Hi, thanks everyone for being here.
My name is Bia.
I'm a community organizer in Councilmember Shama Sawant's office.
And I'm really excited to be here this morning with so many tenants from the Rainier Court Apartments.
And so our office, Councilmember Sawant's office, Nick and Alvin, two other community organizers in our office, we've been here since last week.
talking with tenants, door-knocking with tenants who have taken up this organizing effort to fight back against really egregious treatment by the property manager of these buildings, Coast, and the owner, Seed, South End Effective Property Development.
And so, or effective, yeah, South End Effective Development.
So, you know, We want to just say that it's a privilege for us to be here with the tenants since the days that we've been spending here.
And then today it's been really an honor to organize with so many of these tenants who are really taking an important fighting approach to fighting back against the treatment that many tenants in the city and in cities across the country face.
And what Coast and Seed have been doing here is, like I said, outrageous.
But it's not the first time and it won't be the last time that they treat tenants this way here or anywhere else.
And the only thing that really works to fight back is getting organized.
And we just want to really emphasize that.
And we've been talking to tenants and they've been doing that, collecting signatures from their neighbors on a petition with demands.
And so, you know, that's really, really exciting.
We've got four buildings now that are involved and where it looks like potentially around 600 units of both family housing, low income housing, and housing for disabled and senior folks here in this community.
And so they're, you know, getting organized and fighting back.
And I just want to talk about, you know, with our office in the past, we've had really successful struggles with, you know, a few different buildings.
The Chateau, where that building was going to be demolished, and they fought back to be compensated for that.
for their rights as renters, and that was a successful organizing victory.
The Brighton Apartments, the Carl Hagelin Law, which was won by tenants getting organized just like this to fight back against also really horrible conditions with infestations and heat that didn't work and lots of other really egregious code violations.
A lot of similar things that are happening here in these units that tenants are going to talk about today.
And again, just getting organized is how we win those victories.
Putting pressure on landlords that in Seattle get away with far too much.
And so this is so important that we're all here today.
And yeah, I really want to congratulate the tenants for having brought the struggle this far to this point today.
And it's really exciting for the work we're going to be doing moving forward.
I want to thank the media for being here today and last week at our rally for helping to bring light to this issue.
And so, yeah, I want to bring up right now Council Member Shama Sawant to say a few words, and we're going to hear from some tenants and some other organizations that are supporting our struggle.
I want to thank B-Seattle and the Tenants Union and Real Change for being here to support us today, and we'll hear from them as well.
And go ahead, Shama.
Thank you, Bia, and thanks to all the community organizers in my office and the organizations, community organizations that are in solidarity with the tenants, and especially the tenants themselves, because it takes a lot of courage to do what you are doing, which is get together, organize, and demand your rights under law as renters in the city of Seattle, as working people, as retirees, as working families.
Many of the media who were here last Thursday will know already from the Como story that the tenants here are struggling under egregious conditions.
As Bia mentioned, the conditions they are facing are unspeakable.
Pervasive problems like lack of heating, mold, bed bug, and cockroach infestation, hallways filled with accumulating garbage, the absence of internet access for low-income residents, which is a very, very important problem, especially in the pandemic era, where we have, as working people, been forced to rely on internet access like never before, and these residents have been denied their right for low-cost internet access since 2017. and broken stoves, broken refrigerators, non-functioning toilets, leaking ceilings.
Renters in these buildings have told my office that the daily reality of living in these buildings has become nothing short of a nightmare.
not only have both Seed and Coast, both the management company Coast and the owner, the landlord Seed, not only have they failed to address these numerous problems and housing code violations, many of them egregious, they've had the temerity to send $100 rent increase notices to these tenants.
This is outrageous.
And that is why we're joining, my office has joined these tenants in putting forward their demands to seed and coast.
No more rent increases.
Tenants should not experience discrimination based on race, nationality, language, or otherwise.
Tenants must be treated fairly and kindly by management, sufficient maintenance staff to address repair concerns in a timely manner, approved access for tenants to install affordable internet hookups in units, communication from management when there are staffing changes.
Now, I have written a letter to Seed and Coast, and please distribute copies of the letter to everybody and to the media right now.
This letter demands that they fulfill the needs of the tenants and they rescind, they cancel the $100 rent increases.
And my plan was that we would all march together to the Coast offices, which are right here, and hand deliver them the letter.
Well, what do you think has happened?
Since our rally on Thursday, they have emptied out the office and it's all dark in there.
There's nobody in there.
They have stopped holding office hours since that rally.
The phone lines have been disconnected.
I mean, I have seen a lot in my life as a political activist, but even for me, this is absolutely stunning that they would behave in such a cowardly, shameful and irresponsible manner.
So we are going to still deliver this letter by email and by post to both Seed and Coast.
But by their behavior of just shutting down their office, they have shown that we have a big fight ahead.
They're not going to back down easily, but we are not going to back down either.
Am I right?
I'm happy to report that tenants have been door knocking alongside my office in so many of these buildings with so many of their neighbors.
As Bia said, there's nearly 600 neighbors here.
We're going to continue that effort.
But it is important that we keep escalating this struggle because if we just talk amongst each other and don't escalate it, they will not feel the pressure.
And that is what we are here to do today.
So I am going to email this letter and I'm going to tell them how shameful it is that they have just packed up and left.
We're going to send the letter to seed as well.
But I am going one step further.
I am demanding that other council members on the Seattle City Council join me in signing this letter.
Because even if the council members are not openly siding with the landlords, by being silent when tenants are demanding justice is akin to supporting the status quo.
And the status quo is tenants have not got their needs met.
That is why I am urging that every Seattle City Council member, all of whom say that they're progressive, join me in signing this letter so that Seed and Coast understand that the whole city council is behind the tenants.
I am also going to urge King County Council members and state legislature representatives to join me in signing this letter.
Because all elected officials need to take a stand in this.
We have also taken another step since the Thursday rally, as the tenants know.
We have collected their complaints and delivered them to the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections.
My office is in touch with the Department of Construction and Inspections.
They're going to come out here as soon as possible and make sure that those code violations are registered.
They're going to take pictures.
They're going to officially lodge a complaint against the landlord.
And as Bia mentioned, This is very important because in 2016 my office alongside tenants won what came to be known as the Carl Hagelin law which says that landlords are prohibited from increasing rent in the face of egregious code violations.
So we should demand that they not increase the rent absolutely not one penny rent increase until they fix each and every problem.
Furthermore, I would also say we need to continue this fight to make sure that renter education and organizing continues to be funded.
We will be talking about that before this press conference ends.
And we need to make sure that we win victories here and then use that momentum in the fight for citywide strong rent control in Seattle.
Thank you so much.
Yes, absolutely, absolutely, yes, yes.
More than half our city is renters, and we are all struggling.
On top of that, we had the pandemic happen.
So many people are struggling, as you said, with fixed income.
So many people across age groups actually have ended up accumulating debt because we're not the ones who made the profit.
The billionaires made over a trillion dollars even during the pandemic.
We didn't make a penny.
That is why we are demanding rent control.
Thank you, Council Member Sawant.
I just want to say I think that it's so important that tenants, you know, we have been filing complaints with the Seattle Department of Construction Inspections and, you know, working with them to make sure that this is all recorded and they're going to be coming out here to look at things in these buildings.
And what we're going to have next is have tenants talk to you all about what has been going on in their units and in their buildings for years.
Many of these tenants have lived here for five, ten years.
And so I'm now going to call them up to talk about the conditions here and, you know, what we've been doing to get organized and fight back because they've been doing really excellent work talking to their neighbors and, you know, an exemplary, I think, struggle here with, you know, folks that they already knew and then you know meeting meeting new people in these in these large buildings and uh you know working on uh working on this really important organizing task so uh next we're gonna have up uh donna who lives in the courtland place building um and would you like to come up and say a few words okay all right the problem i'm having is my cook stove in the kitchen has not worked for a month
On September 26th, I gave them notice and they were a no show and they act like it's business as usual.
They don't respect their tenants.
They do not show up when they're supposed to.
And that cook stove, they have 72 hours by law to begin the repairs.
Okay, that was a whole month ago.
So that is crucial for me.
That's what I have to say about the stove.
Thank you so much, Donna.
We really appreciate all the tenants who are here to speak today.
Next, I'm going to invite Gordon to say a few words.
Gordon lives in the Dakota building.
Hello, everybody.
First, I want to thank everybody here for showing up.
I've been here more than 13 years in the Dakotas.
And I've seen management come and management go.
I've led a protest before a couple years ago when they raised our rent.
That time was like $50.
This is the most rent increase that they put upon us.
But they played a strategic game with the mayor extending the moratorium, right?
Then they had it timed out where the 60 days uh, within the last moratorium.
And then the next day when the moratorium ended, boom, then they raised the rent.
Now here's some things, a few things that's going on here.
They're talking about raising our rent.
It took the rugs up.
I'm not telling you any lie media and the people here know I'm telling the truth.
It took the rug.
I live on the fourth floor.
They took the carpets up about three years ago.
They haven't even replaced him yet.
They placed half of it.
So half of it is done.
Half of it is not done, and they haven't done any work on it in the last two months.
Am I lying, people?
No, no, no.
No work on it in the last two months, but they want to raise our rent.
Like people have said in the Como story and so on, molds in people's apartments.
There's major problems where they leave this garage door open at times.
Any Tom, Dick, and Harry can just drive up in there.
So, you know, you have security problems.
Maintenance people, there's a guy named Muhammad, poor Muhammad.
They worked this guy to death.
And now they have another Hispanic lady, they're working her to death.
Because the maintenance people, they're like management.
They're here today and gone tomorrow, okay?
And so like I said, I've seen the revolving door of management.
Now, we have a lady named Rhianne who, I'm gonna be quite frank with you.
She took this other management place like in the middle of the night, and she didn't even introduce herself to us at all.
We didn't even know she was the manager.
Now word is that she's gone now.
So now we're gonna have another in-house manager, and we're wondering, well, is she gonna introduce herself to us?
They're just major problems, but I am so happy that Council Lady Seward has came on board.
and helped us because that's powerful.
And I'm just so happy that all the tenants are speaking out.
And thanks for the media for covering it.
And thanks so much.
Thank you so much, Gordon.
Next, we're going to hear from Jay, who also lives in the Dakota building.
Hi, I'm Jay Gollihorn.
I'm your local activist here for the Dakota apartments.
I remember when we started our first tenants meeting.
There was two of us.
And that's been about five, six years ago.
Anyway, that's been about five or six years ago.
She asked me to speak up.
Normally, I'm pretty loud.
But anyway, we've had a lot of problems here.
I personally have experienced a bed bug problem in my apartment for two and a half years.
And then I got charged for him to come in and do it, to come spray.
which didn't do a bit of good.
I fought them and fought them.
I've talked with Joe Marino numerous times with Como Foreign News.
We've done numerous stories trying to fight this building and what they're doing to us here.
I finally got them to come in and do a heat treatment, which eliminated the problem.
But in the process, I lost all my furniture and everything, and I had to replace everything out of my own pocket.
I've taken numerous pictures of garbage and dumpsters piled Over my head, I have hundreds of photos, live videos and stuff that I've taken here at the complex.
They just like today when they seen that we're showing up what they do, close their blinds and they just shut us down.
They're using the COVID as an excuse for everything for not pertaining to our demands, our wants and needs.
I'm really grateful for Cosmo Schwant to show up today, the press, the Tannage Union.
You're helping us.
As you see, we started with two people, and now we're getting a bunch.
We did a rally last Thursday that was really good.
It's good to see everybody come out and finally stand up.
And I just thank all of you, really, thank you.
That's about all I got to say.
Go Seahawks.
Thank you, Jay.
Next, we're going to have Sharon say a few words.
Sharon, what building do you live in?
Hi, I'm Sharon.
I live in Cortland Place Apartments and I've only been there like two years and I've had problems.
I recently had a leak in my living room that leaked from under the baseboard halfway the floor underneath the carpet and it was on a Thursday and I reported it and I went that whole weekend.
It wasn't important the whole weekend.
And then they didn't come until Tuesday to repair it, and they cut out the wall, the top wall and the bottom wall.
And it's still that way.
You're welcome to come and look.
It's still that way right now.
I don't understand it, but that's the way it is.
And before that, I had My blinds, that went for about four months.
And anyway, I want to touch on a lot of things.
And I know it's mauled outside my living room window.
One weekend, the elevators was down for 48 hours.
and you got people people in the building in wheelchairs and you know and and and and the the fire extinguishers are out of the hallway some hallways don't have them that's a call that's a And security, there are people walking in the building, and we're senior citizens, and they're trying to get in our apartments.
It's just all kind of stuff.
let's see i was just trying to touch on everything oh and my next door neighbor had a leak and he his his wall has been cut open since last april and so it's still that way right today and so uh oh one other thing this is the last thing the internet When I came, I went on the internet, and they said, well, it's $45.
We're senior citizens.
Everyone knows that it's like $10 for senior citizens by law.
And I called Xfinity, and they said they couldn't touch it because the building, it's a bulk.
So they're getting your money either way it go.
And that's wrong.
I felt really violated by that.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sharon, so much.
We're going to have two more tenants speak.
Demetria, if you'd be able to come up now.
Thank you so much.
Good morning, I'd like to give thanks to Mrs. Savant for coming.
I'd like to give thanks to the housing organization that has supported us.
And I'd like to say they don't even treat their staff right.
So how do we expect them to treat us right?
We have not enough maintenance people, one person working both buildings.
and we are allowed not to use the bathrooms downstairs.
They have taken away all the things we signed up for when we moved in here.
Our amenities have been erased and we never get to meet with them to talk about or discuss any of our problems.
Bed bugs, roaches are ongoing and then they argue with you.
Do you really have them?
Yes, we really have them.
And yes, we need help.
Our elevator was out for a whole month.
I did call the city.
This was during COVID time.
I missed appointments.
Matter of fact, got canceled from appointments because I can't get up and down the steps.
And I just like to say, we thank you for being here.
And we have so many issues that we're working through.
But most of all, they raised our rent on people that are on fixed incomes, $100.
And where are we going to get it from?
So we're one step away from being homeless.
And I just want to say thank you.
There's a lot more things going on and they'll come out with the rest of us and get to talk.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Demetria.
I agree.
It's outrageous.
Folks are on fixed incomes.
You know, no renter deserves treatment like this, but, you know, I think especially renters who are in low-income housing, seniors, disabled members of our community, immigrant families.
I mean, it is really appalling the conditions that they are being forced to live in here.
And, you know, low-income housing does not deserve a lower quality of housing than any other housing in this city.
And so, you know, we're here to fight for, you know, end these rent increases and for their demands to be met, to have high quality homes, and that all tenants deserve that.
And so that's really why we're out here today.
And so we really appreciate tenants being here to speak and share their stories.
Finally, we want to have Michelle.
Michelle, are you?
Yes, I'm here.
Oh, there you are.
Thanks, Michelle.
Michelle lives in the Spokane building right here behind us.
Hi, my name's Michelle.
I've lived here for two years.
The day I moved in, my shower at the top, section eight, and also the manager didn't even look to see that the water was coming down already.
And throughout the months, there got to be mold.
They came and took pictures of it three months later, but they never came back to fix it.
Then they had a guy try to fix, scrape the mold and stuff off, but then he quit a week later and it's been like this for two years.
And now the mold and the water from the wall is coming all the way down the sides.
And also my heater hasn't worked in eight months.
I froze my butt off the first week that winter came here, and I had to go to the store at the corner and buy my own heater.
They said they'd fix it.
Well, they tried to rewire it for a minute, and then it sparked out 10 minutes later, and they still haven't came back.
So I had to get another heater.
So they don't care.
They're not landlords.
They're slumlords.
They have 15 buildings.
They have 15 buildings in Washington.
I bet if you know all the other buildings, you can get people, probably five or 800 or 1,000 people that have things wrong, and they don't care.
And the managers lie to us, and they'll say anything just to get you out of their face.
Well, we're tired, and we're not gonna take it anymore.
That's right.
Thank you so much, Michelle.
And we have some really important community organizations supporting this effort.
From the beginning, Be Seattle, and the Tenants Union, and Real Change.
We have Jacob here, an organizer at Real Change, who is going to speak next about their support of this struggle.
Thanks, Jacob, for being here.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak.
My name is Jacob Scheer.
I'm an organizer with Real Change, which is our weekly street paper here in Seattle, as well as a voice for our homeless and low-income neighbors.
And I just want to say to all of you that Real Change stands in full solidarity with the brave tenants here at the Seaton Coast Apartments who are doing exactly what needs to be done in our ongoing era of housing and affordability crisis.
These tenants are showing us what is possible when we have conversations with our neighbors and organize.
and fight back against deplorable living conditions, rent hikes, and discrimination.
So it's such an honor to be able to be here with you all today and thank you for having me.
And let's make no mistake here that these corporate real estate companies like Scenic Coast are actively complicit in our city's homelessness crisis.
For working and low income people, a $100 increase in rent could be the difference between having a roof over your head and sleeping outside.
That should be very clear.
People become homeless through the type of greed we see on display here in these apartments, which let's not forget and as speakers have reminded us are subsidized housing.
To treat these tenants with the type of disregard we've heard them speak so powerfully of, including unsafe and potentially life-threatening conditions, disabled residents having spoken of holding on to dear life while navigating staircases, families living with mold in their apartments and without heat, and then raising their rent just before the six months notice for rent increase passed by Council Member Sawant goes into effect is utterly shameful.
This is a blatant act of rent gouging and retaliation against these tenants who simply want to live safe and healthy lives in their homes.
And in a city where thousands of our neighbors sleep outside every night, it is quite simply morally reprehensible to raise the rent, particularly for those on low and fixed incomes.
These real estate companies will never prioritize the health, safety, and right to shelter that these tenants and all people in Seattle deserve.
We urgently need rent control in Seattle, and our neighbors here at the Dakota and Columbia Gardens can't wait, and neither can tenants all across our city.
These real estate companies are showing us how little regard they have for the lives of their residents and for our city.
So let's show these residents how much we care and fight by their side as a community to make sure their demands for safe living conditions and affordability are met by management.
These residents are showing us the possibilities of a fighting movement and organizing with our neighbors and fellow tenants.
It is this type of strategy and movement building we will need to win this battle as well as to win rent control, which the struggles of these tenants illustrate the dire need for here in Seattle.
So let's follow their lead and organize with our neighbors and tenants from across the city to fight for one another and win what we need to live healthy and vibrant lives in Seattle.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you so much, Jacob.
I really want to echo that.
I've been inspired by the organizing and the work that's been happening here with these tenants that these tenants have taken up.
And, you know, the it's hard work, you know, knocking on all these doors and talking to their neighbors and fighting against very powerful, you know, corporate uh you know management and and you know the the owners of these properties who who own many buildings and um yeah it's not easy to do what these tenants are doing here today and i want to recognize that that i've been inspired by by what they're here uh to do and and how hard they're fighting uh we have one more tenant who really wanted to speak alice um if you could come up thank you so much for being here
Y'all have to excuse me because I'm kind of emotional.
But anyway, this has been going on for six months and now it's getting critical for me.
Pretty soon I'll be going on dialysis at home.
I can't see in my bedroom.
Neither can I see in my kitchen.
It's a struggle.
There's a blind that they came out and measured, never came back.
This has been going on for six months.
Can you give me a break?
We pay our rent.
I'm not on no Section 8. We pay our rent.
You understand?
It's just too much.
I'm down to the criticalness cuz pretty soon like I said, I'll be doing dialysis I gotta see how to screw things in I can't see I can't see in my closets.
I can't see nothing I can't see when it gets dark at night.
You can't cook and it's getting dark darker now Okay, so I can't see I wear glasses, too Okay But I still can't see.
And it's an electrical current.
It's not when you got to change a bulb.
They won't even do that.
They won't even do that.
All in my bathroom, there's bulbs that are out.
Things are laying out like the things in the bathroom.
They won't even come and do that.
What's up?
But we gotta pay more money, $100 more.
For what?
What are they doing?
They ain't correcting nothing.
I'm tired of all that.
I know they doing this, they doing this rent increase across the nation.
Cuz of COVID or whatever they wanna come up with.
But anyway, if you're gonna do that, can you fix stuff?
Is there any way possible that you can fix?
No management whatsoever in that building right there.
None.
None.
I'm tired.
I'm done.
I wish I could just get me a lawyer and just do something.
I'm tired.
I don't even be late on my rent.
Okay?
Me and my husband dwell up in here.
He works, okay?
We pay our rent on time.
There shouldn't be no complaints about us.
And I'm not saying about nobody else either.
You're supposed to fix.
You're supposed to fix something.
That's all I got to say.
Thank you, Alice.
Thank you so much.
And I want to say, you know, the tenants that I've talked to, much like Alice, are really at their wits end and have said, you know, enough is enough.
We've been struggling for years to get basic things fixed in our apartments.
And I think that, you know, one thing that we've all been talking about, right, is that it's easy for management and for the owners to ignore you when you're individually complaining and you're trying to, you know, do things the way that You know, they tell you to do it by putting in requests, putting in complaints, calling the numbers, but they don't pick up and they don't respond to your requests, your maintenance requests, and they don't do the things that they're supposed to do.
And so, but the thing is that it's hard for them to ignore all the tenants.
If everyone gets together and everyone gets organized, you know, even maybe individual lawsuits, they can fight, right?
They can fight you because they've got lawyers and, you know, they can do that.
But if everyone gets together and gets organized and puts forward demands in a unified way and fights for them, it's so hard for them to ignore that.
They feel the heat, right?
That's why they left these offices, shamefully, right?
They shamefully left these offices.
They disconnected their phone lines.
And they're not doing anything for you all right now, because they saw the action last week, the protest, and they're scared.
And so that means we have to keep pushing.
We have to keep fighting until every demand is met.
And, you know, rent is coming up for November.
you know it's time to fight against these rent increases and to make sure that that happens and that you that yeah every demand that these tenants have is met.
So I want to just come next have Kate Rubin from B-Seattle who has been supporting this struggle as well with the critical work they're doing here in Seattle and thanks Kate so much for being here and B-Seattle for all your support.
Good morning, my name is Kate Rubin and I'm the organizing director of eSeattle.
I just wanted to say that these tenants are incredible.
This has been a tenant led movement since the beginning.
They're the ones who have been knocking on doors and talking to their neighbors and making sure that the organizing actually works.
because individuals don't have a lot of power and so coming to management with these issues wasn't getting them any results this is the way that they're handling it and it's incredible this came together so quickly they had a ton of people at the rally even now it's It was 9 a.m.
when we started, and look at this crowd.
They're fed up.
They're really tired, especially the seniors, of being infantilized.
They're treated like they haven't had a lifetime of experience and that they don't know their own needs.
It's infuriating and it's insulting, and they deserve better.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Kate.
And then I'm going to invite Lydia from the Tenants Union, who has also been out here organizing with the tenants for some time now and helping them file these initial Seattle Department of Construction Inspection complaints and helping them organize the rally last week, the tenants organizing meeting we had last week, and yeah, doing really critical work.
Yeah, we'll have you go after Lydia, if that's okay.
Thanks, Willie.
Hi, should I take off my mask?
Yeah, if you want.
All right.
I'm Lydia.
I work with the Tenants Union, and I've been working with tenants at the Dakota and some folks at the other buildings as well for almost a year now on and off.
They've been fighting for their rights throughout the pandemic.
And they're really taking a step forward to make sure that they're not being ignored anymore.
And I really appreciate everyone being here.
I just spoke with a tenant who very beautifully voiced that they can't stop us because we're fighting for our community.
and I feel like that's the most accurate depiction of what's happening here.
Everyone's here fighting for each other and themselves and it's an amazing show of what people can do when they're banded together.
Unfortunately they're forced into the situation but y'all are doing an amazing job so please round of applause for the tenants who are putting themselves on the line to make sure that Nobody is in crappy housing anymore.
Everyone deserves to be listened to and respected.
And there's really no way to be ignored anymore.
So thank you everyone here and I'll pass the mic.
Thank you, Lydia.
And Willie, if you'd like to come up.
Willie's a tenant in the Dakotas, right?
I have a complaint over my guests that I have in my house, which I caught three and more.
There's more guests in my house.
These guests I call bed bugs.
I have requested that they spray my apartment.
What is that?
My roommate is being eaten up.
I don't know if they like black people.
I haven't seen no monster on me, but I got them all over my bed.
But nevertheless, I'm making this complaint and I want you to see it as well as the manager whom I have spoke to many times about these bad bags.
Now, another part, to cede.
I don't know if you're going to show this to cede, but I am a techno person, technical person.
I want to see the books concerning maintenance of these complexes.
I don't know about anyone else, but I do know about me.
I want to see the books.
If it takes a federal auditor, I want to see the books.
They should issue out paperwork concerning their finances or set aside money for repairs.
I don't know if you're going to get it or not.
I want to see the books.
Simple.
Thank you.
And, and yeah I just want to underscore you know, we live in one of the richest cities in the country, if not the world, and there is money for every resident to have high quality housing.
And so we know that that money is there.
And that's what we have to fight for, because they're not just going to give it to us and you know taxing.
The wealthiest people in this city like we've been fighting for with the tax Amazon movement and then also fighting for rent control are vital parts of this struggle and then I also just want to underscore something else a tenant and I were speaking about how you know, she and her lawyer filed a complaint and you know, a demand from her lawyer to get her cook stove fixed and they ignored it.
So that's what's going to happen and that's what's happened to many tenants is they can ignore that.
But that's why we have to get organized.
And so I'm going to pass it now to Council Member Shama Sawant to wrap us up here today with this really powerful press conference.
I wanted to mention one more thing to follow up on my man with the bad blood father.
Like I said, I've been here with Gordon Corvette again.
I've been here more than 13 years.
Every year they usually have a building wide spray.
where everybody had to leave their apartments for a certain time, okay?
And this has not been done in eons.
So therefore, you're gonna have problems like my man and bed bugs and stuff like that, because they will not spend the money lately to have a building-wide spray.
But they wanna raise our rent?
No, that's wrong.
Thanks.
Thank you, Gordon, and everybody who spoke, especially the tenants who shared with the media the actual real life problems they've been facing, not just for days, not just for weeks, but for months and years.
It's absolutely outrageous.
This entire story of Rainier Court is a story of outrageous treatment by landlords of tenants.
And as Bia mentioned, even through the pandemic, corporate landlords, property management corporations, real estate speculators, big banks, the billionaires, they have continued to profit into the tune of trillions of dollars.
During a pandemic when the rest of us lost You know, just so much income, so many of us went into debt because it was an economic crisis.
But it was not a shared sacrifice.
We didn't all share the sacrifice equally.
Working people, low-income communities, senior citizens, immigrants and communities of color, we have shouldered the burden.
while the landlords, many of them have profited and at the expense of tenants.
That is why I want to reiterate, I'm sending this letter to Seed and Coast.
It is shameful that they just packed up their offices after our rally on Thursday.
But not only am I sending that letter, I am demanding that the city council members, the King County council members, and the state legislators sign on to this letter.
They need to show up for their constituents.
And if you don't show up, you're not on the side of tenants.
You can't say you're for tenants, but never show up for the tenants when there's a fight.
And I will also mention that on Monday, I have already mentioned this struggle in the Seattle City Council briefing, but so far I have not heard a word from any council member about this struggle.
So our next steps are we're gonna make sure all the elected officials understand that we demand that they be on our side.
That is what we elected them for.
and they need to do their job.
So that is one of our next steps.
Our second next step is our community meeting on Friday.
So everybody should make sure you take this flyer because it has information about it.
And on the flip side, you have the Tenants Bill of Rights, the Renters Bill of Rights.
The ones that are checkmarked are the ones that our movement has already won.
And we won it just by doing what we did today, which is our office, our community organizations, and tenants, renters across the city coming together to fight for our rights.
We didn't win it because every politician decided it was the right thing to do.
We made sure they understood they will pay a price if they vote no on renters' rights.
That is the approach we need to use.
yes exactly and we call them out when they're not on our side secondly on wednesday next week november 10th oh actually two weeks from now sorry uh we are going to have a public hearing the city council is going to have a public hearing on the budget so the people's budget 2021 campaign and this is the eighth year My office is organizing this.
We have won tremendous victories because we got organized, because hundreds of us got organized.
We're going to do the same thing this year.
There's many demands we have in the people's budget, but two I want to highlight today are, one, we're demanding at least $500,000 to continue renter education and organizing so that Tenants Union, Be Seattle, our community organization can have the funds to work with us.
Are we going to fight for that?
The second people's budget demand I want to highlight is increased funding for the Department of Construction Inspections so that they can actually have the staff to address tenant problems.
So let's make sure everybody takes this flyer.
Take stacks of them so that you can tell your neighbors about it.
Because if we don't show up, our needs don't get met.
Our rights are not preserved.
We have to show up.
We've got to fight.
That is the way it works in this society.
So let's do that.
And in closing, actually, I wanted to share an incredible story.
We've all heard many tenants speak their stories.
But I wanted to share one more from a tenant who didn't want to be here in front of the microphone.
She had a stroke in June of 2020. She was in the hospital for five months.
When she came back, she saw her apartment completely damaged.
And she heard that while she was in the hospital recovering from a stroke, water flooded into the apartment up to two and a half feet high.
And the management, the landlord, did virtually nothing to fix it other than offering to clean her floors.
I am stunned at this story, that you have a tenant, an elderly tenant, who is in the hospital recovering from a major health problem, and she comes back and she finds her apartment completely damaged.
And do you know what?
Throughout those five months, her sister was paying her rent on time.
all these tenants they're paying their rent on time and what is what is it that they're getting in return we yes we're done with this and that is why already hundreds of tenants have signed this petition but that's not enough i think 200 tenants might may have signed it we need more tenants to sign it if we have 500 600 tenants let's make sure we get a majority of them but that for that We need you all to go to your neighbors with clipboards, with these petition sheets, and tell them if you want your problems fixed, if you want to be respected as a tenant, you need to join the fight because no individual tenant can face up a corporate landlord.
We need to be together on this.
Thank you.