NEW ORLEANS — For weeks WWL-TV has shown you the poor conditions renters are living in across New Orleans.
From toilets that don't flush, to roach infestations, black mold that's making people sick and ceilings collapsing.
Renters' rights advocates believe the "Healthy Homes Ordinance" will solve issues like these.
“We have people coming to the organization who are being threatened to be evicted by landlords who don’t want to do any repairs," volunteer Edith Romero said.
The ordinance would require all rentals meet basic health and safety codes, protect tenants from retaliation after submitting complaints and require property investors to submit their business to the city.
The Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center and around 60 other organizations support the Healthy Homes Ordinance.
According to the Director of Policy and Communications for the LA Fair Housing Action Center, Maxwell Ciardullo, the ordinance was supposed to include an exemption for a landlord who shared a roof with their tenants.
For example, a landlord living on the other side of a double shotgun home.
But now, Ciardullo said there's a new exemption that could be in the ordinance that gives landlords who own properties of one to four units.
Ciardullo said if it's included in the ordinance, it's giving landlords "special treatment."
“That’s two-thirds of all rental property in the city. We’re not a city with lots of big apartment complexes. Most rental housing is in small buildings," Ciardullo said, "And so that would essentially gut a lot of the ordinance.”
People rallied outside of City Hall on Wednesday evening calling on the council to pass the ordinance with no exceptions.
New Orleans City Councilmembers told WWL-TV that the council would not vote on the ordinance until the next city council meeting on November 3rd.
Ciardullo said the council was supposed to vote on the ordinance on Thursday, Oct. 20th, and is now concerned that the council pushed it back by two weeks.
“We’re worried that councilmembers are wavering in their support for healthy homes," Ciardullo said.