Houston Republic

Attorneys and activists in Texas are pressuring public and private rental property owners to do more to keep tenants safe from gang shootings and human trafficking, the Texas Monitor recently reported.

At the moment, prosecutors and activists must use local laws and a single state law to hold property owners accountable. A bill that would tried to address the problem died in session last year.

Texas human trafficking victims and activists in two of the state's largest cities are taking to the courts to make owners of property where criminal activity occurs address their alleged liability.

In Houston, victims of human trafficking late last year filed federal lawsuits against three major hotel chains claiming gross negligence in on-site prostitution, despite company policies to promote social responsibility.

In Dallas, attorneys and activists angered by the murder of children – including a 9-year-old girl killed when she apparently got caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout last summer – are demanding city-owned rental properties maintain the same standards expected of privately owned rental properties to keep tenants safe from violence.

 Senate Bill 498, bipartisan legislation that would have made tenants and multi-unit commercial property owners more responsible for onsite crime, failed to make it out of committee last spring. Proponents of the bill say it would have strengthened the state's nuisance law, which prohibits repeated illegal activity in a business or dwelling.

SB 498 was the latest in a string of measures that began in 2017 intended to increase property owner liability in onsite criminal activity, a proponent of the legislation, Children at Risk Senior Attorney Jamey Caruthers, said in the report.

"We don’t want to punish property owners, but we do want them to do a little more due diligence," Caruthers said.