Thank you, son.
Good morning, everyone.
This is the regularly scheduled meeting of the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee of the Seattle City Council.
Today is Friday, February 18th, 2022, and the time is 9.31 a.m.
I am the chair of the committee, Council Member Kshama Sawant.
Would the clerk, Ted Verdone from my office, please call the roll.
Council Member Sawant.
Present.
Council Member Nelson.
Present.
Council Member Lewis.
Present.
Council Member Morales.
Council Member Juarez.
Three present.
Thank you, Ted, and welcome to all the members who are present today for this committee.
For the record, Council President Juarez informed my office that she was going to be unable to attend today's committee meeting and is excused.
We have one item on today's agenda.
It is a community panel discussion on the importance of the pandemic moratorium on evictions in Seattle and we know this moratorium has been put in place to deal with the COVID emergency.
Last Friday, Mayor Bruce Harrell announced that he intends to let Seattle's eviction moratorium end at the end of this month.
His decision to let the eviction moratorium expire is a plan to allow the eviction of thousands of working class renters in Seattle starting on March 1st.
This is inhumane and unacceptable.
As of December, an estimated 96,000 Seattle metro area renters were behind on rent as indicated by census surveys.
Those facing eviction are disproportionately black working class renters and other communities of color.
And we also know from the research that has been done by the Housing Justice Project, nearly nine out of 10 evictions result in homelessness.
Last Friday, after seeing Mayor Harrell's announcement, my office requested the city council central staff to prepare council legislation to extend the eviction moratorium through the end of the COVID emergency.
It is legislation that we had researched in the past when former Mayor Durkin considered ending the moratorium, but ultimately at that time it was not necessary to bring it forward because under the pressure of the renter's rights movement, Durkin had to immediately agree to, ultimately agree to extend the moratorium by three months each time it was about to expire.
The legislation is a resolution that modifies the emergency order initially issued by former Mayor Durkin, creating the eviction moratorium.
Normally, city resolutions do not have legal weight in the sense of that an ordinance might have, but resolutions modifying emergency orders are a special case in Seattle's municipal code.
The resolution changes the end date of the moratorium to be through the end of the COVID public health emergency.
I want to be clear that every type of legislation has its drawbacks.
Mayor Harrell, as mayor, does have the power to end an emergency order or end the state of emergency as a whole.
If this resolution passes, which I hope it does because that is the only right and moral thing, moral and just thing for council members to do, but if this resolution passes and the mayor does that, which is end the emergency order, which, as I said, he has the legal power to do so, then we will need to respond.
But that would be, again, it would be an extreme and extremely immoral response from the mayor's office if that were to happen.
The legislation has been sent for introduction to the Council President's Office.
I had hoped that it would be introduced and voted on next Tuesday, February 22nd.
We have learned that the Council President will place the legislation on this Tuesday's introduction and referral calendar, meaning it gets formally introduced onto the calendar, but will not schedule it for a vote until the City Council meeting of the following Tuesday, which is March 1st.
We cannot be fooled by exaggerated claims about declining COVID cases.
The fatality rate from COVID is still frighteningly high both in the United States and globally.
In fact, the daily fatality rate is still nearly as high as during the peaks of earlier waves in the pandemic.
Ending the eviction moratorium now would lead to a deadly wave of evictions and increased homelessness in the midst of this ongoing crisis.
And we know that even before the pandemic conditions for renters in Seattle had already become intolerable skyrocketing rents driven by predatory real estate speculation forced many working class renters out of their homes and sometimes out of the city or into homelessness, the economic devastation triggered by the pandemic has massively exacerbated that crisis.
The city of Seattle is still in a state of civil emergency, but it appears that the emergency measures that negatively affect the profits of big business are the first to end, while the emergency measures protecting the political establishment and the profits of real estate corporations remain in place.
Council meetings are still being held remotely, but people can be evicted from their homes.
In other words, if this moratorium is allowed to end, that is.
In other words, ordinary people, working people, the most vulnerable people can be evicted but are unable to come in person to city council meetings to object to those measures.
Mayor Harrell has attempted to justify ending the eviction moratorium by referencing past victories that were won by renter movements such as rental assistance funds and defenses against eviction in certain situations.
Those victories are important and my office has sponsored and co-sponsored many and fought for all of them, but they are no substitute for extending the lifeline of the eviction moratorium.
A moratorium means that renters cannot be sent to eviction court, which is far stronger of a protection than a defense to eviction.
A defense to eviction means that renters can defend themselves in eviction court to avoid eviction, but there is a monumental difference between the two because statistically, as the Housing Justice Project has informed us, half of renters who are served eviction paperwork do not challenge the eviction in court and are consequently evicted by default.
So in other words, nearly half of the evictions are default evictions.
So if that happens, even a watertight eviction defense opportunity would not save your home because you never had your day in court.
My office has discussed the problem of default evictions at several committee meetings last year, renter advocates will know that.
very helpful input from the Housing Justice Project in this committee.
Last year, my office worked on other renters' rights, which we were able to win thanks to the organizing by rank-and-file renters and community advocates, including the panelists we will have this morning.
During those discussions, I repeatedly said that my office intends to work on legislation ending default evictions, and I want to reiterate that commitment publicly once again.
Right now, the urgent priority is to protect our most vulnerable renters by keeping the moratorium.
In today's committee discussion, we will have, as I said, a panel of community leaders about the eviction moratorium in order to prepare for the city council vote on the legislation from my office on March 1st.
Before we begin that agenda item, we of course have public comment.
And we have about 22 people signed up for public comment.
And I will read each person's name.
I will appeal to everyone to keep your comments to one minute.
Ordinarily, we would have two minutes.
But since we have several people signed up for public comment, I want to make sure we're able to hear from everyone.
So Ted, make sure that we have about a minute.
It's OK if you go over a little bit, but try to wrap up around one minute so that we can hear from everybody who has signed up.
When I call your name, you will be prompted to unmute yourself.
When you hear that, please hit star six on your phone to unmute yourself and then begin.
Our first speaker is Angie Gerald, who will be followed by Ada Kader and Corey Brewer.
So go ahead, Angie.
Good morning.
My name is Angie and I'm a small landlord in Ballard.
I ask you not to support Council Member Sawant's extension of Seattle's COVID moratorium.
Focus on rent relief and other off-ramps that prevent financial eviction.
Seattle tenants who violate their lease whether it's property damage harassment refusal to vacate or other unsustainable actions should not be protected by a never-ending moratorium.
All housing providers need to be able to rely on basic contract law, mediation, and the judicial system to protect ourselves, our property, other tenants, and neighbors.
It's not feasible to continually extend a broad social policy that anyone has the right to simply not pay rent or not vacate a premises when legally obligated on the backs of the smallest landlords.
The city's rental registry shows ongoing hemorrhaging of small scale rental units.
which means fewer options for renters and greater inequities in local property ownership.
It's been well over five years since city council included any small housing providers in any discussions or analysis.
Stop governing in a self-imposed echo chamber.
Thank you.
We have Ada Kader next, followed by Corey Brewer and Brett Frank Looney.
Go ahead, Ada.
Good morning.
Good morning.
My name is Ida Cotter.
I have one single family home in North Seattle and I ask that you not support Kshama Sawant's extension of Seattle's COVID eviction moratorium.
I have been prevented from moving into my own home by a hostile and uncommunicative squatter who is damaging my home and owes over $50,000 in back rent.
Because I do not have a place to live I have been forced to sleep on friends' couches for the past year.
My tenant has not been affected by COVID and does not seek rent release.
He is simply gaming the system.
At this point, two years in, we need to focus on rent release, not a blanket eviction moratorium.
I've wiped out my savings, and at this point, I'll have to sell my home, removing yet another affordable, below-market rental from the Seattle rental marketplace.
Please, consider small landlords an important partner in Seattle's housing network, and do not demonize us as a group that is causing problems for the city.
Corey Brewer followed by Brett Frank Looney and then Kate Martin.
Go ahead, Corey.
Good morning, Corey Brewer, representing several hundred small mom and pop housing providers throughout the city.
It's kind of ironic to me that this is named the Sustainability Committee, considering that the policy brought forth by this committee has resulted in the loss of 14.7 percent of the single family rental houses in the city of Seattle over the past couple of years.
That's nearly 5,000 homes no longer available for rent.
Councilmember Sawant has been warning us all about this tsunami of evictions once the moratorium finally ends, but has not offered evidence or examples of this happening in other cities or states where moratoriums have already expired.
I'd also like to go on record to state that I've been asking her for a meeting for nearly three years, and though she has talked about me publicly on a number of occasions, she still won't talk directly to me.
The biggest problem with the moratorium is that it protects bad behavior, and you're going to hear plenty of stories about that today.
We are not here to start evicting people.
We're here to start getting a handle on behavioral issues.
Financial assistance and protection exists in many forms beyond the moratorium, and that is where everyone needs to focus their energy.
This moratorium enabling bad behavior should have ended long ago.
Thank you.
Next is Brett Frank Looney, followed by Kate Martin, and then Marilyn Yim.
Go ahead, Brett.
Good morning.
For the record, Brett Frank Looney, third-generation minority housing provider in District 2 and 3. I'm calling in today to recommend you do not extend the eviction moratorium.
The mayor has made a just and equitable decision that the council should follow.
Instead, take the lead and ensure quick distribution of rental assistance.
For two years now, the burden has been on the backs of housing providers.
During your presentation today, you will hear from a number of tenant advocates as they anecdotally mentioned a potential wave of eviction.
This is not the case.
Note that once again, small mom and pop landlords have been left out of the dialogue for the chair's decision.
You'll be hearing from other small housing providers during public testimony today regarding the need to end the moratorium.
Our goal is to protect those renters who have been paying, but to take ownership from the bad actors who can, but choose not to pay, as well as the violent people who harm our community.
Look at the data.
According to SBCI, 10% of rental housing registration has been lost in the past eight months alone.
Your decision will impact this moving forward.
Extending the moratorium will only further decrease rental stock and ultimately hurt those who need housing the most.
End the moratorium and distribute rental assistance.
Thank you.
We have Kate Martin next, followed by Marilyn Yim and then Aiden Nardone.
Go ahead, Kate.
My name is Kate Martin.
I live in District 6. I am an affordable housing provider in my owner occupied shared home.
My housemates and I have been terrorized by the behavior of folks taking advantage of the eviction moratorium.
It must end.
Please do not extend it.
We have never had the kind of trouble with housemates that we've experienced these last two years.
Your misguided legislation has enabled troublemakers not just folks down on their luck.
Renters wrongs are a thing.
One pulled a dagger and gun on us.
Another made the house veritably unsleepable with 24-7 disruption.
We've had to leave rentable spaces empty to just assure ourselves that another squatter or badly behaved person will not wind up in our home again.
Please think of other ways to help troubled people rather than heap them on small landlords and shared housing like myself.
We are part of the solution, not the problem.
Stop punishing us.
Please end the eviction moratorium now.
Marilyn Yim followed by Aiden Nardone and then Jessica Froehlich.
Go ahead Marilyn.
Hi this is Marilyn Yim.
I'm a small mom and pop housing provider in District 6. Your community panel discussion today is missing key community stakeholders.
The very small mom and pop housing providers and property managers who are bearing the brunt of Seattle's expansive two year eviction moratorium.
Last week Windermere's chief economist discussed in detail how the forever moratorium is actually pushing rents up.
and causing a long-term downside to rental housing.
SBCI has documented a 10% drop in overall rental registrations in only eight months, 93% of which are the one to four unit missing middle housing operated by small mom and pops.
We have ample protections, but housing providers have been deprived of justice and due process in addition to being deprived of economic value and relief.
But that pales in comparison to being forced to either stay or move out of your own home.
or not being able to move in at all because a violent assailant has more rights to stay in the home than you do thanks to this moratorium.
This is unjust.
I'm grateful that the mayor is doing the right thing, but I'm calling on this committee to stop to launch a proposal to indefinitely extend the moratorium.
We need efficient rental assistance to those who need it.
Thank you.
We have Aiden Nardone followed by Jessica Froelich and then Barbara Finney.
Go ahead, Aiden.
Good morning.
My name is Aidan Ardone.
I live in District 6. It's time to end the eviction ban moratorium.
Private landlords can no longer absorb the costs as a result of non-paying or dangerous or destructive tenants.
Public housing providers can just come back to the city and get money to make them whole.
Private landlords don't have that luxury.
How many more affordable units owned by small-scale private landlords do you plan on taking off the rental market?
Are you trying to double the close to 3,000 units that have already fallen off and the ban?
Is Jessica there?
Yes.
Hi, my name is Jessica Froelich.
I live in District 7. I have a small apartment building with six units and I am asking for the end of the moratorium.
I think it's time to bring small landlords into the conversation.
We've been left out of it for too long.
The eviction moratorium is one thing, but There are so many other avenues for renters to take advantage of to be able to get help when they need it.
Just having this blanket over and over repeating eviction moratorium is putting the burden on a small-time landlord and taking more and more rental units out of the pool.
And we have not been listened to.
We have not been part of the conversation.
We want to be part of the solution.
We're not anti-renter.
We want to keep our rental units in the pool and provide safe.
So please bring us into the conversation so that we can be part of the solution and stop alienating the two sides from each other and for us.
Thank you.
Barbara Finney followed by Deborah Rubano and then Bruce Becker.
Go ahead, Barbara.
Good morning, Committee Chair Savant and Council Members.
My name is Barbara Finney.
I'm a retired RN, a homeowner in District 5 where the majority of people are renters.
From experience, I know that one eviction on a block in the neighborhood, just one, is a violent and destabilizing event that reverberates through the neighborhood.
City government should be doing everything possible to prevent evictions, not listing an eviction moratorium.
As of December 21, an estimated 96,000 Seattle metro area renters were behind on rent.
Just days ago, King County announced it has run out of federal assistance funds for renters and is not taking any more applications for assistance.
Those facing eviction are disproportionately black working class renters and other communities of color.
And as council's committee chair has pointed out, nine out of 10 evictions result in homelessness.
Do not end the eviction moratorium.
in Seattle.
Thank you.
Deborah Ribono is next, followed by Bruce Becker, and then Reverend Robert Jeffrey.
Go ahead, Deborah.
Hi.
I live in District 2, and I'm calling as a neighbor.
The house across the street belongs to a retired couple that I've known for over 20 years.
And when the woman during the moratorium died in that house, her daughter moved into the house without permission and has since then lived without paying any rent whatsoever.
She has people I think renting from her in that house from what I've witnessed from across the street.
So she is living there with her boyfriend and people that she rents rooms to and has not paid the chance who are a retired couple who raised their children in that house and have intentions of moving back into the house and are not able to.
The renters are abusive.
They keep the neighborhood up at night with fights in the yards and things like that.
They've also accumulated garbage in the backyard that I helped the Chans clean out because the city started finding the Chans for these people's behavior.
And the needles and other garbage that we cleaned up was beyond belief.
I've lived in Seattle for a long time, and what I see happening with a lot of these moratoriums and some of the rent restrictions is that it's pushing working-class people like myself out of the city.
I'm fortunate enough to own a home here, but in the past, I was a renter for many years, and through the graciousness of many small landlords, I was able to raise my son as a single mother in Seattle when I didn't have a lot of money.
And I'm sad to see, and I'm speaking today, to help the other small landlords like the Chans, who really didn't want to be landlords.
You need to listen to these people.
They provide a service that is invaluable.
And I'm sad to see what's happening, because you can work with a small landlord if you can't make the rent one month, but you can't with corporations that are going to end up running all these properties.
So please, in the moratorium.
Bruce Becker followed by Reverend Robert Jeffrey and then Amil.
I'm sorry, I'm not able to say the last name, but go ahead, Bruce.
Thank you.
My name is Bruce Becker.
I am a small landlord and I reside and have my property that I rent in also in District 4. I'm encouraging you to allow the blanket moratorium to end.
The problem with it is that it does not address any financial difficulty only.
It allows tenants who are creating problems for landlords.
They're not paying rent, even though they can pay rent.
It's not needs-based.
And they're also just not following the lease in other ways that are very important, damaging property and so on.
And from a financial standpoint, both the state and the city have provided means, too, with back rent.
And I understand from reading the newspaper that there are funds available for people once an eviction has started, that it can't be used until an eviction has started.
So for a number of reasons, I encourage you to allow the moratorium to end.
Thank you.
Next is Reverend Robert Jeffrey, followed by Amal, and then Margo Stewart.
Go ahead, Reverend Jeffrey.
I'm calling to express my opposition to the lifting of the eviction moratorium.
We're still experiencing the COVID-19 effect.
And while there may be isolated cases of abuse, there are many countless numbers of people who are depending on this moratorium.
in order to be able to sustain their families and to get through this horrible situation that this country is in.
I believe that an extension is at this point necessary, especially when you have the city saying they've run out of assistance money for families to support renters who are evicted.
We have to be humane.
And I know that I am a small renter myself.
But at the same time, what we have to do is look at the overall picture.
Families that will be sleeping in their cars, and children who will be homeless.
And I think that that, to me, outweighs all of the other situations that people may be going through.
Thank you.
We have Amel next, and then Margo Stewart, followed by Maya Chung.
Go ahead, Amel.
Hi, my name is Amel Intalmark.
I'm a renter in District 3, and I'm calling on members of the committee to support council members' resolution to extend the moratorium on evictions until this emergency is over, which it very much is not.
As a former nonprofit staffer helping people access rental assistance, I know just how difficult it can be to access these services that these small landlords keep referencing, which are also, as someone else has pointed out, mostly run out and have been accessible over the course of this pandemic.
Addictions and homelessness in Seattle disproportionately affect Black people and other communities of color.
And so I urge any council members who have any substance of support for Black people, communities of color, and workers who are very burdened by the skyrocketing rents and wages have not kept up with inflation, I urge you to support the extension of this moratorium until this emergency is over.
Margo Stewart is next, followed by Maya Chand and then Aarti Chand.
Go ahead, Margo.
Hi, my name is Margo.
I'm a renter and worker on First Hill.
I was homeless last year and still had to work full time while navigating Seattle's insane housing market.
And unlike other speakers today, I didn't and have never had rental income to cover expenses or service my debt.
As far as representation, I get the same one minute to talk as the rest of you out of my workday.
There's been a lot of talk in this comment section about small landlords, but This is despite the fact that the vast majority of evictions carried out are carried out by corporate landlords and developers.
There's also been a lot of talk about rent assistance and other measures.
None of these things happen in a vacuum.
But the real reality is, as of December, 96,000 Seattle area renters were behind on rent.
And I hear a lot of talk from city council Democrats about addressing real issues affecting Seattle, like homelessness and crime.
But 90% of those thousands of my neighbors, if evicted, will end up homeless like I was, either temporarily or chronically.
And last I checked, one of the first steps in addressing our housing crisis is preventing people from coming home.
I agree that we shouldn't just extend the eviction moratorium.
We should fight to extend it through the end of the crisis.
But we also need to be fighting for rent control to keep people housed, and most critically, expanding taxes on Amazon and the biggest developers and corporations to support both renters and small landlords and small businesses.
You know, there's no way for either group to get the support they need without challenging these big developers and bosses, and we'll need a movement to make it happen.
Thank you.
Maya Chand, followed by Aarti Chand, and then Emily MacArthur.
Go ahead, Maya.
District, I am a, I am a, I am, we are the small store landlords.
Me and my husband are immigrants born in Fiji Island.
We both came to America in 80s and worked hard to finally purchase our first home.
And now we both have all three kids grown up.
Both of us retired.
We decided to put our home up to rent for extra income.
After finding a renter, we were happy.
Unfortunately, in September 2020, the tenant passed away.
The tenant's daughter informed us by leaving a note that our residents after speaking with the daughter that was under impression that she was going to take care of the business and leave.
After a few months, we go there to see the rental.
The daughter has moved in with her boyfriend and her kids.
And once COVID hit, we were unable to get any help in the last of 20 months, we have, I mean, we are retired now working with them and either rental assistance or housing opinion with our fixed income.
It is getting extremely difficult to pay the mortgage property tax on top of that.
$15,000 utility bill, we have to come up with something to pay with that.
We feel like victimized by the extension of the eviction notarium.
So we are beginning to lose hope that we're gonna get, I mean, we will lose our home, or we wanted to come back after retirement.
And we are out of any luck, our life.
I mean, we were thinking to live our life in peace, but look like with this moratorium extension, there will be no way we can have anything, no other retirement, other income that we can live on that.
So thank you very much.
Please don't extend the moratorium.
We want our house back.
Thank you.
Arthi Chand, followed by Emily MacArthur, and then Holly Scarlett is after Emily, but showing us not present.
And then after that, Shirley Henderson.
Go ahead, Arthi.
Good morning.
My name is Arthi Tan, and my mom just spoke.
I am just speaking for her on her behalf about not extending the eviction moratorium.
As she said firsthand, she is an immigrant who came here in the 80s.
My dad and her purchased this home for me, my sister, and my little brother.
We grew up in this house, and she is now facing a squatter living in there who has not paid any rent to her.
She is retired and on a fixed income and has to pay the mortgage, has to pay the property tax so these people can continue living there and not paying her.
I am all for rental assistance.
I am all for housing assistance, but it's getting to the point where we're continuing to pay for this family to live in a home where they have no business being in.
So I am just, I'm hoping that you all listen to her story, to other people's stories.
and not continue to extend this moratorium.
Thank you, that's all I wanted to say.
Emily MacArthur is next, followed by Holly, who's not present, and then Shirley Henderson, and then Kayla Nicholson.
Go ahead, Emily.
Hi, my name's Emily MacArthur.
I'm a renter in District 2. I'm calling to say that we need to extend the eviction moratorium and vote yes on Thomas DeWant's legislation.
Three million women have been forced out of the workforce due to the pandemic.
There's a huge question mark about whether they'll be able to return given the daily question mark about whether schools will be in-person or remote due to COVID cases.
Evictions disproportionately impact women and people of color who are still struggling because we are still in a public health crisis.
Rent relief stipends are not a realistic alternative solution to extending the eviction moratorium.
We saw that the funds that were dispensed for rent relief were incredibly slow to actually get to renters, and then once they did, they were woefully inadequate for the actual need.
It's no surprise that Bruce Harrell, whose big business back campaign was flooded with developer and corporate landlord money, is doing their bidding by ending this crucial protection.
The tsunami of evictions which have absolutely cascaded across the country where the moratorium has been rolled back are not easy to track because of the huge impact having an eviction on their record means not being able to find anyone to rent to them in the future, many people self-evict before the legal process is actually carried through.
We have a staggering homelessness problem in this city, and ending the moratorium will exploit it further.
I agree we should not pit small landlords against renters, which is why I agree with the previous speaker.
We need rent control to keep these skyrocketing rents down.
We also need an Amazon tax as well as on massive corporate landlords to provide a
Holly Scarlett followed by Shirley Henderson and then Kaylin Nicholson.
Go ahead, Holly.
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes.
Hi, I'm Holly Scarlett and I'm hoping you can be open to compromise.
I am hoping that you can allow for evictions for special cases.
I'd let someone move into my house in Highland Park so he could save money.
He is a white male IT professional.
He just moved to Seattle.
We created a 3-month lease for $200 a month including utilities.
He refused to leave.
It's now been 3 years.
This moratorium is helping him.
I moved out once COVID started and I don't think I can pay my mortgage and rent for that much longer.
I cannot sell my house under the moratorium.
I cannot raise rent.
I'm losing my financial freedom.
Thank you.
Shirley Henderson, followed by Kaylin Nicholson, and then the last speaker who signed up is David Haynes, who's not showing his presence as of this moment.
Go ahead, Shirley.
Yes, I'm Shirley Henderson, and I'm a small business owner and renter in Seattle, and I'm calling in support of Council Member Sawant's proposal to extend the eviction moratorium until this pandemic is actually over.
I just want to say, as a small business owner, Big business always tries to use small business as its pawn, in the same way that big developers regularly use small landlords as their cover.
As small businesses and small landlords, our interests are directly tied to our employees and tenants, and not with big business or big developers.
Let's be clear.
Cory Brewer, who gave public comment just now, is not a mom-and-pop landlord.
He represents big real estate.
In fact, I think he works for Windermere.
No landlord, big or small, has the right to make people homeless.
We need to start there.
We need to be humane.
People who are not paying their rent are doing that because of the sheer inability to pay because of this massive crisis.
Three people on this call have come in on one case of illegal occupancy.
We absolutely need to extend the eviction moratorium and we also need rent control and to extend the Amazon tax to fund affordable housing.
Thank you so much.
Kaylin Nicholson, and I think she will be the last speaker because David is still not present.
Go ahead, Kaylin.
Hi there.
I am a renter and working mom in District 5, and I'm calling in in support of Council Member Sawant's legislation to extend the eviction moratorium.
I just want to echo the comments that another caller made that You know, I don't think this should be small landlords versus tenants.
I actually really like my small landlord.
He's a very, very kind person and he cares about my family.
But the reality is still that, you know, him being able to pay his property taxes, which are going up and him being able to pay his medical costs, which are going up as he gets older, depends on my ability to pay the rent that he needs me to pay.
Right.
And the reality for my husband and I and most other working people in Seattle, is that our wages are not keeping up with inflation, and they're not keeping up with the price, you know, the increase in housing prices, and our landlord, his property taxes are going up.
So it's not about, you know, that he's a mean landlord.
He's doing everything he can to help us, but the reality is we can't pay the cost that he has to pay because his property taxes are going up so much because of speculation and, you know, the rate of development, the rate at which big developers are raking in profits from our housing market.
I think it's really important that we keep our eyes on where is the money to actually resolve this housing crisis and to actually provide affordable housing for people.
It's not amongst the tenants who are struggling to keep up with rent.
It's not the small landlords who are struggling to keep up with property taxes.
It's the big landlords.
It's the big property developers.
That's who needs to be bearing the cost of this crisis, not renters and not small landlords.
David Haynes is still not present.
So I think we should close the public comment period.
Thank you for everybody who signed up and spoke.
I will now go for our agenda item.
I wanted to welcome Council Member Morales who joined us during public comment.
We, as I said, have a community panel to talk about the eviction moratorium.
I also wanted to inform committee members and members of the public that the community petition that my office co-hosts, is co-hosting with many other organizations, including Real Change, Nicholsville, UAW 4121, the Democratic Socialists of America, Socialist Alternative, all of these organizations are co-hosting that petition.
We have 334 signatures so far on that petition.
Basically, the petition says that eviction moratorium should be extended to the end of the public health emergency.
And I believe nearly 150 emails have been sent to the city council by community members urging that they do the same, both to the city council and the mayor, I believe.
After our panelists speak, Ted Verdone from my office will briefly describe the legislation extending the moratorium.
Of course, committee members are welcome to ask questions or make comments.
But first, we will hear from our panelists.
We have Violet Levittai from the Tenants Union, Kate Rubin from BCAVO, Levin Kim from UAW 4121, Carl Nakajima and Jacob Shear from Real Change, and Jessiel Perez and Isabella Lorenzo from Nicholsville.
So please, for the record, each of the speakers, can you introduce yourselves and also make your comments?
And let's begin the presentation.
I guess I'll call on Violet first.
Violet, can you go ahead?
Thank you, Council Member Shama Sawant.
My name is Violet Labatay.
I'm the Executive Director of the Tenants' Union of Washington.
We're tenant advocates throughout the state of Washington.
I'm actually here to speak on extending the moratorium.
You know, evictions causes a cascade of events.
It upends a sense of home and can lead to homelessness, disrupts close-knit communities, you know, and displaced children from their schools and trusted caregivers.
It separates adults from jobs.
I am also going to tell you, we operate a hotline.
92% of our calls that are coming in are complaints against small landlords, illegal notices and things like that, going around, not fulfilling their duties as landlords.
We have this guy, Corey Brewer, who worked for Windermere.
We had an incident with him.
He works for Windermere.
That's a big corporate.
It's not a small landlord.
And I actually get fired up when we hear landlords saying, well, you know, it's retirement and things like that.
Here's the thing, if you're gonna be a landlord, you have to abide by landlord duties too.
That's what the state law consists of.
And so one of the things that we know is it affects a lot of our black and brown communities.
I'm gonna tell you something.
A lot of people ask me, what is the cause root of homelessness?
And it's racist and discriminatory behaviors that are brought on in the system where we have to break this down.
For centuries, structural racism in the US housing systems had contributed to stark and persistent racial disparities in wealth, financial well-being, especially between black and white households.
We're talking about people who are being evicted.
The majority of them are black and brown communities.
I'm here to say this, extending the moratorium would help a lot of people.
We're not at the end of the pandemic.
We are not.
We are still in the midst of it.
We have a homelessness problem already in our state.
It would add to it.
We had a housing disparity crisis before the pandemic came on.
It has tripled, tripled in the last, ever since COVID has been part of our lives.
So extending the moratorium, it will help lots of families.
The thing is, 92 again, I'm going to repeat it.
92% of our complaints that are on the hotline are about mom and pop, the small mom and pop landlords who don't abide by tenant landlord laws.
And the thing is, everybody wants to say this, oh, poor me.
If you're a landlord, you abide just like anything else.
And I think one of the things that we always hear the landlord say to the tenants, well, you need me.
No, actually, it's your business.
The landlord needs the tenant, the tenant needs the landlord.
I get fired up when these landlords big organizations, corporate organizations come and testify at these city hearings when they're part of the problem.
Racist and discriminatory behaviors are full force, full force.
And so today it's a far reaching health and economic impacts of COVID have pushed many low income residents in Washington to the brink of evictions.
And so with this legislation, once this legislation, I am 110% for it.
We need every protection of renters.
These laws and legislation, I studied it for years.
It's like the landlord wrote these laws and legislation.
So, hey, I'm here to testify.
I wanna vote for it.
I wanna get the word out that we as Seattle be that forefront to extend the eviction moratorium, extend it.
Because at the end of the day, we're pleading with Bruce Harrell.
Maybe he's a landlord.
Actually, he is a landlord.
And so we're asking from the community, people that look like me, brown and black communities, to extend the eviction moratorium.
Thank you.
Thank you, Violet.
But Violet, you're able to stay, right, for this?
Yes.
Great, I hope all the panelists are able to stay with us till the end of the item.
Next, Kate, did you want to go ahead?
Please introduce yourself for the record and then go ahead.
Sure, I'm Kate Rubin.
I'm the organizing director at BC Seattle.
Thank you for allowing me to join you today.
I'm a little shocked by some of the testimonies I heard this morning at public comment.
Three people spoke about one case of illegal occupying.
Clearly, many of these landlords are unfamiliar with how the moratorium actually works.
While no landlord, small or big, should have the right to make anyone homeless, many of the anecdotal stories told today are about things that aren't even covered by the eviction moratorium.
Furthermore, we resent the narrative that people are choosing not to pay.
They're not paying because of sheer inability to pay because of the massive crisis, not because they don't want to, or because of behavioral issues.
Renters have been working ourselves to the bone trying to get caught up.
A member of the Seattle's team participated in Mayor Harrell's meeting with tenant advocates and small landlords.
He scheduled a follow up with her to talk about her experience as an affected tenant, which she didn't have time to discuss at the initial meeting.
She's going to tell him how COVID almost made her homeless twice, how she had a tent packed and an encampment with services nearby selected.
but she managed to stay housed due to the moratorium.
We were a little stunned when he postponed the follow-up meeting and then two days later announced the most recent extension of the moratorium to the end of the month will be the final extension.
Wasn't the whole point of the moratorium to allow renters to stay home and stay healthy, to protect ourselves and our communities?
Did we just give up on that?
The pandemic is far from over.
Public Health Seattle and King County is currently listing the level of community transmission as high.
On average there were 1,047 new cases per day last week.
I am vaccinated and boosted.
I work from home a majority of the time, a privilege that not all renters have.
and I've been deeply limiting my social interactions, I still managed to catch COVID last month.
It was brutal.
I was suddenly so drained of energy that I could barely drag myself out of bed to go to the bathroom.
It's been six weeks and I'm doing a lot better, but I still haven't fully recovered.
Before the pandemic even began, about 46% of tenants were rent burdened, which means that we spent more than 30% of our pre-tax income on rent.
Missing just a few days of work when you live paycheck to paycheck can be devastating.
Every day I hear stories similar to mine from renters, many of whom are essential workers who had to choose between going to work while sick and contagious, or staying home to recover and falling behind on rent and bills.
We are praising them as the heroes who are sustaining our city at the beginning of the pandemic, but now we're just going to let them get evicted and displaced.
We already know that due to Seattle's racist housing history, evictions disproportionately affect black and brown communities and that eviction is the number one cause of homelessness.
Unsurprisingly, these were the communities most deeply impacted by COVID-19.
As a housing justice organization focused on the intersection of renters and people experiencing homelessness, we recognize the direct connection between housing justice and racial justice.
Seattle was already experiencing a homelessness crisis before the pandemic, and we have not been able to adequately provide resources to those already impacted.
While we have more tenant protections than we did going into the pandemic, they are not enough to prevent the massive wave of evictions anticipated at the end of the moratorium.
We have not had enough time to recover and catch back up.
It takes time to disseminate rental funds, and the end of the moratorium means that tenants will be racing the clock and losing.
King County is pausing the applications for EPRAP on February 28th, the same day as the end of the moratorium.
They have stated that based on the amount of federal and state funding remaining, they already have more applications and they likely have funds to assist.
There are an additional 10,943 applications that have pre-registered and have not been assigned to a provider.
We know that Mayor Harrell ordered the Office of Housing to distribute $25 million to help tenants and landlords.
Is that going to happen over the next two weeks?
Because it took the county several months.
Tenants will be evicted before that money even gets out the door.
And what's going to happen to these people?
The eviction courts will be flooded and many tenants will self-evict to avoid the hassle and humiliation of going to court.
According to the analysis of the first year moratorium performed by the Housing Justice Project, 53.6% of tenants defaulted, meaning they didn't respond to the paperwork, go to the hearing, or violated a previous stipulation.
So the courts signed off on the eviction without even hearing from the tenant.
Right to counsel was a huge win in tenant protections, but many tenants are still unclear on how it works and struggle with even accessing virtual eviction court to advocate for themselves.
The attorneys contracted to provide counsel are already nearly at capacity.
Evictions are still happening.
Our neighbors, artists, entertainers, students, grocery store clerks, service and hospitality workers, and other low-wage earners who keep this city alive will be displaced.
Seattle's notoriously low vacancy rates, especially in affordable housing, means there's just nowhere for people to go.
Housing stability is a public health issue.
Renters need hope.
We need to extend the moratorium right away.
Thank you.
Thank you, Kate.
And I'm sorry you were affected.
And I hope you're doing better.
I know you said you're doing better.
And I really appreciate you being here for the committee.
I just really appreciate it.
Thank you.
And we have Levin Kim next.
Levin, can you introduce yourself for the record and then take it away?
Hi, my name is Levin.
I'm sorry for my background.
I use they them pronouns.
I'm an organizer with UW 4121, which represents 6,000 academic student employees and 1,000 postdocs at the University of Washington.
I'm also a renter in District 6, and I'm also part of our Union's Housing Justice Working Group, which organizes support for members and builds community and advocacy within our community to be able to support our members, the majority of whom are tenants.
Similarly to Violet and Kate, I'm shocked by some of the testimonies that I've heard today.
If the eviction moratorium is allowed to end, it will have significant impacts on our members, and it will have significant impacts particularly on our members who do not have the resources to navigate the current COVID pandemic as well.
In the past few months, in addition to everything that Violet and Kate have said, in the past few months we've seen increasing harassment from landlords who are retaliating against their members for advocating for their basic rights as tenants and trying to chase out tenants and to replace them with other tenants who are able to pay higher rents driven by inflation and the increase in the market.
In the past few months, we've seen landlords trying to frame our members with false accusations and serving comply or vacate notices in an attempt to start the eviction process, often framed around these racialized and paternalistic accusations around neighborhood safety and behavioral issues as well.
And we see that these framings are not accurate.
Or are they equitably applied.
We really see that landlords are often going after tenants that are members in our union that are wanting to just basic advocate for the basic rights, and again trying to chase them out.
If the eviction moratorium is allowed to end these notices and these kinds of bullying behavior, frankly, from landlords are going to have an increased effect and an adverse effect on our members and our ability to be able to support them.
We want to be able to support our members to be able to have access to safe housing.
Again, these notices and eviction processes in general disproportionately affect marginalized community members as Violet and other callers that have been calling and have pointed to.
In our case, we want to also point out that many of our members, more than 40% of our members are non-citizens, which means that A, there's less access to public resources that may be available to citizen counterparts, as well as strict restrictions on the kinds of funding that international students are able to receive.
International students aren't eligible to work outside of our employer for UW, so picking up a second job or like doing anything to supplement our income is impossible in the first place.
And we're also eligible to receive certain kinds of funding as well.
Furthermore, we want to point out that many of our international students and postdocs and non-citizen members face a significant loss of income during the pandemic because of border closures and has had significant personal impacts that they're trying to navigate because of the pandemic as well.
All the while, it's really ironic that many of our members who are doing research in public health or doing research related to vaccines, and even disinformation and misinformation related to the pandemic.
They're being touted as the heroes working to create knowledge and to mitigate the pandemic.
When it is convenient and useful, our members are touted as heroes, but when they speak up for their needs or when they are really trying to just protect their basic rights, they're sort of looked down on and shut out from being able to afford to live in the city and to have access to safe housing.
Furthermore, our employer, as with many employers in the region, do not give us a livable wage, which has been, again, exacerbated by the pandemic.
And this means that many of us who relied on partners or other income, and we've seen partners face loss of income, that means that we're not able to pay rent and be able to have, again, an exacerbated income on our ability to access safe housing.
Fundamentally, everyone, regardless of their occupation or their wages, deserves safe and accessible housing.
And within the pandemic where everyone is trying to navigate a public health crisis, this is especially important for us to be able to make sure that everyone in our community does have access to this kind of safe and accessible housing so that we are able to see the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to pandemic and to be able to mitigate even further public health consequences from the pandemic.
So I am urging the city council to extend the eviction moratorium so that members that are doing this kind of work as well as everyone in the community is able to access safe and accessible housing.
Thank you very much, Levin.
That was a very important also insight into how the student community is facing this crisis.
Next we have Carl Nakajima and Jacob Scheer.
Please introduce yourselves and then speak.
Thank you, Council Member.
We are here.
My name is Jacob Scheer.
I'm an organizer with Real Change.
I'm speaking here today with Carl Nakajima, also an organizer in our advocacy department, as well as a Real Change vendor.
And I want to speak today to anyone who's listening or watching this who's concerned by homelessness and by our neighbors living in tents and parks or in vehicles wherever they can find shelter and safety.
We know that this has become a really inextricable part of Seattle's landscape.
And I just really want to stress that direct connection that other panelists have spoken up to between eviction and homelessness and what exactly the implications are of Mayor Harrell choosing to end the eviction moratorium in less than two weeks.
A report by the Housing Justice Project on evictions in Seattle found that close to 90% of evictions end in homelessness.
And despite what we've heard today from landlords on this call, we know, and any basic study of evictions will tell you this, that the primary driver of eviction is economic, and the portrayal of tenants as lawless criminals is just totally reprehensible.
And these are exactly the same voices that will try to demonize people living unhoused and living outdoors in exactly the same way.
So I just want to push back on that as strongly as possible.
We know that that's simply not true, that that portrayal of tenants.
And with thousands of Seattle renters behind on rent due to the devastating effects of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, and as well as the residual impact of a nearly three-year-long pandemic, Merrill Hill's callous decision to end the eviction moratorium is really an intentional decision to put thousands of our neighbors at risk of losing their homes and falling into homelessness.
And we should also be very clear that Mayor Harrell knows these numbers and he knows the impact that this decision will have.
He also knows that King County will stop accepting applications for pandemic related assistance on February 28th, the very same day that he has chosen to allow the eviction moratorium to expire.
So Mayor Harrell is making a conscious decision to exacerbate our housing and homelessness crisis, to force more of our precarious neighbors and tenants onto the street or into an overloaded shelter system pushed beyond capacity and still operating under COVID-19 emergency protocols.
I also want to stress that I'm making this call, you know, I'm on Zoom and I'm in a KN95 mask.
This emergency is not over.
And we cannot accept the alternate reality that's being pushed by Merrill Harrell.
COVID-19 is still an emergency.
And every day in this country, thousands of people die from it.
We cannot accept a back-to-business approach to this pandemic.
We're at the slightest downturn in cases.
Those in power clamor to be the first to end life-saving measures like eviction moratoriums and to put Seattleites out on the streets.
So as I made clear earlier, Merrill-Harrell knows what the outcome of this decision to end the eviction moratorium will be.
Immediate suffering, displacement, and immediate increases in homelessness, likely at a scale that we've probably never seen before.
Council members on this committee have a clear choice.
Will you be complicit in Merrill-Harrell's decision, or will you stand with tenants and those on the brink of homelessness and extend Council Member Sawant's eviction moratorium through the end of the COVID-19 emergency?
So thank you so much for your time, and I'm going to turn over to Carl.
Hi, my name is Carl and I'm from Real Change Advocacy.
I'm also a vendor.
I'm calling on you to extension of eviction moratorium to end of the COVID emergency.
People couldn't pay the rent due to various factors in this pandemic and snowboarding effect.
They are victim of disaster they cannot prevent.
They didn't put themselves in their current position.
I know with my own experience that when people lose everything, especially the place to live, it's not easy to return to normal life.
If the tenant cannot pay their rent today, will any of the landlord be homeless?
I don't think so.
But all the tenants will become homeless.
I know all the landlords want their money, but there's nothing compared to what the tenants are facing.
It is not healthy.
I mean, landlords who need doctors, but the state, I think, cannot.
Now everybody's complaining and worry about the homeless problem in our city.
And why is the mayor trying to purposely increase the number of the homeless people in our city?
No one wants that, but only the landlord.
We were still in this pandemic, Seattle hasn't returned to normal yet.
And right now I'm asking not for a cancellation of rent, I'm just asking for wait a little longer.
It takes time to return to normal living condition.
I don't know, they might catch up with their money, who knows.
Just please have mercy on them.
Thank you so much, Carl and Jacob.
Really appreciate your input on this.
And then we have Jessiel and Isabella as our last but not least panelists.
And then I was going to, after that, I was intending to ask Ted Verdone from my office to describe the legislation and then we'll open it up for comments and questions.
So please, panelists, please stay for that section.
So Jessiel and Isabella, go ahead.
Hello, good morning.
So we're here to ask the council if they can really, you know, consider voting yes for this one resolution to extend the eviction moratorium for the harsh times involving COVID as well as the amounts of people that are dying on the streets.
Before I learned about Nickelsville, I was homeless for two years, living with my girlfriend in our pickup truck.
Um, we didn't have enough money to fix our truck, so we ended up selling it.
And, you know, we slept at gas work for about a year and a half through the snow and the pandemic, you know, the, with the weather's, uh, being homeless.
And on top of that, I also have to try to work, eat, no family in the state.
So it's really all just try, you know, trying to get everything settled.
And it's really hard trying to get a clearer mind, you know, while living on the streets, it's not easy.
It's like, You know, it's trying to keep a clear head.
And on top of that, we don't do drugs.
We don't drink.
Yeah.
So to try to keep any type of income.
But thanks to Nigglesville, we're actually doing a lot better now.
We actually have more clarity in our life.
We actually can be a normal person, you know.
So I really would ask for the council to go ahead and, you know, oh, yes, to extend the moratorium.
And thank you, guys.
Thank you.
Isabella did you want to say anything.
I just want to agree with what he said.
We were homeless.
It was really difficult and I just I agree with what he was saying.
I'm a little nervous I'm sorry but I agree with him and everything and I hope that our speech was good.
This is the first time we ever did this before.
We volunteered today.
Well, I'm so glad you volunteered, and the speech was excellent.
Thank you so much.
Thank you both.
And Isabel, I didn't mean to put you on the spot.
I just wanted to make sure you have a chance.
Thanks so much, you both.
And yeah, but please stay so that committee members have a chance to talk to you all.
But first, I do want to just actually just cover the legislation itself before we go with that part of the item.
So, Ted, did you want to present the legislation quickly so committee members know what we're talking about?
So I'm sharing my screen now to show the, this is Exhibit C on the resolution, which will be on the introduction referral calendar on Tuesday.
So it's not on today's agenda because this has all happened very quickly.
Mayor Harrell made this announcement last Friday, but I did want to make this available to members of the public.
So the key part of the legislation is just changing the end date of the mayor's emergency order.
So you see some parts of this section one part A crossed out, and that's really all that the legislation does.
All that it does is it crosses out this or 60 days from the effective date of this emergency order.
So the termination of the civil emergency declared in the Proclamation of Civil Emergency.
So it just becomes, the eviction moratorium just becomes, it just ends whenever the civil emergency ends as a whole.
When the emergency is actually over, that's when the moratorium would end, rather than the moratorium ending before the emergency is over.
It would also probably be helpful for me to point just because points came questions came up in public comment about about people concerned about safety.
And there is an exception in this emergency order in the initial emergency order, which is not changed.
An exception that says, unless the unlawful detainer action or action on termination notice is due to actions by the attendant consulting an imminent threat to health or safety of neighbors, the landlord or the landlord's household members.
So there is already built into this exceptions around safety, if safety is the concern that that people have.
Just a couple other questions came up that I can answer.
One is about the loss of rental housing in Seattle.
Those questions came up.
I do think we should recognize that the city council has taken actions in the past to promote home ownership.
In the past, it's been considered a good thing if people are able to own their own homes and buy a home.
So if houses become owner-occupied rather than rented, The case hasn't been made that that's a bad thing.
It's also but it also has to be recognized.
And perhaps this is something that that we can provide more information to committee members on in the future that.
property values as a whole have gone up a lot and And that means that people sometimes are selling those single-family homes that they weren't selling before just because they can sell them for For a lot more and it's somewhat ironic that rising rents Are being that property values go up?
that's driven by real estate speculation, and then because those property values go up, rents go up, and because rents go up, then it winds up being fuel for the speculative market, so then property values go up more and more and more, and these are far more relevant fact.
If there's discussion about why properties are being sold, it's this real estate market that explains it, not this or that rent array.
Thank you, Ted, and thanks for showing the actual changes that will be if this legislation, this resolution is adopted by the city council.
Council Member Morales, I think you wanted to speak, so I'll hand it over to you.
Not yet.
I was just turning off my camera.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you.
Did any council members...
I had a couple of other questions to raise to the panelists and to Ted about the policy, but I wanted to open it up for council members, committee members.
Is Ted finished?
Sorry.
So if it's OK, then I'll just make a couple of comments.
Sorry, got a little bit confused there.
So I, first of all, want to thank the panel for the presentation today.
I think it's important for us to amplify some voices that we don't get to hear from typically.
and I've had a chance to work with I think all of the organizations during my first two years here on council so I appreciate the work that you're doing in community.
I'm not going to say a lot except to reiterate what I said in council briefing this week which is that we know that the last couple years of the pandemic has really taken an emotional and financial toll on everyone And our low-income families, our renter families, are folks who have been hardest hit by the economic insecurity that we have.
Families really just don't have the stability or equity through property ownership that many folks have.
And that hasn't changed since COVID-19.
you know, since the pandemic started, it's certainly not gonna change by the end of the month.
So I think it's important that we have a serious conversation about what the impact of this ending, the moratorium ending would have on our neighbors, on our small landlords as well.
You know, we do have rental assistance available.
It's important that there is another $25 million available to landlords and the city will need time to get that money out the door.
So I think it only makes sense to make sure that folks who are at risk of getting pushed out of their homes are able to stay until that assistance gets out and we are able to make sure that people are safe, they're not put out on the street, and that small landlords get the rent that they are able to get through that program.
So I know we are really just getting a chance to see Council Member Sawant's legislation.
And I want to thank our central staff for helping push this forward.
I do want to ask Council Member Sawant, can you or a member of the clerk's office confirm that this is ready for next Tuesday?
Is that what you said?
It's ready for going on the introduction referral calendar next Tuesday, the IRC that will be adopted on Tuesday.
But Council President Juarez has decided that it will come up for a vote on the following Tuesday, which is March 1st.
March 1st, OK.
Very good.
Well, I think it's important that as a council, we really work together to protect tenants from displacement, from homelessness, until folks are really back on their feet.
And I'm somewhat hopeful that we might be moving that direction.
But I think it's important that we continue to make sure folks have a safe place to stay until then.
So that's all I wanted to say.
Thank you.
Thank you, Council Member Morales.
I did want to follow up on some of the points that came up about rental assistance.
And I first wanted to ask of panelists if you wanted to respond to this, and then Ted, if you can respond from a policy angle also, that would be helpful.
So, I mean, we know Mayor Harrell announced in his press release that there are $25 million that will be available for rental assistance.
But we also heard from Heidi Gruber, I'm sure the panelists saw the article in the Seattle Times from Heidi Gruber, that the county, King County has stopped taking new applications for rental assistance because the funds are drying up.
So I wonder if any of the panelists want to weigh in on this point, and then Ted, I'll hand it over to you.
If you can just come off, come on camera or something and indicate, Violet, Kate, especially you all, or Real Change is willing to, go ahead, Violet.
Thanks.
I think with all the rental assistance, the 25 million, because King County's funding has kind of dwindled down, they're actually trying to get more funding.
The problem is, here's what the problem is in tenants calling our hotline, hundreds and hundreds of them, is the actual landlord wants to get rid of the moratorium so they can actually move the current tenant out to increase the rent on another new tenant.
That's the problem right now.
And with COVID and Seattle has been instrumental in high rents already.
is exasperated more.
I think one of the things is grappling is having the landlord.
Absolutely.
I believe that the landlord should be getting paid, that they should be made whole.
That's not the case.
Some of them are not accepting the rent because they want a new tenant in there to increase the rent, to move in somebody and then increase the rent.
Those are the calls we're getting too.
And this is, um, unfortunately, um, the mom and pop, um, landlords are the ones that 92% of the calls are about that.
We, we, for me as a woman of color, I sympathize with to have come here and, um, the American dream and things like that and, and want to rent out.
But the thing is every case is not that.
We're looking at the big picture.
We're looking at things that will cause homelessness.
We're gonna add to the numbers.
And the reason why we always want protections and extending the eviction moratorium, there's a lot of people that don't understand this.
When you're not affected and you're a renter, I too myself is a renter.
If you're not affected, mostly when you're in the black and brown community, you will never know exactly how to navigate through these barriers, even for myself.
Thank you, council members.
Shalma Chauhan.
Thank you.
Did any of the other panelists want to speak about the question of rental assistance?
Because I think that is something that is going to be posed as the alternative to having the eviction moratorium.
And I think it's important to explain why Why renters need the moratorium, and that the rental assistance is not substitute.
I think it also matters what the numbers are so I think that if I don't see panelists, indicating that they want to speak so you can you just explain.
Yeah.
So where these $25 million are coming from my understanding is it's not, it's not new dollars, but they were dollars that were available.
And also, can you explain.
With the county's announcement that they are not taking new applications.
Is this also my understanding is it, it will affect the city as well because the city's funds are sort of going to this county pool of funds.
That's exactly right.
Unfortunately, this is not a new $25 million.
It's disappointing, but it happens all the time when there are funds made available to support regular people or to support people who are really vulnerable or suffering.
There becomes many, many press releases about the same dollar.
And that's what's happening here.
There was money put into this pot of money that King County operates to provide rental assistance funds.
Tenants who are behind on their rent can apply for it, and landlords who have tenants who are behind on their rent can apply for that money.
And from what we've heard from in past discussions, that actually happens a lot, that landlords are also directly applying for this money.
And King County goes through a period that they have in the past opened up new applications and then closed it and then opened it up and then closed it.
And I don't have exact details about where they are in that cycle.
The city in the past put $59 million into this pot.
The overwhelming majority of that was federal funds that were specifically for that purpose.
And of that $59 million, $25 million is left.
So when the mayor put out a press release saying that he, I think the word that he used is he identified $25 million.
What he means is there's $25 million that are left that he had no part in that were allocated to this in the past.
And that money is drying up fast.
I mean, there's know uh uh without taxes on big business like amazon to go and act and real and and big developers who are profiting so much off the real estate speculative market to go and uh to go and increase this pot of money, the federal funds have stopped coming so far.
I mean, maybe something changes, but as of now, there are no new federal funds, and that was the majority of these rental assistance funds.
So it is, that remaining $25 million should not be seen as a big new pot of money, but instead as the money running out.
Thanks, Ted, that's helpful.
Council Member Nelson, go ahead.
Thank you very much.
So, Ted, you're raising an important point here about how much is left.
And I'm just wondering, whenever the moratorium ends, There will be people that now perhaps might face eviction and so I'm just thinking forward and What do we know already of municipalities that have ended eviction moratoriums on the number or the rate of evictions that have come up?
Or, I mean, how do we look at the available amount of resources right now, regardless of what might become available in the future?
How big of a help might that be?
for whenever the moratorium does end?
I mean, what can we expect going forward based on other places that have ended moratoriums?
And if you don't have that now, I'm just thinking about that going forward.
I do not have that data.
But we should definitely look into that.
Thank you, Councilman Nelson.
That's a good question.
I'm not sure we have the information because I do remember myself doing just a quick search to find if we can figure out what has happened in other cities.
We will do our best to look at it.
and the analysis of the panelists and panelists feel free to please respond to this question is based on what we know has happened in terms of the inability to pay rent you know that's that's what the data is based on which is that people's financial lives have been upended because of the pandemic and they are unable to pay rent.
That is what the data that we have is based on.
And I think that is going to be true in other cities as well.
And so you're totally right that at some point when the moratorium is lifted, it's not like...
I believe strongly that the moratorium should be put in place, kept in place, at least through the end of the public health emergency.
But it's also true that it's not like the crisis ends on that day.
No, the people will be dealing with the aftermath of the crisis, and they're going to be carrying debt.
Rental debt is now a huge crisis.
It's $20 billion.
I mean, it is out of control.
And so this crisis is on the shoulders of renters.
I think we should emphasize that the extending of the eviction moratorium is the bare minimum urgent measure that city council needs to do and the mayor needs to do, not that it is the be all and end all.
On top of that, renters will need a lot of other help, including rent control, including expansion of publicly owned social housing and all of that.
So I'm certainly motivated to find out more if we can find out more, but we'll keep you posted.
Did any other panelists want to speak on that or any other point that you want to weigh in on from the discussion so far?
Just want to make sure you have a chance.
I have a, you know, as a housing advocate in the state of Washington, it's not only in Seattle, but I am from Seattle.
I'm looking at some of this.
The eviction moratorium is kind of like a blanket, not for criminals.
We're talking about the majority of our communities who are Black and Brown in the city of Seattle.
We're talking about stopping and having this measure in place for now with the crisis.
We are not at the end of the pandemic.
We are still in the middle of it.
need to help as many people as we can going forward.
And this is a, this legislation and, and forgive me, I, even if it was whoever bought it for it, this is actually a great thing for the community is this legislation will help some of the people who are already in fear of losing their place and behind on rent.
You know, we're getting calls of landlords not accepting the rent.
It's almost discriminatory to do that.
It's not accepting the tenant's rent that they have access to.
It's because I'd rather move in somebody, this is their stances, I'd rather move in somebody so I can pit it, the rent up.
If you see the increases now, every 60 days, people are on the, which is not illegal.
It's phenomenal.
26 to 30%.
It's, it's a fact.
And so I don't get to be part of these meetings because we're out in the field and things like that.
But I want to say, this is what the people are calling about.
This is what the people write to us about.
The tenant union is in the thick of answering and helping these tenants navigate through not getting evicted.
We want everybody to stay in their home.
People will not survive on the streets if they are evicted or lose their house.
That's all I have to say.
Thank you.
Thank you Violet.
I don't see any other hands.
Oh Jacob go ahead.
Thank you.
Yeah I just wanted to make one point and Carl has something that he'd like to say too.
My point is just about I think just sort of the danger of relying on funds like like the rental assistance funds.
Here at Real Change with something like the Seattle Relief Fund which provided $16 million in one time payments to, you know, people experiencing impacts of the pandemic.
We had vendors here who make, you know, who are kind of the very bottom of earners be denied for programs like that, which were targeted specifically for those very low earners.
And I just, I think it's very easy to see something like this happening again, too, where people who really need those funds the most um, aren't eligible for them just because there's such a huge amount of need right now.
So I just wanted to bring, bring that point up.
Um, I don't know this related to one, but I just curious, you know, even people do get evicted.
Is there any way they, you know, if, if you have an eviction on a record, very hard to find a place to stay.
So is it this emergency?
So is there any way, you know, even get evicted, not put on the record.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that that impact of being evicted will have residual impacts too down the line that will prevent people from getting into housing as well that we need to be thinking about.
Thank you.
Thank you, Jacob and Carl I think you call you bring up an important point which I don't have a response for but it is definitely something worth thinking about, because we do know what devastating impact it has on renters.
When once an eviction is on your record, it is, it has a devastating impact it follows you everywhere you go, which is another.
Just as a side note, I wanted to note that that is another data point to explain that the overwhelming statistical evidence we have is of, as Kate really made an eloquent case for, which is that the overwhelming majority of cases of nonpayment are because they are not able to pay, not because they have they're being irresponsible or because of some bad behavior as some self-described small landlord, big landlord representatives were saying in public comment.
And because if you have an eviction on your record, it is a very hard thing to deal with for many years.
But it is an interesting question that Carl has raised.
to talk about what happens after the moratorium is lifted.
And I appreciate you raising that, Carl.
And I'll make sure that my office looks into this.
And with the help of central staff, if central staff are watching, which I'm sure they are, something that we should look into.
But most urgently, of course, we want to make sure that this eviction moratorium is maintained, so that will be our focus.
And I also wanted to thank both Kate and Violet, especially, and also Real Change, because you all are on the front lines of you know, meeting people who are in terrible crisis, and it is just really difficult and demoralizing for our community members themselves who are in such desperate crisis and for those of you who are trying to help them, help them navigate this really, you know, labyrinthine systems, all of that.
So I really, just from everyone in my office, I wanted to thank you all for the service you provide and also just convey our good wishes to the tenants and our homeless neighbors that you run into every single day, letting them know that we are absolutely wanting to have their back, but we also need to hear from them.
If we are to win this eviction moratorium, we will need everyone to speak up who really cares about this and also whose own lives are going to be affected in a negative way if the moratorium is lifted as long as the public health emergency remains.
I don't have any other points.
We will keep working on it, of course, and we'll keep committee members updated of any updates if there are between now and March 1st.
I really urge everyone who's watching this if you want to speak up in favor of the Moratorium, please sign up for public comment because that is an important avenue where your voice is heard.
We are not meeting in person in City Hall yet, but it is important to sign up.
Even though it's a little bit complicated to sign up online, please do so.
And my office continues to be committed to providing support for that.
We will definitely be setting up a community, you know, COVID safe community public comment booth, and we'll be announcing that in the next few days.
Unless there are any other comments, and I will wait for a few seconds, I will thank everyone for being here and adjourn the meeting.
Thank you all so much.
See you all soon.
Take care.