Just Cause Eviction
Since June 2021, the Peace & Justice Center has partnered with Rights & Democracy to help ensure the passage of Burlington’s Just Cause Eviction (JCE) charter change. The Just Cause Eviction charter change was crafted with extensive community input, and in March of 2021 it was passed by 63% of the voters. Just Cause Eviction is a form of tenant protection policies designed to prevent arbitrary, retaliatory, or discriminatory evictions by establishing that landlords can only evict renters for specific reasons — known as just causes — such as failure to pay rent.
Just Cause ordinances also prevent “de-facto” evictions and require landlords to offer current tenants the right of first refusal at the end of a lease. JCE is already implemented for over 2,000 tenants in Burlington, including those that live in public housing, units that receive project-based rental assistance, and rental units created through the federal low-income housing tax credit program.
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Past Projects & Campaigns
In the 1980s, we led campaigns for nuclear disarmament and clean energy.
In 1998, the PJC launched the Vermont Livable Wage Campaign composed of local livable wage coalitions from around the state, which worked to develop a viable worker movement statewide, capable of winning significant wage and benefit gains. As a result, Burlington and Montpelier passed ordinances setting a minimum wage for permanent city employees, and ultimately helped win a 50 cent increase in the minimum wage for 15,000 Vermonters.
More recently, PJC has partnered with other community organizations to advocate for Vermont’s Fair and Impartial Policing policy and co-led campaigns to Abolish ICE alongside Community Voices for Immigrant Rights and Migrant Justice.
In 2021, PJC partnered with Rights & Democracy to pass Burlington’s Just Cause Eviction charter change through the legislature.
PJC has endorsed numerous local and national campaigns including Planned Parenthood of New England’s campaign for the Reproductive Liberty Amendment.