in the Idaho State Capitol Building have, for some, turned the direction of renter protection upside-down. Just today, Idaho's governor Brad Little signed the legislation into law.

You may recall some time ago that Boise City Council and the Mayor of Boise, Lauren McLean, worked to offer a sort of 'protection' to renters that are within Boise City Limits.

These protections were lengthy--the most popular included:

• Making sure that renters can report potential health or safety violations at the property
• Making sure that tenants repair requests
• Preventing tenants from being retailiated against for making repair requests or reporting safety concerns
• Discrimination of income, gender identity, or sexual orientation
• A cap on rental application fees

Perhaps the most popular and well known was the $30 rental fee cap--many property management companies were charging hundreds of dollars in fees just to apply for a rental unit--these were non-refundable and did not guarantee tenancy. Many believed that landlords were treating application fees as another stream of income--taking applications far and wide only to grant the unit to one applicant--pocketing thousands of other folks' har earned money.

The gap, since initiating the cap, is apparent. Many property management companies charge more than $30 outside of Boise City Limits if they have properties there. How does that make sense? The City of Boise also enables Boise Police to investigate unfair housing practices.

All of this has put the city in the corner of the tenant.

Effective July 1st, the legislation signed into law by Brad Little will trump these standing City of Boise protections--stating that local governments can't control the 'free market' more or less.

You can read Brad Little's statement, below:

It seems that Little said "a little" of both sides of the argument and then signed away.

Mayor Lauren McLean has already vowed to find new ways to handle Boise's housing crisis and steep increase in cost of living.