Western’s Student Government Association wants to help students who lease in Bowling Green, and they’re seeking the city commission’s approval. ?

SGA President Kevin Smiley asked senators to look at a resolution for fair housing standards in Bowling Green at SGA’s Feb. 22 meeting.

The resolution supports the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, which is designed to protect both tenants and landlords in lease agreements.?

Smiley said he hopes city commissioners and Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker will approve the bill.?

“Bowling Green has a special relationship with Western, and since other cities in the state have adopted the URLTA bill and shown its effectiveness, we feel this would be a great opportunity for them to show students that special relationship by approving the bill,” Smiley said.?

URLTA was a popular topic of discussion during the 2008 city elections, but Commissioner Bruce Wilkerson said it was never seriously considered or voted on because of its lack of room for negotiations.

The city would have to adopt every aspect of the act as a contract and wouldn’t be able to amend it.

Wilkerson said the act doesn’t allow landlords and tenants to discuss how they want to deal with problems. Instead, it tells them how they have to deal with each other.

He said that adoption of the act by other cities doesn’t necessarily mean URLTA would work for Bowling Green.

“I would have to be convinced that the good is so important that it outweighs the bad,” he said.

Smiley said he hopes a fresh look will make a difference. ? “It’s really a city issue, but we’re hoping to give it a new perspective,” he said. “This is an issue because students don’t always know what kind of leases they’re getting into.”

Smiley agreed that there were concerns with the language of the bill but says that the changes that would be made are “just common sense laws,” such as putting agreements between landlords and tenants in writing.

Walker said she supports the bill and called it “critically important” that both tenants and landlords receive fair and equal treatment.?

“It’s easy to get hung up on parts of it because the act requires that it be passed as a whole and not in part,” Walker said. “I think a concerted effort by citizens to push for fair treatment is what it will take (to pass the bill), and I feel URLTA accomplishes that.”?

Smiley said SGA will discuss URLTA further at today’s meeting.