Housing: the renters' coalition he founded
What they say
He says he is a founder of the Michigan Rent Is Too Damn High Coalition, and that it has won statewide protections for low-income renters.
“I am a founder of the Michigan Rent Is Too Damn High Coalition, which fights for solutions to the housing crisis, and has won statewide protections for low-income renters.”
What the record shows ·
Michigan did pass statewide renter protections in that time. Senate Bills 205, 206 and 207 and House Bills 4062 and 4063 of 2023 ban housing discrimination based on a tenant's source of income. They became Public Acts 178, 179, 180, 199 and 200 of 2024, signed between December 30, 2024 and January 16, 2025. The House committee's analysis of these bills lists 40 groups that testified for or backed them; the coalition is not among them. The one House analysis found that names it is for a different bill, HB 5238 of 2023 on eviction records: "Rent is Too Damn High" testified for it on December 5, 2024. That bill passed the House and died in a Senate committee. The Senate committee's minutes for its May 16, 2023 hearing on Senate Bills 205-207 and its June 13 vote list who testified or turned in cards; neither names Lawrence or the coalition.
Why there is no assessment here
The laws exist, but the coalition's part in them is not established. Neither the House nor the Senate committee record lists it, which does not rule out work done another way.
Limit: His sentence names no law. The card uses the source-of-income laws because news reports tie the coalition to them, which is a lead, not a record. Who founded the coalition was not checked.