Reps. Sherrill, Bice Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Help Servicemembers and Veterans Acquire Rental Housing

Press Release

Washington, DC -- Yesterday, Representative Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) along with Representative Stephanie Bice (OK-05) introduced the Veteran's Electronic Transcript of Residency for Entering New Tenancies Act, or the VET RENT Act, a bipartisan measure that directs the Department of Defense to provide tenant history for servicemembers housed in DOD housing. This will enable servicemembers and veterans to access a rental history from the DOD in instances where it is not already available in order to provide it when applying for and renting housing from individual property owners or large-scale property management companies.

"For decades, housing has been one of the largest challenges for veterans transitioning from military service to civilian life, particularly in competitive rental markets. Any action we can take to help ease that process and remove barriers for servicemembers and vets looking for housing helps," said Rep. Sherrill. "Currently, their non-veteran peers can leverage referrals from previous landlords or rental agencies during rental application processes. However, despite being good tenants and stewards of federal government property during their service, there is no mechanism for a veteran housed in service-provided housing to provide a similar reference or referral. This bill directs DOD to change that, and provide a common-sense solution for a very real problem facing veterans transitioning to civilian life."

"There are numerous obstacles our veterans must overcome upon change of duty or leaving the service, but obtaining housing should not be one of them," said Rep. Bice. "I signed on to the Vet RENT Act to give veterans access to their leasing history for those who were living in DOD or service-provided housing, so they can provide proof of rental to future management companies or private property owners. Congress must continue to work with the DOD to simplify processes such as these and provide faster and better access to information for our veterans and their families."

"Part of caring for veterans is ensuring they have equitable access to housing following service," said Brittany Dymond, Associate Director VFW's National Legislative Service. "The VFW commends Representative Sherrill's leadership on this issue as she seeks to establish a standard record of housing history. This form would enable servicemembers to be competitive in the civilian rental market if they do not have tenant history outside of military housing.

"The Armed Forces Housing Advocates support Congresswoman Bice's latest legislation, the VET RENT Act," said Noelle Pacl, Founder and Associate Director of the Armed Forces Housing Advocates. "Military families need to be given similar opportunities to their civilian counterparts when applying for properties, especially given the current housing market and competitiveness for housing surrounding military installations."

"As service members transition out of the Armed Forces they often seek private rental housing, but those who previously lived in Service-provided housing have never needed to provide referrals or even a record of their housing history to prospective landlords, causing them to be less competitive than other tenants in the rental market," said Justin Monk of the Student Veterans of America. "This bill creates a standardized record of housing and corrects this long-standing problem for transitioning service members and veterans, granting them the same rental opportunities as everyone else--SVA supports it and we look forward to its swift passage."

Rep. Sherrill had already successfully introduced an amendment into the National Defense Authorization for Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2022 for DOD to provide a feasibility study on creating such a process, and worked closely with the VFW in drafting the legislation.

Rep. Sherrill is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served as Navy helicopter pilot for almost 10 years. She now serves on the House Armed Services Committee.

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