Good morning, everyone.

Good morning.

We are going to start this press conference.

How's everyone doing today?

Today is a great day.

Today is a great day.

Today is the day that we announce that a rental registry is going to be operational here in Duval County.

Before we begin a little housekeeping, I'm going to start us off.

My name is Councilmember Jimmy Pelusa from District 7.

We'll then pass it off to Jim Kowalski.

He's the executive director and CEO of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.

We will then pass it off to Councilmember for District 6, Michael Boylan, and then finally we'll pass it off to assistant secretary and former state senator Jose Rodri Jose Javier Rodriguez.

This has been a long time coming, hasn't it?

In the city of Jacksonville, as I was running for office campaigning, and as I talked to neighbors and community leaders, one of the things we consistently heard from people, especially those who are renting, was what am I supposed to do if my landlord does X, Y, or Z?

What happens if there's a cave in in my property?

What happens if I need help?

Who do I go to for help?

And why can't the government help me more?

And as a candidate at the time, I thought these are great questions.

Why couldn't we do more?

Part of the answer to that is the state of Florida preempts us from doing a lot.

And because the state of Florida and our friends in Tallahassee want to make sure that consumer rights and the rights of our residents aren't the same as those who are property owners, it really puts us at a disadvantage.

It was scary, it was concerning, it was disappointing.

There's nothing worse than being an elected official and campaigning on something and not being able to get follow through.

So as we as policymakers looked at different options, our friends at the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid stepped in to do something great.

And let me let me let me first go back and say this.

Dr.

David Jaffee with the University of North Florida and Katie Renzi started the or started basically their own landlord registry years ago with the Jacks Fair Housing Project.

So they started this work.

But it was up to us to say, let's pick up the work they did and make sure that it's applicable for future years.

And who can we have that who can handle that work?

And again, Jacksonville Area Legal Aid said we can do that.

Today, the City of Jacksonville has been working with JALLA to put together a complete list of rental properties in the city of Jacksonville where you, as a tenant, as a future tenant, can look up to see on this property are there code code compliance violations, are there evictions?

We all know Jacksonville is the eviction capital of Florida.

And that ain't right.

And as we have constituents and residents in this city asking for more, it's up to us as policymakers to deliver.

And when the city of Jacksonville can't do it because of Tallahassee, we are grateful to have leaders like Jim who are willing to step in.

I'm now going to introduce Jim Kowalski.

He's the head of the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.

Thank you all so much.

Thank you, Jimmy.

And thank you for this opportunity to talk about our work.

I want to specifically thank uh Councilmember Peluso for his enthusiasm and support for the registry tool and for the motivation that kept the JALA team working and testing the tool to the point where we were ready for launch.

Thanks specifically to Jala staff members Katie Renzi, data analyst is too basic a title for all that she does for us, and to our former data analyst, Mitchell Fairgrieve, who helped start this process, and to our entire housing team.

Housing is really the highest best use of civil legal aid.

Special thanks to somebody who isn't here, uh former Councilman Terrence Freeman, whose leadership in forming the Critical Quality of Life Committee led directly to both our successful eviction diversion program and to the registry tool, and to Councilman Michael Boland, who led that committee as it worked on solutions to some of Jacksonville's most pressing problems.

I also want to echo Councilmember Peluso in thanking Professor Jaffe and the UNF Rental Housing Program Project and Florida Rising for their efforts to continue to move this project along.

And that leads us to today, where we launch, discuss the launch of the rental registry to complement the eviction diversion program now in its second year.

And I was speaking to those who don't believe this city should support those types of programs.

If you are a first responder with a family or a teacher or a health care worker, or somebody who works in the tourism and hospitality industry that drives the state, and you rent, you more than likely are worried about making that rent payment every month.

More than half of our local renters are cost burdened, meaning they spend more than a third of their total income on their rent.

And Florida has the most one-sided eviction laws in the entire country.

You can go from an unexpected car repair bill or an unexpected hospital bill to having your stuff out on the corner in six weeks.

And it is far more expensive for our community to help a homeless family get back into housing than help somebody keep their housing in the first place.

And since our main focus is on workers, keeping employees housed helps our local economy as well.

Now we can't make landlords register for anything in Florida, but we can help bring some transparency to the rental process by helping you learn more about where you are renting or in particular where you want to rent, especially with regard to whether your landlord ignores code violations on their property.

Are we going to list those landlords who ignore their state and city obligations to maintain properly property?

Yes, we are.

Thank you, Jim.

I really appreciate the opportunity to speak today.