I am a housing attorney at the Legal Aid Justice Center. We represent low income tenants throughout Central and Northern Virginia. We support HB79. Many of our clients pay extremely high prices for very low quality housing. For example, one of our clients in Charlottesville had her apartment flooded with raw sewage. Initially, all the landlord did was put a fan in the apartment. After continued requests, and not until weeks later, the landlord fixed the carpet, but extensive damage had been done at that point. All our client's possessions were ruined and she was worried about staying in the apartment for health reasons because of visible mold. Under current Virginia landlord-tenant law, landlords have very minimal liability for poor conditions. Tenant remedies are often limited to recovering a rent abatement, which falls short in practice of remedying the harm that the tenant experienced. This bill expands the ability for tenants to recover from their landlords when they are harmed by the landlord’s negligence. For these reasons, we support the bill.