Model Local Resolution Calling For Local Authority to Adopt Housing and Worker Protections and Expand Broadband Access During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Note: This resource – a model local resolution – was produced by A Better Balance, Local Solutions Support Center, and the National Employment Law Project. View the designed resource here. And click here to view the text of the resolution itself.

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads and states reopen, local elected officials and advocates are asking what power they have to help their communities across a range of policies, including housing and homelessness needs, worker needs, and broadband access. 

In many cases, advocates and local officials are finding that their authority to implement urgent policies and support is limited, if not entirely preempted, by state law. In other cases, they are finding that their authority to adopt the policies residents need most is not clear, and taking local action could subject the local government to a legal challenge based on state preemption. In other states, local governments have found they have the authority to act.

Local advocates and officials could save crucial time as they determine what they can do locally if their state legislature or governor asserted and clarified local authority pertaining to key policies around housing, worker protection, and broadband access. This model resolution is geared towards helping local officials and advocates push their legislature and governor to do just that.