Maryland lawmaker proposes ‘Jared Kushner Act’ to protect delinquent tenants
A Maryland lawmaker has introduced a bill named for President Donald Trump’s son-in-law that is intended to stop judges from ordering the arrest of tenants who owe their landlords up to $5,000 in unpaid rent.
Del. Bilal Ali, D-Baltimore City, the bill sponsor, called the measure the Jared Kushner Act, because Kushner’s apartment management company has aggressively used the controversial debt-collection tactic.
A Baltimore Sun investigation last year found that corporate entities affiliated with Kushner Cos.’ 17 apartment complexes in Maryland sought the civil arrest of 105 former tenants – the most of any Maryland company between 2013 and 2017. All had allegedly failed to appear in court to respond to charges of unpaid rent.
“It’s like being jailed because you’re poor,” Ali said.
Under the bill, civil arrests for unpaid rent, known as body attachments, would be prohibited if the amount of debt is $5,000 or less.
Ali said he decided to name the bill after Kushner – a top White House adviser – because “he has reaped a lot of wealth off of the backs of poor people… He owns these properties and has to take ownership of that… He just happens to be No. 45’s son-in-law.”
Kushner Cos. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Similar legislation – but without the catchy title – was proposed last year by Sen. William Smith, D-Montgomery. Smith withdrew it after judges, the state bar association and several members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee argued that some form of civil arrest still was necessary in unpaid rent cases.
Judges need to be able to compel tenants who are delinquent to provide information about their assets, these critics said, so the court can determine what they should have to pay. Smith said Wednesday that he plans to file a bill that would allow for that process, but would prohibit the practice of jailing those who cannot come up with relatively small amounts of unpaid rent.
Under Smith’s proposal, which he said he developed in consultation with Attorney General Brian Frosh’s office and consumer advocacy groups, a renter who owes back rent would still get arrested. But instead of going to jail, the renter would fill out paperwork about their assets. Once the paperwork is completed, the renter would be let go.
Ali’s Kushner bill does not include that option.
“The problem we are trying to solve is people getting sent to jail because they’re poor,” Smith said. “Our approach is a more tailored approach to the problem of real people sitting in jail. Under this bill, that wouldn’t happen.”