Demand Grows for Just Cause Eviction Protection

 

Tenants turned out at the State Capitol this week in support of Just Cause Eviction Protection (HB 6889) with the Connecticut Tenants Union, Make the Road Connecticut, and the Connecticut Fair Housing Center.

Just Cause requires landlords to provide a justification for an eviction—grounds for which are listed in state law—and protects tenants from arbitrary, retaliatory, and discriminatory evictions at the time of lease renewal or when tenants lack a written or annual lease. An existing Connecticut law extends this protection to certain tenants, and in 2025, unionized tenants and their allies are asking the state to expand those protections. So far, 31 members of the General Assembly have signed on as co-sponsors.

HB 6889 will provide immediate relief to Connecticut’s tenants facing rising rents, forced displacement, and homelessness. It will extend stability and legal protection to all tenants in apartment buildings with 5 or more units, making it easier for neighbors to organize with one another to ensure their homes are safe and healthy. It will begin to level the playing field between tenants and landlords. This is an essential measure that will ensure greater housing stability for tenants amidst a deepening housing crisis.

The fight of tenants to expand eviction protections takes place in a climate of widespread anxiety over the federal government’s defunding of critical housing programs, including fair housing enforcement; threats to Medicaid and Social Security; escalating attacks against LGBTQ persons, immigrants of all legal statuses, critics of the government, and other targeted populations; and the increasingly blatant control of billionaires over federal policy. 

Tenants connected the fight for Just Cause to the larger political context of the moment and implored Connecticut lawmakers to prove to their constituents that Connecticut government works for all of its residents, not just those few the Trump administration deems worthy. Tenants called upon their representatives to pass this vital policy to protect people’s homes, strengthen community cohesion and stability, and empower some of our state’s most frequently targeted and exploited residents. Call your state representative and state senator to insist they support HB 5889.