Gov. Eric Holcomb took the extraordinary step Wednesday to veto a bill that would have removed a series of protections for renters in Indianapolis, Bloomington and other Indiana cities.

The veto, coming Wednesday just hours before Holcomb's deadline to act, comes at a time when many Hoosiers are feeling vulnerable because of economic concerns related to the coronavirus. Hundreds of individuals and organizations — representing senior citizens, African-Americans, veterans, immigrants, domestic violence victims and more — had all but begged Holcomb to shoot down the bill after their pleas were ignored by the Indiana General Assembly.

It marks only the second time that Holcomb, a Republican, has vetoed a bill passed by his party's super-majority in the legislature. While some Republican senators voted against the bill this month, SEA 148 had still gained the support of former House Speaker Brian Bosma, Senate Pro Tempore Rodric Bray and a majority of Republicans.

While the legislative session ended just two weeks ago, Holcomb said in a veto letter to Bray, much has changed because of the threat of COVID-19. Holcomb also noted his order to prevent foreclosures and evictions during the current public health emergency.

"While I understand the bill was intended to create uniformity between state and local law governing the relationship between landlords and tenants," Holcomb wrote, "I believe this is not the right time for such language to become law."

Holcomb went on to say the bill's language was overly broad by restricting a city's ability to regulate "any other aspect of the landlord-tenant relationship."

Bray, the senate leader, did not immediately respond to an IndyStar interview request Wednesday night.

Holcomb's veto also spurned the lobbying efforts of the Indiana Apartment Association, a powerful interest group with deep pockets that represents some of the largest landlords across Indiana.

The Apartment Association started pushing for the bill during the last legislative session after Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, a Democrat, announced a series of housing proposals that aimed to provide more power to renters.

The group has fought efforts to allow different housing policies across different cities, arguing that a disparate approach to regulations leads to higher administrative costs to business owners — and therefore higher rent for Hoosiers.

An IndyStar email to an Apartment Association spokeswoman was not immediately returned Wednesday night.

Hogsett's policies, which passed in the Democrat-led City-County Council, requires Indianapolis landlords to notify tenants of their rights and responsibilities under Indiana law. Indianapolis also now has an anti-retaliation ordinance that would result in thousands of dollars in fines for landlords who kick out renters for simply reporting unlivable conditions to the public health department or other agencies.

In a statement Wednesday, Hogsett thanked Holcomb.

"As we confront an unprecedented public health emergency that has cast a dark cloud of economic uncertainty over families across the state," Hogsett said in his statement, "now is not the time to uproot local protections for renters without understanding the consequences."

The Hogsett administration had for months worked on the new policies for tenants, both during and following a mayoral campaign against Republican State Sen. Jim Merritt that focused on housing issues. An IndyStar series last year revealed the unlivable conditions that many Indianapolis renters are forced to endure, in part, because of loose governmental oversight that allows unscrupulous landlords to take advantage of people in desperate situations.

Yet even as state lawmakers began considering legislation that would override his city's ordinances, Hogsett generally maintained a cordial approach the past several weeks, instead attempting to work behind the scenes.

Last week, Hogsett wrote a private appeal to the governor, emphasizing an appreciation for the work of state legislators while also urging Holcomb to veto SEA 148.

Democrat lawmakers, lacking the power to stop the bill's advancement, instead took opportunities to publicly lament the lawmaking process that largely happened outside of the public eye.

The final landlord-friendly legislation came in the form a last-minute amendment added onto an unrelated bill that had already passed one chamber. Lawmakers, then, invited little public debate.

"We are turning this General Assembly into an empty vessel in which special interests pour their wants and desires," Rep. Matt Pierce, a Bloomington Democrat, said earlier this month. "And they're writing this stuff, and we’re not even sure what it does."

Many advocates, meanwhile, coalesced around letter-writing and phone-calling campaigns, packed a City-County Council meeting and carried signs into a press conference within the Statehouse.

They have long worried about Indianapolis' unflattering distinction as a city with the second-highest number of evictions in the country, according to a Princeton University study.

In recent days they have also warned that what was already a housing crisis is about to get worse as the economy tumbles. The bill's effects, they said, would have been even more devastating on the state's two million renters by handing over even more power to landlords.

"At a time when Hoosiers were already coping with the lack of affordable housing, substandard and uninhabitable housing, out-of-control eviction rates and the growing disparity between tenant rights and that of Indiana’s powerful housing industry," said Amy Nelson, executive director of the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, in a statement. "Now was not the time to add further instability to our already unstable housing market."

The governor's veto represents an ending to one chapter in the weekslong battle inside the Statehouse and City-County Building over landlord-tenant matters. But it remains unclear if the battle is officially over.

The state legislature can override Holcomb's veto with a majority. Whether they choose to do so next time they gather is not immediately known.

But in his statement, Hogsett suggested that his administration could work alongside the lawmakers in the future to address landlord-tenant concerns.

"Indianapolis stands ready and willing to participate in these discussions so that we can make the kind of meaningful progress our constituents deserve and rightly demand,” Hogsett said.

Advocates said they were ready, too, while also looking to the greater challenges ahead.

"We applaud Governor Holcomb for his leadership in stopping this sweeping legislation, during what became an unusually difficult season for our state," said Jessica Love, executive director of Prosperity Indiana, in a statement. "We anticipate and look forward to working with impacted parties — those in support of and opposing SEA 148 — next session."

She went on: "After we survive this pandemic, I think we’ll all have a greater appreciation for safe and stable housing.”

Contact IndyStar investigative reporter Ryan Martin at ryan.martin@indystar.com or by phone, Signal or WhatsApp at 317-500-4897. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter: @ryanmartin.