CHAUNCEY, Ohio — After many months of back-and-forth, Chauncey Village Council passed a “pay to stay” ordinance at its April 10 meeting to protect tenants from eviction.
“All the voices of tenants stressing about eviction and folks living unhoused because of evictions were heard last night,” council member Evelyn Nagy told the Independent the day after the meeting.
Also, the council again debated protections for LGBTQ+ residents, as well as a resolution for a ceasefire in Palestine. The council heard on first reading an ordinance to regulate manufactured homes.
Pay to stay passes
The village’s pay to stay ordinance passed unanimously.
Pay to stay is intended to prevent evictions due to unpaid rent, in situations where the tenant is able to pay after the due date but before an official, court-ordered eviction.
Nagy said she talked with Chauncey tenants worried about eviction and residents having trouble finding housing, and “their stories propelled me to ask for help educating myself and learning how to bring these issues to council.” Nagy worked with the tenant advocacy group United Athens County Tenants to develop the pay to stay ordinance.
During the meeting, UACT member Katherine King said, “Housing stability has a ripple effect in communities, and the longer that people can remain in their housing, the safer their neighborhoods are and the better their schools perform.”
“Pay to stay is just another tool for tenants to avoid eviction, while at the same time making sure that landlords receive payment for rent and fees,” King said.
She said pay to stay is particularly important for tenants dealing with “predatory landlords” who may use past due rent as an excuse to retaliate against tenants, for instance if a tenant rejected the landlord’s sexual advances.
UACT supported a pay to stay ordinance in Athens that passed in 2022.
Nagy first suggested the village pass a pay to stay ordinance almost a year ago.
Last fall, she withdrew a pay to stay provision from a separate ordinance amid debate among council and community members. After further discussion at the December 2023 council meeting, she formally introduced the current ordinance in January.
Council member Karla Dellinger expressed concern at multiple council meetings that the ordinance would make it more difficult for her and other landlords to evict tenants whom they find difficult to work with.
Athens County Auditor records show that Dellinger owns three properties in Chauncey.
To reach consensus among council members, multiple amendments appeared in the ordinance at last month’s meeting that made it friendlier to landlords. These included an increase in “reasonable” late fees landlords can charge and limits on the protection’s “frequency of use” by tenants — as well as an expiration date.
Unless the council renews the ordinance, it will expire in less than a year, on March 31, 2025.
Nagy said she is proud of the council’s work to build consensus on the ordinance.
“We are engaging in dialogue with the community, having the uncomfortable conversations, and working together to empower our community,” she told the Independent.
King told the Independent UACT was happy to see its proposed protections for tenants taken up outside the city of Athens.
“We are hopeful that cities and townships across southeast Ohio will follow Chauncey’s example and believe that this pay to stay protection will contribute to more stability within Chauncey,” she said.
Caitlyn McDaniel, staff attorney with Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio (formerly Southeast Ohio Legal Services), attended Chauncey’s meeting and told council members eviction protections would have an impact on the community.
“Chauncey is not a huge community, but we can expect eviction court to pretty regularly see Chauncy on the complaints, folks coming from this community, which is very unfortunate,” McDaniel said.
Landlord’s participation in housing policy discussions faces scrutiny
UACT member Damon Krane read a statement from the group encouraging Dellinger to abstain from discussions and voting on ordinances regarding tenant protections, “because these ordinances affect the private business interests of Dellinger and her husband as Chauncey landlords.”
Krane cited previous abstentions from landlords on Athens City Council when faced with similar questions, an information sheet from the Ohio Ethics Commission on public officials who own property, and advisory opinions from the OEC, which the OEC shared when Krane reached out regarding Dellinger. The OEC did not advise on Dellinger’s particular situation.
The advisory opinions included one that advised a council member who owned Airbnbs not to participate in discussions or voting on legislation regarding Airbnbs.
Krane encouraged the village to reach out directly to the OEC regarding Dellinger’s situation.
Village solicitor Jonathan Robe suggested Dellinger’s situation is a legal “gray area,” and that she should follow her conscience.
Dellinger continued to participate in discussions on housing ordinances at April’s meeting and voted to pass the pay to stay ordinance, which had been amended in part to accommodate her concerns about the ordinance’s impact on landlords.
“We have lots of people coming in and saying ‘tenants rights, tenants rights, tenants rights,’ but nobody has really talked about the landlord’s rights,” Dellinger said at the meeting. “I still think that my opinion does matter as far as that, because I think I have tried to be fair as far as both aspects goes.”
No council members objected to Dellinger’s participation, and Chauncey Mayor Amy Renner told her at the meeting, “I would just like you to know that I do value your opinion on these issues and whatever you decide to do I support you.”
Krane told the Independent in an email that “the ethics issue is pretty simple.”
“Chauncey officials shouldn’t take our word for it, they should ask the Ohio Ethics Commission — that’s what it’s there for,” he said. “We wouldn’t be doing our jobs as tenant advocates if we just looked the other way when we had reason to believe a landlord in office was violating ethics law to make housing policy.”
Unlawful discrimination, revisited
The village heard an additional reading of Ordinance 2024-3, “Unlawful Discriminatory Practices.” The ordinance would prohibit landlords from refusing to rent to tenants based on their source of income, including government vouchers, while establishing legal protections for LGBTQ+ people in housing and public accommodation.
The ordinance would also add protections to the village books that already exist at the state and/or federal levels in the areas of employment, housing and public accommodation.
Dellinger reiterated her opposition to the LGBTQ+ protections citing “religious convictions.” Dellinger never explicitly named the protections for gender identity and sexuality as the source of her opposition, but said she agreed with all other aspects of the ordinance.
“I don’t believe we should discriminate. However, I also don’t believe that somebody should be forced to do something that goes against everything they believe in,” Dellinger said.
According to records obtained by the Independent, Dellinger voiced her opposition to the ordinance in an email to council members that included an attached document from a right-wing, anti-LGBTQ group, the Institute for Research & Evaluation. The document pertained to supposedly harmful effects of transgender healthcare for minors.
Chauncey’s ordinance does not pertain to transgender healthcare.
In reply, Nagy sent a survey on mental health of LGBTQ+ youth conducted by the Trevor Project.
Village resident Alex Hearne spoke in favor of the ordinance.
“Housing may be a business for landlords, but at its core housing is a basic necessity for human life,” they said. “Being openly against homophobia and queerphobia, especially in terms of housing, saves lives.”
The ordinance as presented at April’s meeting corrected an oversight in the previous draft and included added provisions on enforcement. It will be heard a final time next month.
Ceasefire in Palestine, revisited
The council also approved minor amendments to its resolution supporting a ceasefire in Palestine.
At the meeting, Dellinger reiterated her opposition because of the conflict’s distance from Chauncey.
Nagy, who first suggested the resolution, said it is important for the village to use “our collective voice” on the issue. Council member Connaught Cullen agreed, saying that the resolution is important because “our money is going to support this genocide of Palestinians.”
The council voted to remove the word “occupied” from the resolution’s introductory sentence, which previously called for a “cease-fire in Israel and occupied Palestine.”
The council also added two introductory clauses: one stating that “the Chauncey Village is opposed to the U.S. imperialism war and genocide wherever it occurs,” and one stating that “Chauncey Village supports the U.S. military and personnel.”
The change to remove the word “occupied” came after member Michael Kraus voiced concern that the phrase “occupied Palestine” was political.
The addition of the sentence opposing U.S. imperialism, war and genocide was prompted by comments from Dellinger and multiple village residents who expressed concern about the village focusing on Palestine but not other global issues. The addition of the sentence on U.S. military and personnel was prompted by Dellinger’s concerns regarding the addition of the previous sentence.
Manufactured housing ordinance
The council heard for the first time Ordinance 2024-7, “to regulate the placement, use, and transport of manufactured homes” in the village and repeal prior village ordinances. Renner said the ordinance was developed by the village’s planning commission and corrects “administrative issues” from previous village ordinances on the same topics.
The ordinance states it is intended to promote “the orderly and uniform growth of the Village,” adding that the “haphazard placement of trailers, mobile homes and manufactured homes within the Village has an adverse effect on the attractiveness, aesthetics and sanitary condition of the Village” and that these housing units “may adversely affect” neighboring property values.
Among other things, the ordinance requires approval for manufactured homes to be placed within the village; bars mobile homes in the village “for use as a dwelling” with the exception of those located “in a manufactured home park;” and restricts transportation of mobile and manufactured homes.
The ordinance did not prompt substantial discussion among council members.
Both the ceasefire resolution and the unlawful discriminatory practices ordinance will be up for a vote at the council’s next meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, May 8, at 5:30 p.m. at the Chauncey Village Hall, 42 Converse Street.
Disclosure: Robe completed and filed incorporation papers for Southeast Ohio Independent News, the nonprofit that publishes the Athens County Independent. He also has provided the Independent with legal advice.
Correction: A previous version of this story listed the incorrect year Athens passed its pay to stay ordinance.
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