Demand Governor Abbott Veto SB 38!
A bill recently passed by State Senate slashes tenant rights and protections, in favor of parasitic landlords. Protest outside Edinburg City Hall this Saturday 6pm-8pm!
Write to Governor Abbott at the email address down below and tell him to Veto SB 38, that housing is a human right, and no evictions!
greg.abbott@gov.texas.gov | gov.texas.gov/contact
Read Spanish version here: https://jonathansalinas.substack.com/p/dile-al-gobernador-abbott-vete-el
Senate Bill 38 passed this current legislative session in Austin that just concluded 3 June. It attacks the rights of tenants to due process in eviction proceedings, by rewriting the law in even heavier favor of landlords. In Texas, the Governor has twenty days to veto bills passed by the legislature, otherwise they automatically go into effect at the start of the next fiscal year which would be 1 September 2025.
Working-class people, most of whom by-and-large rent their homes, must fight during this brief window to demand that the governor veto this legislation.
This bill, the original version of which reads as if the legislature handed every parasitic landlord who’s ever existed a black sharpie and allowed them to rewrite the law as they see fit, was introduced by District 7 Senator Paul Betancourt who represents western Harris County in Houston and works as a tax consultant for rich clients. The final version, passed 10 April, was substantially amended by the 11-member State Affairs committee before it went to the floor for a vote.
SB 38 passed the State Senate in Austin by a vote of 21-8, with two members not voting. Of the three Senators who represent South Texas—(D) Judith Zaffirini from the Laredo area, (D) Juan Hinojosa of the Rio Grande Valley and Kingsville area, and (R) Adam Hinojosa from the gulf coast region—only Zaffirini opposed.
SB 38 is described by its author and those who support it, as well as journalists employed by capitalist news outlets, as an ‘anti-squatter’ bill. Squatter is a derogatory term, similar to and synonymous with “dead-beat tenant,” used by the land-owning classes to describe tenants struggling to pay rent. During a March 24 Texas Senate State Affairs Committee hearing1 on the bill, its author (Betancourt) introduced his legislation by describing us as a “plague.”
“This is an important bill that will try to end this squatter’s plague that’s swept from coast to coast and has caught Texans up in the middle of it,” he said. “In addition we’re streamlining the eviction process, addressing challenges property owners face when dealing with unlawful occupants, A.K.A. squatters.”
Bettencourt received $15,000 during the 2024 election cycle from the Texas Apartment Association, the legislative arm that advances the interests of dead-beat landlords who will from here on out be referred to as parasites.2 Bettencourt’s tax consulting company, unsurprisingly, specializes in property taxes.
Also during Bettencourt’s opening remarks he highlighted an example of a ‘squatter’ who was allowed to stay in their home through Christmas, which he and his fellow capitalist-pleasing colleagues regarded as outrageous. Thus, we see how the religious right isn’t so reticent about “holy days” when it comes to working-class people, evidence that religious devotion is reserved only for the upper classes. As many working people work weekends, they know full well that attending church is only for those who work salaried jobs and have weekends ‘off.’
One of the committee members during the hearing expressed the view that the current law is lob-sided towards “squatters”. Currently, tenants have only a few days to pack up their lives and vacate a premises, a dehumanizing and cruel practice. That legislators believe this situation is “lob-sided” towards tenants demonstrates the capitalist legislature’s contempt and hatred for working people.
Since they have no problem identifying us as their class enemy, we should have no problem—in fact we should be eager—to likewise describe them.
Let’s briefly outline what exactly SB 38 would change from the existing law.
First, the bill would now allow parasites to do something known as ‘venue shopping’. Currently, eviction suits are to be handled in the precincts where the property in question sits, within a certain county. SB 38, if signed into law, would allow for parasites to “transfer” venues to an “adjacent” precinct of their choosing—on the condition that county law enforcement officers are unable to ‘properly serve’ tenants with notice of suit being filed against them, within three business days (pg. 1). So, if the constables try “serving” you at home while you’re at work, then tough luck!
Page two of the bill illustrates the deference towards the parasites by mandating that in the event they need to “transfer” a venue, then they shall not incur any additional fees. (The question of additional fees came up during the committee hearing to which Bettencourt clarified with glee that the poor landlords would not be subjected to the injustice of fees.)
On the same page, the addition of language saying that only the state legislature may pause evictions, is added. Currently, city ordinances or federal pandemic emergencies may pause evictions, something over which the parasites and their legislators deplore and shed tears. At the end of the page, on lines 59-66, SB 38 allows for parasites to ignore federal laws or rules requiring them to give tenants a certain amount of time if such time exceeds what the senate bill proscribes.
Again on the same page (lines 51-54), SB 38 would now allow for parasites to simply give a notice (be it in spoken word or through an electronic text message) to pay rent before being able to file an eviction suit in court, whereas currently they are obliged to send the abovementioned certified letter known as a notice to vacate. Should SB 38 be signed into law, notices to vacate would only be optional!
Currently, tenants must be “properly served” of such notice with a certified mail letter; thus, this right and protection would be stripped.
Amazingly, on the same page (lines 30-33), parasites would no longer need to prove to the court that they even satisfied the meager and watered-down requirements towards tenants—unless and only unless the tenant disputes that proper notice was given. Thus, the parasites are presumed to be truth-tellers without fault.
Lines 37-48 strip tenants of a key protection in eviction court. Currently, tenants may file a motion to dismiss a suit if the landlord does not meet the requirements set out by law (like the notice to vacate through certified mail discussed above). If SB 38 is signed into law, it would now no longer allow tenants to ‘move to dismiss’ eviction suits—which we currently can—provided that the parasite is able to “amend” the process to comply with requirements! Funny, isn’t it, how tenants are not given the right simply “amend” failure to pay rent during court.
Page four of the bill, lines 15-30, allows parasites to get their request for a judgement by the court granted without a trial if within four days of being “properly served” tenants do not contest the suit with the court. Proceeding lines, 31-41, spells out what “properly served” actually means. They explain that a county cop does not actually have to serve a tenant, so long as they “make a diligent effort to serve” the citation. Yes, the same county cops who get busted once a year at a minimum for running guns and drugs for Mexican cartels.
Defenders of this legislation say it also includes “new protections” for tenants, but as we’ll see up ahead, trap doors await underneath. Page 10 of the bill, lines 3-10, says state or local entities that provide services for “eligible” tenants (whatever that means), including services like attorney representation, shall cover the costs for evicted tenants to move out and first month’s rent at a new location, as well as the necessary security deposit:
“A state or local government entity, other than the supreme court, that funds a legal aid service or organization to provide information, advice, or representation to eligible tenants in the eviction process shall provide an equal amount of funding to pay for relocation assistance for tenants. Relocation assistance provided to a tenant under Subsection (a) must be in a sufficient amount to enable the tenant to move out of the premises from which the tenant is being evicted, including at a minimum: (1) the tenant’s moving expenses; (2) a security deposit, if one is required; and (3) one month’s rent.”
How this process is supposed to be ironed-out exactly will be left, as SB 38 stipulates, in the benevolent hands of the Texas Supreme Court—yes, the same court that proudly upholds upwards of ninety-five percent of death penalty cases.
Working people must defend our class interests, together, in solidarity
Under capitalist rule—where working people’s labor is exploited for super profits kept by billionaires and where the middle-classes act as managers for the bosses, in exchange for a salary and benefits to lord over the exploited—housing is just one other commodity like an automobile or food. To the extent tenants have rights and protections is the extent to which working people have fought for them, by taking to the streets and bringing production to a halt, through general strikes and other forms of resistance against the class enemy and their state.
Nowhere is the fact that the capitalist rulers and their servants in government view us as their class enemy clearer than in the committee hearing linked above.
Working people who live in the State of Texas—regardless of national origin, language or immigration status—should take to the streets and demand that Governor Abbott veto this law and the “accompanying” House Bill that alters a line or two in the eviction legal code. Independent working-class action, together and in solidarity, is the only way to fight back!
While tenant unions and “advocacy” groups are more than welcome to join in, they largely seek ways to collaborate with the capitalist rulers. We should not look for any avenues to collaborate with the capitalist rulers’ politicians, like Bettencourt, or even those who voted against the bill.
Our end-goal should be a socialist revolution, wherein the landlord and mortgage system is abolished and housing is no longer a commodity, but a human right! Through protests and fights like these, we develop our capacities as a class towards taking political power out of the hands of the exploiter class!
For anyone who would like to join me this Saturday evening, June 7, on the public sidewalk outside City Hall in Edinburg, bring a sign and let’s tell the capitalist State of Texas that working people demand they repeal this anti-working-class law!
Also write to Governor Abbott at the email address down below and tell him to Veto SB 38, that housing is a human right, and no evictions!
greg.abbott@gov.texas.gov | gov.texas.gov/contact
Follow event updates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1ZJLMptDQi/
jonathansalinas@substack.com
Betancourt’s introduction of the bill begins at the 1:57:00 mark.
Unlike working people who produce products and services with their labor that is equal to what they are paid (wages), parasitic landlords do not provide products or services that are equal to rent payments. All they do is pay taxes once a year, sometimes pay utilities, and occasionally contract people to do maintenance — all things working people could do themselves — totaling a few hours of actual work a year. Parasitic landlords profit by extracting wages that working people earn in the job market. Most parasitic landlords don’t work, relying on the profits extracted from working people’s real wages to live often luxurious and comfortable lives. All parasites do is extract, while working people produce and actually work for a living.