TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Editor's Note: The video in the player above is from November 2021 when lawmakers filed the bill.
A bill aiming to improve tenant safety in apartment buildings is officially making its way to Gov. Ron DeSantis' desk for his signature.
SB 898: Tenant Safety, filed by Sen. Linda Stewart (D-Orlando), is also known as "Miya's Law" in reference to 19-year-old Miya Marcano, who inspired the bill.
"Although Miya’s family will never get justice and nothing can bring back their daughter, I do hope with the passing of Miya’s Law this will bring some peace to the family and knowing that their daughter’s death was not in vain,” Stewart said in a statement, in part.
The Florida college student's story caught national attention in 2021 when she disappeared on Sept. 24 shortly after a maintenance worker, Armando Caballero, was reported to have been seen letting himself into her apartment with a master key.
Caballero, who was said to have expressed unrequited interest in Marcano, was named a person of interest in her disappearance. Days later, the Orange County Sheriff's Office says he was found dead in an apparent suicide.
It was eight days before officials confirmed Marcano's body was found bound with duct tape around her wrists, feet and mouth in a wooded area in Central Florida.
“Miya’s death is an awful tragedy – one that has put a spotlight on problems with apartment safety and security,” Stewart said in a statement at the time the bill was filed.
"Miya's Law" strengthens requirements regarding access to individual units, increases required notice to 24 hours, requires apartments to establish policies for issuing and returning keys and requires a key log to be maintained with access only given to authorized individuals.
It also includes a new provision that prohibits hourly rentals of "lodging establishments" in an effort to curb human trafficking.
Should DeSantis sign the bill, it will go into effect on July 1, 2022.