A bill that would repeal Arkansas' criminal eviction statute -- the only one of its kind in the nation -- failed to receive an endorsement Monday from the House Insurance and Commerce Committee.
House Bill 1798, by Rep. Nicole Clowney, D-Fayetteville, was one of several measures proposed this session to address Arkansas' landlord-tenant laws, which critics say make the state one of the worst in the country for renters.
In addition to Clowney's bill, House Bill 1563, by Rep. Jimmy Gazaway, R-Paragould, which would implement minimum standards of upkeep for rental housing, was was endorsed by the House Insurance and Commerce Committee last month but remains untouched by the full House. Arkansas is the only state in the country without any standards for rental property.
Members of the committee took a tougher approach to HB1798 and defended Arkansas' criminal eviction law, which allows a person to be charged and fined in criminal court if they fail to vacate a premises 10 days after receiving an eviction notice for failing to pay rent. If the renter does not show up in court or fails to pay the fine, that person could face other charges and even jail time.
"It's not criminalizing the failure to pay, it's criminalizing the failure to vacate," said Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle.
Clowney and others who spoke out against the current law pointed to the unique position in which it places landlord-tenant contracts. People who fail to make payments on their mortgage or credit card payments cannot be held criminally liable, they noted, and only landlords may seek to redress debts through the state's criminal courts.
Clowney said the law is "a useful way to get people out very quickly but certainly not a necessary one."
Lynn Foster, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's William H. Bowen School of Law, said about 350 failure-to-vacate cases were brought against tenants in 2020, though the number is likely more due to incomplete online reporting by Arkansas' courts. Most of those cases occurred in Hot Springs and Texarkana, Foster said.
Prosecutors in several jurisdictions, including Pulaski County, refuse to bring criminal eviction proceedings, she added.
The bill failed to receive the panel's endorsement on a roll call vote with all but one of the committee's Republicans voting in opposition.