Seattle City Council 6/7/21

Good afternoon, the June 7th, 2021 meeting of the Seattle City Council will come to order.

It is 2.01 PM.

I'm Lorena Gonzalez, President of the Council.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Moraes?

Here.

Lewis?

Present.

Morales?

Here.

Mosqueda?

Present.

Peterson?

Here.

Sawant?

Present.

Council President Gonzalez?

Here.

Thank you so much.

Presentations.

I'm not aware of any presentations this afternoon, so we're going to move to the approval of the minutes.

The minutes of the City Council meeting of June 1st, 2021 have been reviewed.

If there is no objection, the minutes will be signed.

Hearing no objection, the minutes are being signed.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the minutes?

Approval of the introduction and referral calendar.

I move to adopt the introduction and referral calendar.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt the introduction and referral calendar.

Colleagues, as you may recall this morning at Council briefing, Council Member Lewis addressed a amendment that he would like to make to the introduction and referral calendar.

So Council Member Lewis, you are recognized in order to make your motion to amend today's introduction and referral calendar.

Thank you so much, Madam President.

I move to so amend the introduction referral calendar by adding Council Bill, and I just want to get the number for the record here, 120096 to the introduction referral calendar in keeping with the rules.

Great, and colleagues, just to clarify, that is Council Bill 120096 entitled in ordinance relating to appropriations for the Human Services Department, amending Ordinance 126237, which adopted the 2021 budget, modifying a proviso imposed by Ordinance 126298, and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts and by referring it to the City Council.

So it has been moved.

Is there a second?

I will second that motion.

OK, I will go ahead and second that motion.

It's been moved and seconded to amend the introduction referral calendar to introduce Council Bill 120096 and by referring it to the City Council.

Are there any additional comments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment?

Or is I?

Lewis I. Morales I mosquito.

Council Member Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Seven in favor, nine opposed.

Thank you so much.

The motion carries and the amended introduction and referral calendar is before the council.

Are there any further comments on the introduction and referral calendar as amended?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amended introduction and referral calendar?

Juarez.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries and the introduction and referral calendar is adopted as amended.

Approval of the agenda.

If there is no objection, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing no objection, the agenda is adopted.

Colleagues, at this time, we will open the remote public comment period for items on the city council agenda, introduction and referral calendar, and the council's work program.

I want to thank everyone for their ongoing patience and cooperation as we continue to operate this remote public comment system.

It remains the strong intent of the City Council to have remote public comment regularly included on meeting agendas.

However, as a reminder, the City Council reserves the right to end or eliminate these public comment periods at any point if we deem that the system is being abused or is no longer suitable for allowing our meetings to be conducted efficiently and effectively.

I will moderate the public comment period in the following manner.

The public comment period for this meeting was noted on the published agenda to be a total of 20 minutes with each speaker having up to two minutes to address the council.

However, colleagues, we have almost 100 people who have preregistered to provide public comment today, mostly on the suite of bills related to new tenant protections.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to accommodate hearing from every single person who preregistered for public comment today.

So here's what I am going to do in order to facilitate hearing from as many people as possible.

I'm going to extend public comment from 20 minutes to last a total of 60 minutes.

And I'm going to reduce the allotted time for each speaker from two minutes to a total of one minute.

So again, in order to allow for the council and members of the viewing public to hear from as many public commenters as possible, We're going to hear public comment for 60 minutes.

However, each speaker is going to only have one minute to address the city council.

Speakers are called upon in the order in which they registered to provide public comment on the council's website.

Each speaker must call in from the phone number used for this registration and using the meeting phone number, ID, and passcode that was emailed to them upon confirmation.

This is different than the general meeting, listen, listen, line, call, and information.

Again, I'll call on each speaker by name and in the order in which they registered on the council's website.

If you've not yet registered to speak, but would like to, you can sign up before the end of public comment.

Again, with the understanding that we are unlikely to get through everybody who has already pre-registered for public comment today.

Once I call a speaker's name, staff is going to unmute you.

You are going to hear a prompt of you have been unmuted.

That's going to be your cue that it is your turn to press star six to begin speaking.

Again, that is star six after you hear the prompt of you have been unmuted.

Please begin by stating your name, the item that you are addressing, and as a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda, the introduction referral calendar, or the council's work program.

Speakers are going to hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of the allotted time.

Once you hear that chime, I'd ask that you please begin to wrap up your public comment.

so that we can have an opportunity to call on other speakers who have registered.

If you do not end your comments at the end of the allotted time, your microphone is going to be muted.

Once you've completed your public comment, we ask that you please disconnect from the line.

And if you plan to continue following this meeting, you can do so on Seattle Channel or one of the listening options listed on the agenda.

I'm going to go ahead and open up the public comment period now.

And before I do that, I want to go ahead and make the formal motion to extend public comment from 20 minutes to 60 minutes.

So if there's no objection, the public comment period will be extended to 60 minutes.

Hearing no objection, the public comment period is extended to a total of 60 minutes.

And for the record, it is 2.10 p.m.

So we will go until approximately 3.10 p.m.

with public comment.

First speakers.

that I have on my preregistered list are as follows.

I have Angie Gerald, but Angie, you are showing up as not present.

If you'd like to give public comment, please double check your call-in information to make sure you're calling in to the right number with the number that you preregistered with.

If you do show up as present on my end, I'll make sure to circle back to you and give you your one minute.

Next up is Daniel Kavanaugh, followed by Jordan Van Vost.

Daniel, welcome.

Hey, my name is Dan.

I'm a member of Socialist Alternative and a renter in the CD.

And my mom has been a teacher my whole life.

And when I was younger, one of her students came to live with us because her mom couldn't pay the rent anymore.

And she was doing poorly in school before she came to live with us.

But once she had a stable roof over her head, wasn't constantly moving around, her ability to excel in school, to form relationships with other students and teachers, it was night and day from when her housing situation was unstable.

And other kids in that situation don't have a safety net.

And the consequences of a school year eviction on a child's development follows them around for the rest of their lives.

Over 90% of evictions in Seattle end in homelessness.

Over 2,000 kids in Seattle public schools are homeless right now.

And now experts are predicting a tsunami of evictions after COVID.

So we need to pass the ban on school-year evictions of kids and their families.

Now, the community support is overwhelming.

Our movement is watching.

We won't back down.

Pass Councilmember Swansdale and the other renters' rights bills before you today, without delay, no watering down.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jordan VanVost, followed by Kate Rubin.

Jordan, welcome.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Jordan Van Vost.

I'm a Seattle homeowner speaking in solidarity with the working class movement for rent protection.

I urge Council to vote yes on Resolution 31998 brought forward by Council Member Sawant, urging the mayor and governor to extend the moratorium on all evictions until at least the end of the year.

Also, I urge you to vote yes on the three bills which give more humane terms to renters.

Please pass these bills without delaying or weakening them with amendment concessions to corporations.

Many thousands in our city are on the edge of survival.

Capitalism routinely sacrifices the well-being of the many in order to protect the profits of the few.

And the impact of this trauma is always hardest on people of color, the disabled, LGBTQ, and other marginalized individuals.

The COVID pandemic is a wake-up call to the much larger climate emergency and ecological crisis That is a direct result of our failure to understand how all lives are connected.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Kate Rubin followed by Mae Saley.

Kate welcome.

Good afternoon.

My name is Kate Rubin.

I'm the executive director of B Seattle a member of the Stay Housed Stay Healthy Coalition and a renter in District 2. I would like to thank the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee for passing three vital renters' rights bills out of committee and bringing them to the full council today.

If City Council passes the Sound at Home defense, closes the fixed-term lease loophole and address cost tenant protections, and provides a defense to certain evictions of children, their families, and educators during the school year, it will help to prevent the tsunami of evictions anticipated upon the end of the eviction moratorium.

We know that evictions disproportionately affect Black and Indigenous people of color, and that eviction is the number one cause of homelessness.

Seattle was already experiencing a homelessness crisis before the pandemic and we have not been able to adequately provide resources to those already impacted.

Taking action now to keep folks housed will prevent this crisis from growing exponentially.

Thank you.

Thank you Kate for calling in today.

Next up is May followed by Tram Tran Larson.

Go ahead May if you're with us make sure you hit star 6 to unmute yourself.

Hi I'm May a resident of District 5 asking that we amend CB 120046. As the council knows San Francisco and Santa Monica have each passed their own school year eviction bans.

Theirs protects students and educators while also ensuring small housing providers aren't left in an impossible situation.

Neither city bans evictions due to lack of payment or violation of other lease terms.

Both provide additional exceptions, including a vital one for owners who need to take their property off the market for personal use.

CB120046 allow a tenant to not pay rent and also would make the eviction window so small it could be impossible to practically enforce, leaving small housing providers stuck with no income and effectively no property.

Let's protect students and teachers better than any other city in the nation.

But let's also provide a single lifeline for small housing providers by allowing them just cause in the case they need to occupy the property.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for calling in today, May.

Next up is Tram Tram Larson.

And I see that Angie Gerald is now with us.

So we'll circle back to Angie after Tram.

Tram, welcome.

Hi, my name is Tram Tram Larson, and I'm the Community Engagement Manager at the Housing Justice Project.

I'm calling in support of Council Bills 120090, 77 and 46, all of which would help slow down the eviction tsunami we are about to experience.

Seattle has the highest rate of evictions in the county, and we are looking at 120 to 180,000 individuals entering the homelessness system this summer.

Housing is a racial justice issue.

82 percent of landlords in Seattle are white, while 58 percent of black households are rent burdened.

It is a gender justice issue.

Women with children are at the greatest risk of eviction.

It is an LGBTQ plus justice issue.

One in four trans folks experience housing discrimination.

This isn't about property rights.

This is about human rights.

Renter protections don't prevent landlords from providing housing.

It prevents renters from being homeless.

I urge council to pass these bills without diluting them and extend the eviction moratorium through the end of the year.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in Tram.

Next up is Angie Gerald followed by Bia Lacombe.

Angie welcome.

Hi my name is Angie.

I'm a small housing provider in the Ballard-Finney area and a member of Seattle Grassroots Landlords.

We're in a housing crisis.

Grassroots landlords provide affordable housing but it's like we're anticipating a major fire season.

And instead of helping people fight small local fires City Council is making it way harder.

City Council keeps railing against greedy corporations but your policies are only creating advantages for them.

Deep-pocketed investors with big legal teams are becoming the only ones who can meet the intense demand for Seattle housing which just keeps getting more expensive and more exclusive.

Council should do everything you can to help get federal and state funding to renters and housing providers who most need it and focus on enabling as many local owner-operators as possible to offer safe, stable places for renters to live with reasonable protections for all parties.

In trying to cancel rents and stop all evictions, the City Council is causing even wider problems.

Your ongoing legislative tsunami has disproportionate impacts on small providers and is creating a more deeply inequitable and unaffordable city.

Thank you.

Thanks for calling in, Angie.

Next up is Bia Lacombe, followed by Hannah Suavoda.

Bia, welcome.

Hi, my name is Bia and I'm a renter in Capitol Hill.

This past week, I've been talking to, I've been volunteering with Council Member Sawant's office and talking to voters all over the city.

And I'd just like to say that, you know, to the last person who just commented, the real fire that is happening right now in the city is for renters.

Renters are struggling and suffering in enormous numbers.

And, you know, I think to call it a tsunami, a legislative tsunami, is just completely inaccurate, because the real tsunami that we're going to be facing is if we don't extend this eviction moratorium.

And we are going to be looking at thousands of evictions, literally thousands, in Seattle alone.

One in every seven renters nationally is behind enough on rent and will be facing immediate eviction at the end of the month if we don't extend the moratorium.

I spoke with renters who told me that they're in that exact position.

and working people really understand clearly the need to extend the moratorium to protect renters more broadly under Council Member Sawant's and the movement's renters' bill of rights.

We also need Council Member Morales' bill on eviction defense for renters facing rental deaths arising during COVID.

And no loopholes, no delays, and no watering down.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in, Bia.

Next up is Hannah Swoboda, followed by Jack Francis.

Hannah, welcome.

Hi, this is Hannah.

So I'm a renter in District 3. I want to thank Councilmember Swann's office for bringing forward so many critical pieces of renters' rights legislation alongside our movement of renters and working-class homeowners and landlords.

We need to ban evictions of schoolchildren and educators during the school year, extend the eviction moratorium, close the just-cause loophole, and create eviction defense for renters facing rental debts due to the COVID pandemic.

Right now, rents in Seattle are rising at two and a half times the national average.

Wages haven't risen to meet that, and we're still dealing with the economic shock of COVID.

According to a Census Bureau survey, 270,000 Washington state renters have little to no confidence that they will be able to pay rent next month.

If the eviction moratorium is not extended beyond the end of June, it will spell thousands of evictions, particularly of people of color and women who are hit hardest by eviction.

The need to extend the city and state moratorium to the end of the year has been supported by Washington CAN, the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, the MLK-CLC, and dozens of other community and labor organizations.

Thank you for calling in today, Hannah.

Next up is Jack Francis, followed by Jacob Shear.

Jack, welcome.

Hi, my name is Jack Francis.

I'm 23 years old.

I am gender fluid and I am gay, and I have been evicted three times since turning 18. I am calling here today to tell you and testify that being evicted, especially being under 23 and being evicted with no job experience, really is terrible.

especially being LGBTQ and not being accepted by any of my blood relatives and my blood biological mother being the one to evict me two of the three times, it's really indescribable and pretty horrible for people to have to go through this thing.

Regardless of that, I'm LGBTQ, eviction in general is a very, very bad thing.

I cannot even fathom what a little child would have to even emotionally and mentally process.

Being thrown out on the street, and then being told to do their homework, and then maybe having a teacher who isn't accepting of, oh, you know, who cares?

It's your parents' responsibility, it's their failure, and shaming a child for being homeless and not doing their homework.

Ban school year eviction.

No watering down.

Have a heart for the love of God.

Next up is Jacob Shearer, followed by Laura Lowe.

Jacob, welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

My name is Jacob Shearer.

I'm an advocacy organizer for real change and I'm calling in today in full support of the three renters rights council bills on the agenda, which are each vital measures that we take immediately to keep people, especially low income and housing insecure folks like real change vendors in their homes.

And real change also stands in full support of council members.

So once resolution to extend the eviction moratorium to the end of the year, the solution to our housing homelessness crisis is not a mystery.

We need to bring and keep people inside.

The suffering of our unhoused neighbors that we witnessed throughout our city did not appear out of nowhere.

It is precisely because of violent, inhumane practices like evictions that we are in this crisis to begin with.

Every one of our neighbors living on our streets has a story, and many times that story includes an eviction.

Only by acknowledging housing as a human right can we begin to move towards a future where destitution and misery are not a central part of our city's landscape.

Real change expects and demands full council support for each of these crucial eviction protection bills and for Council Member Sawant's eviction moratorium resolution.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for calling in, Jacob.

Next up is Laura Lowe.

And Laura, just remember to press star six so we can hear you.

Hello everyone, I'm Laura Lowe.

Thanks for the opportunity to be speaking today.

I'm a D7 renter and founder of the all-volunteer organization, Chair of the City of Action Fund.

We have over 100 people in our Slack group, almost 7,000 followers on Twitter, and send out a monthly newsletter to about 1,000 subscribers who care deeply about the future of Seattle and housing justice.

Many people told me they wanted to call in today but had to be at work.

We are in strong support of the tenant bills today.

We're terrified about what will happen when the eviction moratorium is lifted.

The thousands of Redsburton tenants and those with several months of rent debt will take a long time to recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic.

Evictions kill.

They lead to houselessness.

We do not need one more person to lose their housing in our city.

We're inspired by all the other members in the Stay Housed Stay Healthy Coalition and we were very fired up by the Cancel the Rent Rally this weekend in Othello.

We met someone who is very concerned.

He keeps hearing from his neighbors every day in the smoking section of their building.

They have no idea what they're going to do when the moratorium ends.

They do not know how they're going to pay back the rent debt, and we need solutions before.

Thank you for calling in, Laura.

Next up is Kate Martin, followed by Charlotte Thistle.

Kate, welcome.

And if you're with us, Kate, you need to press star six so we can hear you.

My name is Kate Martin, and I am an affordable housing provider in a owner-occupied shared home that I have with seven other people.

I provide affordable housing for all people and two people that are transitioning out of tents.

I'm not greedy.

I'm not out to hurt anybody.

When you say that these bills have no fiscal note, I have to question that.

There is a fiscal note.

For me to be having someone not pay rent for a year, two years, makes it unaffordable for me to continue offering the seven affordable housing slots, including two that are free that I have at my house.

I'm not certain that this legislative process actually solves a problem or that it doesn't put burden on people with their private property rights.

Again, I'm not greedy.

I'm asking you to make a carve out for owner occupied.

I'm asking you to make a carve out for small mom and pops.

You're talking about corporate greedy landlords.

I don't know who you're referring to.

It's not me.

I ask you to make exceptions so that I can continue providing what I do.

And thank you for listening.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Charlotte Thistle, followed by Cody Zaleski.

Charlotte, welcome.

Hi.

In the last four weeks, our group, Seattle Grassroots Landlords, has worked with legal experts to draft several common-sense proposals to amend the bill that's being considered today.

We also created a webinar and a blog explaining our proposals and sent them to our city council members.

We've called, emailed, and met with council members and their staff to explain our concerns, and yet not one single one of our proposals has been incorporated Not even our essential proposal to protect residents and owners from aggressive individuals who harass others on rental property.

This city council is recklessly endangering both residents and owners of rental housing by refusing to include even basic safety protections in the just cause eviction ordinance.

The tragic result is going to be nothing less than the destruction of affordable housing in Seattle.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Cody, followed by Tatiana Quintana.

Cody, welcome.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you.

Go ahead.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Great.

My name is Cody Zaleski, and I'm a resident of District 4 and a medical researcher here in Seattle.

I'm here representing the organization Decriminalize Nature Seattle.

Our group seeks to have entheogenic plant medicine be listed as the lowest law enforcement priority with protections for medical practitioners.

I would first like to thank the Seattle City Council members for their signatures earlier today on the letters submitted by Council Members Lewis and Council Members Herbold.

There is an increasingly more recognition that Schedule 1 designations of psychedelic entheogenic plant medicine is based in archaic misinformation.

If the City of Seattle passes our measure we would be the 8th city in the country to acknowledge the medical benefits of psychedelic entheogenic plant medicine by decriminalization.

We find that these entheogenic substances are incredibly valuable in the treatment of pathological rumination and psychiatric disorders.

Not only do these medicines carry low to no risk of addiction and abuse, but are actually beneficial in treating the abuse of other substances, such as alcohol and opiates.

Based on preliminary evidence, these medicines exceed the success rate of the 12-step program.

Thank you, and I cede my time.

Thank you so much.

Next up is Tatiana, followed by Jeffrey.

But Jeffrey, you are showing up as not present on my end.

So please double check that you're calling in to the right number with the number that you used to register.

If you call in, I'll make sure to give you your one minute.

Tatiana Quintana, followed by Derek Speller.

Tatiana, welcome.

Hi.

Excellent.

Can you hear me?

We can.

Go ahead.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Yes my name is Tatiana Quintana.

I live in South Seattle and I'm speaking in support of decriminalizing psychedelics in Seattle as well as please extending the eviction moratorium for folks who are not able to pay for their rent right now.

Our communities are suffering from an ongoing and worsening crisis of mental health issues and epidemic levels of problematic substance use.

The cultural and scientific evidence affirming that psychedelics are effective reliable and safe alternatives to help address these issues is undeniable.

The responsibility on our shoulders is to end the war on drugs and ensure that these substances are and remain as accessible as possible to all.

In our ordinance, we detail our gift, gather, and grow model of exchange, which will ensure the greatest amount of equity and access for natural psychedelics for our residents.

We also need to ensure that practitioners in the healing arts profession are protected if they choose to partner with anti-agents as part of their practice.

So please support this.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Derek Speller.

followed by Jessica Scalzo.

Derek, welcome.

Hello, my name is Derek Speller.

I'm 38. I'm currently, I'd prefer to be running right now, but I'm currently a resident at the Tent City 3. I share the view of Tent City 3 and we're against no-cause evictions and against child evictions during the school year.

That's all I can say in my time.

Thank you for calling in, Derek.

Next up is Jessica Scalzo, followed by Jennifer Kim.

Welcome, Jessica.

Hi, thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Jessica Scalzo.

I am a renter in District 3. I work in District 2 at a shelter for victims of sex trafficking called R.E.S.T. and also at Compassionate Peer Counseling, helping folks recover from eating disorders.

and i also in volunteering with the drama solidarity campaign talking to hundreds of voters on the street and just recently another person who works in social services was talking to be on the street about how serious this upcoming on ending of the eviction moratorium is going to be for renters and people are realizing that the people that i have been speaking to and even just recently trying to find shelter for a young man who called our hotline yesterday.

It is not that easy to actually even get a hold of anybody at a shelter because there's even not enough resources at shelters.

So please pass these renter protection bills.

Thank you, Council Member Swann, Council Member Morales, for putting these forth, and I encourage everyone to pass them today without delay.

Thank you.

Thanks for calling in today.

Next up is Jeffrey Flogel, followed by Jennifer Kim.

Jeffrey, welcome.

And Jeffrey, just remember to press star six so we can hear you.

There we go.

Can you hear me now?

We can go ahead.

My name is Jeff.

I'm a district 3 resident voter and a small landlord.

A lot of comments talk about housing stability and evictions, but the new regulations passed by this city council make sure the existing housing shortage will continue for at least a generation by making any housing provider think twice about putting a privately held housing unit on the market.

If you're a renter, who do you want your housing provider to be 5, 10, or 15 years from now?

Particularly if you marry, have children, have a dog.

Where will you live?

With this city council pushing small landlords out of the market, you'll have the choice of a small corporate apartment, public housing if you qualify, or moving elsewhere.

The city council cannot compel me or anyone else to provide family-friendly housing.

Think carefully in the long term about what this City Council is doing and what housing you'll want to have available in the future.

I personally have a 1,200-square-foot two-bedroom housing unit that we used to rent, we've reoccupied, and it's going to be available next year.

I challenge any City Council member to convince me to put it on the open market.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Jennifer Kim, followed by Keith Kushner.

Jennifer, welcome.

Hi, my name is Jennifer, and I'm a longtime renter in District 5 calling about Council Bill 120046. My family was served an eviction notice when I was in high school.

We'd done nothing wrong, but my mom barely spoke English, and it never crossed her mind to try and fight our corporate landlord.

I remember being so confused and afraid.

We absolutely need to protect tenants and children from corporate landlords.

The next day, however, a member of my mom's church, a small landlord, seeing how frightened we were, offered to help us out.

It turns out he was leaving on a missions trip and would let us rent his home while he was gone.

He was happy to set the rent at whatever we could afford.

We need to protect our small landlords and recognize there is a distinction.

These landlords rely on protections that allow them to move back into their rental property if needed.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for calling in, Jennifer.

Next up is Keith Kushner, followed by Corey Brewer.

Keith, welcome.

Hi, I'm Keith, a resident of District 6, calling in for a friend.

He would call himself, but his family lives in fear of his renter, who's made indirect but gruesome threats harm against them.

My friend purchased a home for his family to move into, and as a nice guy, he agreed to rent it back to the seller to give the seller's family more time to move.

Today, that seller is still in the home and refuses to vacate.

If the school year eviction ban is passed as is, loopholes created by its imprecise language will mean that my friend is stuck, unable to collect rent or move his family into their home indefinitely.

We absolutely need to protect children.

However, we need to amend CB 120046 to allow just cause for landlords who need to move into their property.

Almost every single council member's office has shown my friend they understand the need for such amendment, and he's grateful for it.

I'm proud that my council member Strauss' office is on that list.

I hope the votes will follow their concern.

Thank you three times.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Corey Brewer, followed by Kevin Vitz Wong.

Corey, welcome.

Hello.

Thank you.

Corey Brewer calling.

I'm with Windermere Property Management.

Council Member Sawant, on multiple recent occasions, you have publicly mischaracterized both myself personally and my brokerage Windermere as a quote-unquote corporate landlord.

Neither I myself nor my franchise Windermere Brokerage is a landlord, much less a corporate landlord.

You're willing to talk about me in public, but not return my calls personally.

I discussed this at length with your housing policy advisor last week.

I'm not going to say that you mischaracterized me intentionally, But before you move on to the next commenter today, I would like to insist on a public apology from you.

Our brokerage represents small mom and pop housing providers like the people you're hearing testimony from today.

And then because I had to use this meeting, since you won't personally return my call after your apology, I'd still like to have a full minute to comment on the proposal for the council today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Brewer, for calling in.

Next up is Kevin Vitz Wong, followed by Ben Sircom.

Kevin.

Hi, my name is Kevin Vitz Wong.

I'm a renter in District 6, as well as a member of the Seattle Education Association.

I'm calling in favor of the renter protection measures being discussed today.

We must extend the eviction moratorium, ban school year evictions, and close the Just Cause loophole.

Council members should vote today to pass these measures.

Currently, the moratorium is set to expire in just 23 days.

Seattle is one of the richest cities in the world, and yet 7% of our students are homeless at some point during the year.

So clearly, housing for profit cannot guarantee shelter for school kids.

And attempting to make these common sense changes brings out lots of stern talking to from landlords.

So we're saying no loophole amendments, no delaying.

Vote today to pass these important protections.

Thank you.

I'll see you at my time.

Thank you for calling in, Kevin.

Next up is Ben Sircombe, followed by Sean Butterfield.

Ben, welcome.

Hi, my name is Ben Sircum and I'm a union organizer and a resident in District 3. I'm speaking today on behalf of Decrim Nature Seattle in the hopes that you will adopt a resolution and decriminalize psychedelics.

Last weekend I attended an ayahuasca ceremony.

I've struggled with anxiety around my relationship with myself and others.

The ceremony allowed me to forgive myself and others who have hurt me, focus my entire attention on proving myself in the path forward.

I'm now speaking to you with little to no anxiety in my life.

It's the happiest I've ever been.

There are inarguable therapeutic benefits to this medicine.

Benefits that antidepressants or years of therapy can't necessarily replicate.

What is the benefit of continuing to outdated drug laws that only serve to fill prisons and ruin lives?

Decriminalizing psychedelics means folks could have safe access to medicines that could exponentially improve their lives.

Why would we ever want to prevent folks from finding inner peace?

Thank you.

I yield my time.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Sean Butterfield, followed by Valen Solomon.

Sean, welcome.

Hi, my name is Sean Butterfield.

I just want to address some of the landlords and landlord groups that have spoken today.

The solution to the housing crisis is passing rent control and building social housing, not providing profit incentives for corporate landlords who are increasingly savvy about making themselves out to be put upon and unfairly disparaged, when it is they who are in fact putting children and their parents on the street during the school year.

The legislation proposed by Council Member Sawant's office prevents this from happening during the school year, which is the only decent thing we, as a city, can do in the middle of a housing crisis driven both by greedy landlords like this, squeezing working parents for every penny they can, and the global coronavirus pandemic.

We have already heard landlords tell this council today that they need more carve-outs for owner-occupiers, for example, but I don't understand what difference it makes to the child who is being forced into homelessness during the school year where the landlord lives.

We have heard them complain that these policies unfairly affect small landlords, but the reality is that many such landlords hire corporate property management companies and rely on them to kick out their tenants and large real estate conglomerates organize their companies.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Valen Solomon followed by Logan Swan.

Welcome, Valen.

Hi my name is Valen Solomon and I'm a renter in District 3. I'm calling in to urge your support of the council bills relating to tenant protections without any dilution.

As the moratoria come to an end but the long-lasting health and economic effects of COVID-19 continue to linger it is now and more important than ever that we close Seattle's just cause eviction loophole and as well as protect our students and teachers.

As an attorney who works directly with tenants facing eviction I've seen firsthand the disproportionate impact that evictions have on communities of color in Seattle especially Black communities.

Although black residents make up less than 8% of the city's population, they represent approximately 18% of no-cause evictions, like the ones that Councilmember Morales' bill is trying to prevent.

In my line of work, I've heard directly from tenants who have continuously been threatened by their landlords that they will be evicted once the moratorium ends using this exact loophole.

This legislation may be the one thing that prevents someone in Seattle from experiencing homelessness during a global pandemic.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Logan Swan followed by Ariana Laureano.

Logan welcome.

Yeah my name is Logan.

I'm a union iron worker and District 2 renter.

I'm calling as a building trades worker you know an actual provider of housing to thank Council Member Chesama-Irsa Want for her leadership in fighting to protect educators and students workers and our children from evictions and homelessness and demand that other council members support her resolution and legislation today.

Unions and labor organizers overwhelmingly support this common-sense legislation from the MLK Labor Council to the Seattle Education Association as well as El Centro de la Raza and organizations representing low-income renters and parent-teacher associations.

This is yet another vote that puts forward clearly the interests of two groups.

Working families on one side and owners and bosses on the other.

Working families are facing COVID workplaces, unemployment, rent increases averaging 13% so far this year.

Meanwhile, landlords are evicting three families a day on average.

90% of those evicted are not buying other houses and are instead pushed into homelessness.

So ban the evictions of children and their families, sign the resolution to extend the moratorium, and close the Just Call loophole today without trifling amendments and without watering it down.

Thank you for calling in next up is Arianna followed by Chris Graves.

Arianna welcome.

I'm calling in support of extending the moratorium and closing the just cause loophole.

We have 45,000 people at risk of eviction if we do not extend our moratorium until we can disperse aid.

The strain of those people being evicted will break our already fragile social safety net.

The U.S. Census Pulse data has shown that 87% of our blind comrades are behind on rent, 28% of our comrades who struggle with hearing are behind on rent, 29% of our comrades with learning disabilities are behind on rent, and 100% of our comrades who cannot walk are behind on rent.

Furthermore, 14% of Black renters are behind, 14% of Asian renters are behind, 10% of Latinx renters are behind, and only 7% of white renters are behind.

The racial disparity is enormous.

It is not only negligent disablism to lift the moratorium in this moment, it is incredibly racist.

And if we let this moratorium expire, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Chris Graves, followed by Ryan Miller.

Chris, welcome.

Hi, my name is Chris Graves.

I'm a staff attorney with the Healthy Justice Project and King County Bar Association.

urging support of extending the moratorium to the end of the year, but also urging support for CB 120-090-77-46.

But in particular, I'd like to speak briefly about Bill 46. Women with children are at the greatest risk of eviction.

Evictions are the leading cause of homelessness, furthering instability for adults and children.

and only 12.5% of evicted respondents found new housing while the rest suffered housing instability or homelessness.

In particular, many homeless shelters did not allow boys over the age of 12 or with unique family compositions such as grandmothers living with them or extended family living with them, risking family separation.

Thus, I urge you to support these three bills and extend the moratorium.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Ryan Miller followed by Chris Rudy.

Hello, my name is Ryan Miller with Woodland Park Share.

I'm calling today in support of extending the moratorium and also in support of expanding the adult-caused eviction to cover leases.

Without these protections, many renters would end up on the streets and our numbers on the streets would only exponentially grow.

I also support the protections for people facing eviction due to financial disparages and, excuse me, disability to provide the money during a global pandemic.

And finally, it's just, it's not morally acceptable to consider throwing children, or sorry, educators onto the streets during a pandemic like this.

It's just, we have to really debate that.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in.

Next up is Chris Rudy, followed by Parmeshita John.

Chris, welcome.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Council.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate in the discourse about this important housing bill.

My name is Chris Rudy, and I'm a D6 renter calling to ask the Council to amend CB 120046 to allow an exception for small landlords who need to occupy their rental properties.

I'm actually calling today on behalf of a friend.

A friend of mine purchased his first home last year, and for the sake of the seller's family, delayed his occupancy so they could stay there a little longer.

And he's now an accidental landlord stuck with a tenant who refuses to leave.

The tenant has threatened him, saying that he's worried if my friend does move in, my friend's family, including his wife and two young children, might be chopped up and murdered.

Unfortunately, my friend is told the threats are too indirect to be used as grounds for removal.

I've heard many people today characterize those who want to amend this bill as greedy corporations.

And I just want to say, I think fundamentally it's a good bill, but it's more complicated than that.

My friend is a person of color and he isn't calling you himself because he's terrified of retaliation.

Two separate attorneys have told him if the school year eviction bill passes as is, his tenant will continue to pay.

Thank you for calling in, Chris.

Next up is Parmeshita John, followed by Madeline Olson.

Hi.

Hi, my name is Parmesh.

I'm a small landlord in District 5. As tenant protections have been advanced in Seattle, I've been on board.

On the whole, my tenants have been great to me, and I love to see them protected.

But I've always found solace knowing that if, in the worst case scenario, my family ends up in a situation where we need to occupy our rental property, we can.

Without that option, I feel like it's just too risky.

I ask that the council today amend CB 120046 to include an exception for small landlords who might need to, in a worst case, occupy their rental property.

And I am a South Asian-origin person of color, and I am not a, you know, corporate landlord.

So thank you for listening to me.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Madeline Olson, followed by John Grant.

But John, you are showing up as not present on my end over here.

So make sure you are calling into the right number with the right information.

Otherwise, we're going to hear from Madeline Olson, and then we'll hear from Blythe Serrano.

Madeline, welcome.

Hi there.

Hi, my name is Madeline.

I'm a renter in Green Lake.

I'm just calling today to urge the council to pass the ban of evictions of schoolchildren, their families, and their teachers.

The inclusion of COVID debt is a valid defense against eviction and to close the Just College loophole.

Any delays on these life-saving measures is unacceptable.

Renters and school children facing eviction don't have the luxury of being able to wait around for the council to decide on these bills when their ability to stay housed is immediately at risk.

Without these protections, how is the city going to address the massive number of evictions when the moratorium is ending?

We know the majority of folks who are going to be evicted are going to end up homeless.

These protections are simple common sense, but it's clear we need a movement to win.

I want to thank all the organizations and unions voicing their support for the legislation being discussed today, like Seattle Education Association, MLK Labor Council, as well as everyone calling in support today.

I urge the council to pass these renters protections without watering down, without delay.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Blythe Serrano, followed by UT Hawkins.

Blythe, welcome.

Hi, my name is Blythe, and I'm a renter in the Central District, and I want to call into Urgent City Council to pass all four pieces of renters' rights legislation that are on the agenda today with no loopholes and no delays.

This past week, I spoke with hundreds of people all across Seattle about these bills as a volunteer with Council Member Sawant's office.

Our movement gathered over 500 signatures in support of these renters' rights protections from community members all across the city, from Beacon Hill to the U District to Fremont to West Seattle.

Like me, these people are outraged at this city that is home to multibillion-dollar corporations like Amazon and Starbucks, also has over 2,000 homeless children in its public school system.

Dozens of the people I spoke with, including teachers, parents, students, and actual small landlords, wanted to call in today but couldn't because this meeting was scheduled during the middle of the school and workday.

So on their behalf, I want to urge the city council to pass these four wrenches bills today and also in future to pass council members who want full rent refill of rights, including rent control.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is UT Hawkins, followed by Daniel McCraw.

UT, welcome.

Hello, and thank you for having me.

Hello, council members.

I'm UT Hawkins.

I am a mother, I am a daughter, and I'm an educator.

I'm of the Kiowa and Muskogee Creek Nations and I have a lived experience as a Black and Indigenous woman.

I'm also serving as the SEA Vice President.

I'd like to wholeheartedly ask that you extend the eviction moratorium and vote today to pass the full renter's rights bill to protect students families and educators for which I am here in representation for.

As leaders We have been through a lot this year especially in response to this pandemic.

And I'm asking that you focus on the stability needed for children to recover from this pandemic experience.

Housing instability from evictions is very much a disruption that carries long-term impacts for students and schools.

Every day that is missed in a classroom.

Every various educator.

Every loss of community support.

Every distant.

UT, thank you so much for calling in today.

I'm sorry we couldn't hear all of your comments.

You're welcome to email the rest of your comments to council at seattle.gov, and we will take a look at those comments.

Next up is Daniel McCraw, followed by Nathan Cathersell.

Daniel, welcome.

Hi, hello Seattle City Council.

Hi, my name is Dan McCraw.

I'm a part of SHARE, which is part of the Stay Healthy Coalition.

And this is giving me a first-hand perspective on the needless trauma homelessness causes every day in one of the wealthiest cities in America.

Supporting these transformative tenant protections and supporting those at greatest risk of eviction, women with children.

We clearly know evictions are a leading cause of homelessness, yet somehow we as a community can't be willing to accept that the infinite traumas to children and families that We'll be perpetrated if we are willing to pretend that the pandemic didn't happen and that old lease laws biased in favor of landlords are a more important precedent to uphold than setting a new one.

We won't let thousands of children and families be destroyed because of factors outside their control.

This shouldn't even be an option.

Looking at this closer, there are huge racial and gender inequities that need to be recognized as being forces at work here.

Let's be clear, for every 1,000 evicted people, only 120 have housing stability.

Don't face...

I'm sorry, I screwed that all up.

But long story short, please support this Seattle City Council.

Thank you.

Excellent way to punctuate that.

I'm sorry.

The time crunch creates a little sense of urgency, but thank you for calling in.

Next up is Nathan Cathersall, followed by Luke Duffy.

Nathan, welcome.

Oh, one more time, Nathan.

Star six.

Nathan, we had you for a minute, and now I see you as muted.

So I'm going to ask you to, there we go.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

Sorry about that.

I'll just start off.

Because of the landlord exploited loophole Seattle has the second highest number of no cause evictions in the country, it is time to close that loophole.

Second, according to a survey from April of last year over 200,000 households in Washington are behind on rent.

An estimated 60,000 of those are located in King County alone.

Estimating between one and three people per household, anywhere from 60,000 to 180,000 people are at risk of homelessness at the end of this month.

Finally, over 85% of those evicted with school-age children have to move schools, creating massive instability.

This kind of instability during childhood is intensely correlated with negative health outcomes and depressed educational outcomes writ large.

To be clear, the risk mentioned here is cut and dry.

If a landlord wants to evict a person, say, for protections like these, they can.

As a society, we need to ask ourselves which people are best suited to bear the financial burden of a pandemic, those who have more or those who have less.

Respectfully, I'm urging the council to stand with those who have less and to pass CBs 120090, 77, and 46. Thank you.

Thanks for calling in, Nathan.

Next up is Luke Duffy, followed by Sanjitha Jain.

Luke, welcome.

Hi, my name is Luke and I'm a renter in Capitol Hill.

I'd like to speak in support of Councillor Sawant's legislation banning the evictions of students, their families and educators during the school year.

It's important to highlight evictions as a racial justice issue.

In Seattle, black and brown folks are evicted at much higher rates than other tenants.

State data from 2018 found that 40% of homeless students are black and 23% were Latino, despite the fact they only make up 14% and 12% of the student body respectively.

I urge the City Council to extend the eviction moratorium and to vote for Councillor Sawant's legislation, adding school year evictions for students, their families and educators.

Excuse me.

Do not amend Councillor Member Sawant's legislation in any way as it would negatively affect communities of colour the most.

Please prioritise the renters of Seattle and not the vast majority of landlords on this call who are grossly exaggerating their hardships.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is is followed by Barbara Finney.

Welcome.

Hi, this is Jan.

I am for my Morales of district 2 and all other council members to amend.

CD 120046 to allow owners in the most dire circumstances to move their own families into their own rental property as a last resort.

I'm a person of color and a disabled landlord myself, but I want to share a friend's story.

A young landlord, a woman of color who herself lives in a rental property, worked for 20 years to be able to purchase a rental property.

She used 100% of the rental income to care for foster children.

The past 12 months, a non-paying tenant has put her in an impossible situation.

She can't make ends meet as having difficulty paying her own rent and is withdrawn from the foster program.

She also can't sell her home because nobody will buy it given the situation.

She always thought that in the worst case, she'd be able to move into her own rental property herself.

The school year eviction moratorium without amendment removes even that lifeline from her due to procedural loopholes that renters can take advantage of.

So please do accept the amendment to CB120046.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Barbara Finney, followed by, oops, Sarah Champernone.

Barbara, welcome.

Hi, my name is Barbara Finney.

I'm a delegate to the MLK Labor Council, a member of the Renters' Rights Movement, and express gratitude to Councilmember Sawant's office for leading a ban on school year evictions of children and all public school educators and staff.

The MLK Labor Council is strongly supporting this legislation without any watering down.

extend the moratorium on evictions through the end of 2021, close the loophole on just-cause eviction, and support COVID debt protections for renters.

No watering down, no loopholes.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for calling in today, Barbara.

We are going to circle back to John Grant, who is now with us, and he was preregistered a little earlier, but wasn't showing up as present.

So we're going to hear from John Grant, and then we will hear from Sarah Chompernow.

John, welcome.

Thank you, council members, Council President Gonzalez and other city council members.

My name is John Grant.

I'm the Chief Strategy Officer for the Low Income Housing Institute, or LEHI.

We are a regional landlord that owns or operates over 2,400 units of rental housing and 70 properties across six different counties in the greater Puget Sound area, many in Seattle.

We are testifying in support of Council Member Morales' proposal to reform the Just Cause Eviction Ordinance to cover term leases.

We also thank Committee Chair Sawant for surfacing many of these concerns.

As a property owner, we believe that requiring Just Cause is a best practice and a policy that helps property owners limit their liability, because the policy assists owners to comply with existing fair housing laws.

This proposed policy would have no negative impact on the buildings we own, and in fact, we believe would improve relationships between landlords and tenants by bringing consistency in how eviction laws are enforced.

Improving Just Cause protections are highly encouraged, and we thank very much for the council's action and encourage you to pass the bill.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Sarah, followed by Jeffrey.

Jeffrey Flogel already spoke, I believe.

I think that might be an error on my end.

It is.

That's a duplicate.

So we're going to hear from Sarah next, and then we'll hear from Sonia Ponath.

Hi, my name is Sarah Champernown.

I'm a tech worker and a renter in Seattle, but I'm calling in on behalf of my partner, Matthew, who is a teacher and member of Seattle Education Association and can't be here today because he's at work.

We're going to hear from some landlords on this call, but public school teachers are trying to provide education and a safe learning environment to students today whose families are facing increasingly hostile conditions in the rental market, let alone the difficulty teachers have getting housing where they work.

An eviction greatly destabilizes a student's ability to access quality education.

My partner wanted me to call in and say his union supports this measure to stop evictions for school-age children and to tell the council members to listen to public school teachers and not the real estate lobby on this issue.

Also to thank council members to want herself an educator for her leadership and active solidarity with students and educators on a lot of these important issues and renters' rights.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Sonia, followed by Bro Karpenko.

Sonia, welcome.

Hi, as a working mom and just to create a landlord myself, I support all the bills being discussed today, especially the children's eviction ban.

This is truly a no-brainer, but it's a real stunning indictment on this unequal system of capitalism that we have to fight so hard for this.

And I'm hearing from all the grassroots grassroots landlord lobby today that these bills are the source of all their troubles.

These bills are supported by thousands, so don't blame us fighting for renters' rights when capitalism itself is pushing out small landlords.

I urge you, if you are truly struggling, to contact Council Member Swanson-Ovison, get involved in helping to solve these problems, fight to cancel COVID debt and mortgages, and don't blame the rest of us.

You already get a carve-out because you're already covered in this.

So let's make sure that big banks, real estate corporations, and the wealthy pay for the rents of not working people.

Eviction is violence, as a previous caller outlined.

We need all three bills to pass, and we need to build the fight to cancel COVID debt and win rent control without loopholes.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Bro Karpenko, followed by Raghav Kaushik.

And I also have Katie Wilson and Eric Swenson, both of whom are showing up as not present on my end.

So Katie and Eric, make sure you check your call-in information if you are interested in speaking.

Next up is Ro Karpenko followed by Raghav Kaushik.

Okay, just remember to hit star six to unmute yourself.

I'm pressing wait.

Oh, there you go.

I can hear you now.

Oh, and we lost you.

One more time.

Can you hear me now?

Hello?

Yep.

Hello.

We got you.

Oh, sorry for that.

Goodness gracious.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak and thank you for this democratic process.

I really appreciate you extending the time so that more voices can be heard.

I'm calling to in support of extending the moratorium on evictions protecting our most vulnerable populations.

And one thing I'm concerned about is how this issue is dividing people.

It's putting you know landlords in different groups.

It's putting school employees into different groups.

It's.

it's going to it would inadvertently affect people of color and people who are the most vulnerable.

And so I'm calling to ask for no delays no watering down and strongest possible legislation to ban school year evictions and for and also just in general just for COVID debt protection.

And you know the price of COVID should not land on the most vulnerable.

There's got to be other solutions.

besides the price of COVID, no fault of people's own to be accruing debt when there's plenty of resources in the world.

It doesn't need to land on the most vulnerable.

That doesn't.

Thank you so much for calling in today.

Next up is Raghav Kaushik and then Daniel Aroz.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

I'm a Seattle area homeowner calling in support of the renter's rights resolutions in front of you today.

You know the People's Vaccine Alliance just put out a report that after Covid started there's a set of new billionaires around.

For example the CEO of Moderna who was not a billionaire before is now a billionaire.

and they have a list of other such billionaires.

This is not even counting people like Jeff Bezos, whose wealth has increased significantly after COVID.

This is the context in which we need to understand the bills in front of you.

There's a simple choice in front of you.

Do you want the working class to bear the burden of COVID?

Or do you want to do something to stop the wealth transfer from working class to billionaires?

And elementary decency should suggest an answer.

So I would urge you to pass the resolutions in their totality and with no delays.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Eric Swenson followed by Daniel Arouse.

Eric, welcome.

Eric, just remember to press star six sometimes.

There you go.

Okay, thank you.

I'm a resident of Seattle for 45 years and an editor writer, now working full time to promote psychedelic healing.

I'm especially interested in relieving the anxiety and depression that often accompanies the end of life.

A single dose of magic mushrooms, as they're called, can bring peace, even joy to people in their final days.

Rather than tell you my own history of healing with psychedelics, I want to focus on what could happen after Seattle decriminalizes psychedelics.

I see decriminalization as merely the first step in Seattle becoming a leader in all aspects of psychedelic healing, research, training, practice, public education.

These substances have already begun to revolutionize mental health.

To treat depression and PTSD, for example, The FDA has designated magic mushrooms and ecstasy as breakthrough therapies.

Let us take heed of the powerful role these psychedelics are proving they can play in creating a better world.

I urge Seattle to help bring these.

Thank you for calling in Eric.

Next up is Daniel followed by Sebastian Stockpile.

Daniel welcome.

Hello, council members.

My name is Danny and I am a resident of District 3. I support the letter submitted today by council members Lewis and Herbold proposing decriminalization of psychedelic plant medicines.

Psychedelic medicines have been one of the most influential positive forces in my life.

Psychedelics have empowered me with tools to battle anxiety, depression, stagnation and trauma, while making me more connected to my friends and family and giving me a profound appreciation for being alive.

Like a fresh blanket of snow on a ski slope, psychedelics give me a perspective I needed to break out of old habits and find a better path forward in life.

My heart today is full of love for myself and for the world, a perspective that I've taken directly out of my experiences with psychedelics.

These non-addictive substances have incredible potential to help our society and deserve to be explored as the medicines that they are without fear of legal persecution.

After multiple scientific studies from reputable sources such as John Hopkins that show their efficacy, the world is starting to notice that Seattle is lagging behind.

I urge you to pass an ordinance that would make these decriminalized and accessible.

Thank you.

I yield my time.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Sebastian Stockpile, followed by Mason Marks.

I also have a Beckalee Elsie who is showing up as not present on my end.

If Beckalee calls back in, I will make sure to give that speaker a full minute.

Sebastian, welcome.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Sebastian Stockpile and I'm a staff attorney at the Housing Justice Project and a renter in District 4. I'm urging council to pass bills 120090, 77 and 46. It's estimated that 60,000 households in the area are behind on rent and at risk of losing their home when the moratorium expires.

Some may suggest that these protections are just called bill and this just cause bill is duplicative of legislation passing the statewide level.

However, that is not true.

This bill goes further in providing protections to tenants And closing this loophole will limit the landlord's abilities to retaliate and evict tenants for things that would have otherwise been illegal.

Without the closing of the loophole many renter protections that have been hard fought for can simply be evaded.

Simply put Seattle should not have a housing crisis and thousands of unhoused individuals.

While the wealthy have accumulated more wealth during the pandemic our frontline workers and most marginalized residents and renters have experienced the highest rates of contracting COVID and loss of income.

no more loopholes, no more families facing no-cause addictions, and no watering down of the protections, these council bills will institute.

Thank you, and I yield my time.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Mason Marks.

And again, I'm showing as registered but not present Katie Wilson and Beckalee Elsie.

For now, we'll hear from Mason Marks, followed by Matt Smith.

Mason, welcome.

Thank you.

I'm a medical doctor and law professor, and I research drug policy.

We face mental health and drug overdose crises that heavily impact Seattle.

Last year, U.S. overdose deaths reached a record high of over 83,000.

Punitive drug policies have made things worse for decades, and cities around the country know this, and they're decriminalizing entheogens.

Seven cities have done so, and if you decriminalize, you'll be in good company with cities like Cambridge, Massachusetts, Oakland, California, and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Clinical trials suggest antigens like psilocybin are not addictive.

They reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and can help people overcome addiction.

In the Netherlands, people can buy antigens over the counter.

The Dutch government commissioned a study on their risks and concluded that the risk to public health was negligible.

I thank council members Lewis, Herbold, and Sawant for their support of antigen decriminalization and urge the entire city council to vote in favor of it.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling in today.

Next up is Matt Smith followed by Elizabeth Cowan.

Matt welcome.

Hi my name is Matt Smith.

I'm a renter in District 2. Over the last year and a half working families have struggled with job loss lockdown conditions enormous uncertainty and disruption.

We're finally starting to emerge from this deadly pandemic and an economic depression.

We should be focused on providing stability for working people not pushing our community into another crisis.

Corporate landlords in Seattle are taking advantage of the improving economic condition to raise rents at double the national rate.

At the same time, we're quickly approaching a new evictions crisis when the eviction moratorium expires.

Imagine being a child right now who has just had their education and their life disrupted for a year and a half, starting to emerge from that situation, and then being evicted from your home before the start of the next school year or during the next school year.

What are we going to prioritize?

Massive profits for corporate landlords?

or taking action to protect our community from this coming eviction crisis.

Pass the moratorium extension, pass the school year ban, close the just cause evictions loophole.

No loopholes, no delays, no watering down.

We need action from the council.

Thank you for calling in.

Folks, we are at 311 PM.

I had committed to 60 minutes of public comment.

We've heard from about 54 people.

I'm going to call on the last person whose name I pre-called, and that's Elizabeth Cowan.

And then we're going to go ahead and close out the public comment period to go ahead and take up some of this legislation.

So our last public commenter for today is Elizabeth Cowan.

Or Cohen.

I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing your name.

No, that's all right.

I am, everybody's talking about corporate landlords here.

I am not a corporate landlord.

I am a working class, small landlord.

I own one property in D3.

I'm a retired teacher, so I understand the importance of how students and families, I manage the property myself because I cannot afford a property manager, but I am poised to sell my property as a single family dwelling because I don't charge enough in rent for it to be attractive to an investor, so it would be a single family dwelling, meaning that as many as seven people will be out of a home.

No one here has mentioned how my mortgage, property taxes, utilities, insurance, and maintenance will be paid for if my renters can't pay during an entire school year.

No one has mentioned this.

Where is the fiscal plan attached to this piece of legislation?

to ignore small landlords on this point is not providing stable housing because it is housing that will not be paid for.

So I ask you, who are you designating to pay for this piece of legislation?

I urge...

Thank you, Elizabeth, for calling in.

Unfortunately, that is all the time we have for public comment this I want to thank everybody who called in to give public comment.

We did have an opportunity to hear from 55 members of the public on the various matters on today's agenda.

So we're going to go ahead and close out the public comment period at this point and move to other items of business on the agenda.

Again, for those of you who weren't able to speak but did sign up, I apologize.

You are welcome to send your comments directly to the full city council at council.

That's C-O-U-N-C-I-L at Seattle dot G-O-V.

We do read our email and get those in real time, so feel free to shoot us your public comments.

Next up is payment of the bills.

Will the clerk please read the title?

Payment of bills.

Council Bill 120095. An ordinance appropriating money to pay certain audited claims for the week of May 24th, through May 28, 2021, and ordering the payment thereof.

Thank you so much.

I move to pass Council Bill 120095. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded that the bill pass.

Are there any comments?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Will the clerk please read item one into the record?

Agenda item one, council bill 120080. and ordinance relating to land use and zoning extending for six months a moratorium established by ordinance 125764 and extended by ordinances 12006, 126090 and 126241 on the filing, acceptance, processing and or approval of any application to establish a new principle or accessory use or change in principle or accessory use for any site currently used as a mobile home park as defined in sections 23.84A.032 of the Seattle Municipal Code and ratifying and confirming certain prior acts.

Thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

I will move to pass Council Bill 120080. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you so much.

It's been moved and seconded, and I am assuming that Council Member Juarez, you are going to report out on this item.

Is that correct?

I'm going to hand it over to you.

Thank you, Council President.

As I shared this morning and I've been sharing for probably the last two years, as you know, Council Member Strauss is not here today, so I will speak to this item since we've been working on this.

We've introduced legislation that would create a long-term resolution to the issue by establishing a manufactured home park overlay to preserve the last two existing manufactured home parks in Seattle.

Both are located in District 5. This, that legislation, this legislation is currently on hold pending a challenge to its SEPA determination.

The current moratorium is set to expire on July 10th.

We hope to extend this moratorium for the final day, for the final time today to allow for the SEPA appeal to be resolved and for council to consider our legislation to preserve these parks for the long term.

And we've obviously been in discussions with legal on this as well.

Thank you.

Great, thank you so much Council Member Juarez.

Are there any additional comments on the bill?

Hearing no additional comments on the bill, will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill?

Juarez.

Aye.

Lewis.

Aye.

Morales.

Aye.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Aye.

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Will the clerk please read item two into the record?

Agenda item two, resolution 31998, a resolution urging Mayor Durkin and Governor Inslee to extend the city and state emergency moratoriums on evictions through no earlier than the end of 2021.

Thank you so much.

I move to adopt Resolution 31998. Is there a second?

Second.

Second.

Great, wonderful.

Okay, Council Member Sawant, you are the sponsor of the resolution, so I'm going to hand it over to you to address this item.

Thank you.

And Council President, I will make The general comments I have and then move the amendment.

Is that okay?

Or do you want me to move the amendment?

No, let's let's address the base the base bill and then we'll have you do the amendment and then we can have a conversation about the amendment and do the roll call on the amendment.

Okay, thank you.

This resolution urges the mayor and governor to extend the moratorium on evictions to at least the end of this year.

This resolution last came for a vote to the city council on March 15th, two weeks before the city and state eviction moratoriums were poised to expire.

At that time, renters were terrified that they could lose their homes in two weeks and housing activists and organizations demanded that the mayor and the governor extend the eviction moratorium to the end of the year.

Minutes before the city council meeting on that day where the resolution was going to be voted on, Mayor Durkan relented and extended the moratorium for an additional three months.

And later, Governor Inslee did the same.

As we said at that time, this was a victory for the renter's rights struggle, but it was also only a partial victory because the moratorium was extended to only three months.

I proposed at the time, and the council unanimously agreed to delay the vote on the resolution until today, June 7, because the eviction moratoriums are now are going to expire on June 30th unless they're extended.

Like in March, if the eviction moratoriums are permitted to expire at the end of this month, it will spell a real disaster for renters.

According to the U.S.

Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey, 270,000 Washington state renters have little to no confidence that they will be able to pay rent next month, which is 18% of all state renters, and 98,000 Washington state renters think it is very or somewhat likely that they will be evicted in the next two months.

And already, as public comment testimonials have stated, and as I have said in my comments in previous weeks, the data from the real estate industry in Seattle itself shows that rents are starting to skyrocket, starting in January already.

and that they are projected to increase at a greater rate than the rents that were going up in the pre-pandemic period.

So renters are facing a dire situation both in terms of keeping up with current rent, not to mention the debt that they have been forced to accumulate.

We have fought for and won the right to a lawyer for renters facing eviction, eviction defenses for renters, and rental assistance money.

All of those are extremely important, but none of them are an excuse to fail to extend the eviction moratorium.

When the eviction moratorium ends, literally thousands of Seattle renters could be served with eviction paperwork, which is also known as unlawful detainers.

An unknown number will self-evict moving before they are formally served with eviction paperwork.

Then statistically, half of those actually served with formal eviction paperwork will be evicted by default because they are unable to respond to the paperwork or appear in court.

And only those who make it to the eviction hearing can avoid eviction using Seattle's eviction defense, right to counsel, and rental assistance funds.

I oppose evictions because housing should be a human right.

At the very least, however, the housing emergency renters are facing due to the economic shock of COVID-19 needs to be resolved before elected officials even consider lifting the eviction moratorium.

This is a resolution.

It's a resolution urging Mayor Durkan and Governor Inslee to extend the eviction moratorium to the end of this year.

I want to move the amendment and then I have specific comments about the amended version.

So I move amendment one, which updates this resolution to account for changes over the past three months since it was last discussed.

Can I get a second?

Is there a second?

Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

So Councilor Russell-Watt, you may address your amendment.

Thank you.

The amendment adds up-to-date statistics and also language on recent community organizing.

For example, a quote from a Washington Community Action Network outreach letter, quote, we are calling for an extension of the eviction moratorium to the end of this year, end of the year.

to make sure renters have time to access rent relief programs, get back to their normal incomes, and can get caught up on rent.

We want some important policies in the state legislature, but to make sure those policies are effective, we need to ensure renters have time to catch up on rent." The amendment resolution also quotes from a Washington Low Income Housing Alliance letter stating, quote, incredible numbers of renters are applying for rental assistance and it will take months to get the funds distributed. Lifting the moratorium and allowing landlords to proceed with evictions a month from now would be grossly irresponsible, end quote. Frankly, it is, I agree with them, it is not acceptable that elected officials would even consider lifting the moratorium before renters are able to get caught up on their past rent and stabilize their lives after this unprecedented emergency. The amendment also accounts for the provision in Senate Bill 5160 that shamefully ends the eviction moratorium statewide on June 30th. But to be clear, while the statewide moratorium is scheduled at this moment to end on June 30th, according to Senate Bill 5160, there is nothing legally stopping Governor Inslee from issuing a new moratorium proclamation. And Senate Bill 5160 says nothing about the city's moratorium. So I urge council members to support this amendment, updating the resolution language. I also urge council members to support the resolution as a whole. But at this time, I think we have a first vote on the amendment to update the language and then the vote on the resolution as a whole. And I'll just have some closing comments later on. Thank you so much.

Perfect.

That's exactly how we're going to handle this.

So before we call the roll on proposed amendment one, I would like to offer other council members an opportunity to ask any questions or make any comments about proposed Amendment 1 as published on the agenda.

Hearing no comments or seeing any hands raised for questions, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment 1.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Aye.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

Okay, the amendment passes and the motion carries.

The amendment is adopted and the amended resolution is now before the City Council.

Are there any additional comments on the resolution as amended.

And of course, Council Member Salant is the prime sponsor.

You'll get the last word.

All right, scanning the Zoom room for any hands, and I'm not seeing any hands raised.

So Council Member Salant, you get the last word.

You can close that debate, and we'll call this to a vote.

Thank you.

I just want to add the New York Times editorial board recently wrote an editorial with the Orwellian title to prevent evictions and moratoriums.

This editorial advocates for ending eviction moratoriums around the country by making the neoliberal bootstraps argument that poor renters need the threat of eviction to be motivated to access rental assistance money.

We know that such neoliberal arguments have no truth, and when you look at overwhelming statistical evidence, but we also know that this is the new line of the corporate establishment now, and we are seeing it being used around the country to erode renters' rights from Philadelphia to Olympia and it is being used as a cudgel against any advocacy of extending eviction moratoriums.

nationally.

The reality is that rental assistance agencies need time to distribute rental assistance funds.

Renters do not need the threat of eviction.

Renters need some guarantees that they will not lose their homes.

And as progressives, we have a duty to push back against this neoliberal narrative.

Housing should be a human right and not used as leverage like the New York Times editorial board proposes.

So I would urge that we send a clear message to the governors and the mayor's offices that the Seattle City Council supports rent payers and community organizations in demanding that the moratorium be extended to at least the end of this year.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Salon, for those closing comments.

We are now going to call this resolution to a vote.

So will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amended resolution?

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The resolution is adopted as amended and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Okay, moving on to item three.

Will the clerk please read item three into the record?

The report of the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Commission, agenda item three, council bill 120046, an ordinance relating to termination of residential rental tenancies, providing a defense to certain evictions of children, their families, and educators during the school year, and amending section 22.206160 of the Seattle Municipal Code.

The committee recommends the council pass the council bill with a divided report with Council Members Sawant, Morales, and Lewis in favor, and Council Member Peterson opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Sawant, as chair of the committee, you are recognized in order to address, I'm sorry, in order to provide the committee's report.

Thank you.

their academic achievement, and their development and mental health.

For example, the Losing Home Report found that, quote, of evicted respondents with school-aged children, 85.7% said their children had to move schools after the eviction, and 87.5% reported their children's school performance suffered very much because of the eviction, end quote.

In 2018, the state found that nearly 4,200 Seattle public school children were homeless at some point during the school year.

That is a staggering 7% of all public school children.

And in practical terms, it means that in an average class of 30 students, two will be homeless at some point during the school year.

This is a racial justice and Black Lives Matter issue as well.

Just as Seattle landlords evict Black tenants at much higher rates than other tenants, we also see that Black students and other students of color disproportionately face homelessness.

And we should make sure, of course, to understand the causal link between evictions and the likelihood of ending up homeless.

We know the Losing Home Report also found that nine times out of 10 evictions result in homelessness.

The 2018 state data found that fully 40% of homeless students were Black and 23% of homeless students were Latinx, even though those communities constitute only 14 and 12% respectively of Seattle's public student population.

Preventing school year evictions will reduce at least this one form of systemic racism that is affecting our students.

In the class of 2018, for example, 55.2% of homeless students graduated on time compared to 84.5% of students who were housed.

So we see dramatic impact of homelessness and evictions on children's graduation rates.

The academic research into the impact of eviction and housing instability on students and children is also revealed.

For example, the negative effects of instability on child development, which is a report published by the Urban Institute, found that, quote, children experiencing residential instability demonstrate worse academic and social outcomes than their residentially stable peers.

such as lower vocabulary skills, problem behaviors, grade retention, increased high school dropout rates, and lower adult education attainment.

And similarly, research shows that turnover in school staff significantly harms the school's effectiveness.

And that is why this is such a strong bill, where it includes not only school children, but all educator staff on public school campuses.

And As I've said in the past, the eviction of children from their homes in one of the richest cities in the richest country in the world is a damning indictment of capitalism.

But at the very least, the city has the power right now to stop evictions during the school year and should do so immediately.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Council Member Sawant for that initial report.

I do know that there is an amendment that you would like to bring forward and there are, I think, Let me see.

At least one other amendment.

So I'm going to go ahead and ask you, Councilor Sawant, to make your motion for proposed amendment one.

Thank you.

I move amendment one, which is a purely technical amendment adding a severability clause.

It was sent to the council offices last Friday.

This amendment was developed based on a suggestion of Council President Gonzalez, and I really appreciate your help on this.

And I don't have anything more to add, but of course I need a second.

Yeah, is there?

I will second that motion, so it's been moved and seconded to adopt proposed Amendment one.

Are there any additional comments or questions on proposed Amendment one?

Hearing and seeing no additional questions, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment one?

Juarez I. Lewis Yes.

Morales OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg, OSBT-Karen Hollweg,

I understand Council Member Mosqueda, you have another proposed amendment, Proposed Amendment 2. So I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to you to make your motion and we'll see if we, and then have a second, and we will then allow you to address your proposed amendment.

Thank you very much, Madam President.

I move to amend Council Bill 120046 by adding language from Amendment Number 2. Second.

been moved and seconded to amend the bill as presented on amendment two.

Council Member Muscat I'm going to hand it back over to you to address your amendment.

Thank you very much.

First I want to start with a thank you.

I want to thank Council Member Sawant for all of the work that she and her team and the committee as a whole have done to bring forward this legislation for a vote today.

I'm very supportive of the underlining bill and I want to thank her for Her work with me as I brought forward a potential idea for amendment.

We had some other ideas that we would have liked to include that we will continue to work on and I'll make note on that here very soon, but wanted to do everything that we could to address some of the potential concerns that had been coming up for a very small sector of the community that has raised some concerns about potential unintended impacts to housing stability in the very rare situation that there is a homeowner.

who has a financial limitation or other life circumstance that necessitates them to potentially move back into their homes.

Colleagues, this is very similar to the very narrow situation that we have included in the Just Care Statute that's already in effect.

And the amendment that I have circulated for your consideration today, which is outlined in amendment number two, is trying to make sure that we are addressing this very narrow concerns and applying in owner move in as an exemption during the school year moratorium.

This has been discussed with housing activists, tenants rights organizations, and members of the labor community.

And I think overall there is a broad understanding and desire to make sure that a this bill moves forward and is passed today, which I'm strongly supportive of.

that we continue to address the concerns that are coming up about potential misuse of any of the exemption statutes across the board, which I'm very committed to, and Councilmember Sawant and I had extensive discussions about, and we will continue to work on, and see that if there is a situation that arises for these individuals who happen to be very small landlords with, you know, one of these housing units that they do need to move back into given their financial limitations or other hardships and life circumstances.

that we apply the very same language that we already have included in the other two pieces of legislation in front of us today, and that we've already included in the Just Cause legislation as well.

I want to be very clear that this Just Cause addition here that we're talking about is just for the owner move-in as a just reason for eviction.

This is not a loophole as there are many reasons that many owners may need to move into their homes including life changes like the birth of a child, the loss of a job, which so many folks have experienced, illness or relocation.

These cases, which we expect to be very few, have meant that some of the owners who have some of these rental units are concerned about their own ability to have housing stability.

The amendment would add in the owner move in exemption for owners to get to require them to give the 90 days notice and to make sure that they are adhering to the requirements within the just cause language.

This narrow amendment is intended to be response to those concerns that we've heard about possibly having instability in the housing market in those very few circumstances where.

Some of these small, very small landlords are income restricted with one single residence that maybe they can't depend on their income anymore and they need to move into their own family's home.

We know that Seattle's high cost of housing, there are a few circumstances where the owner residence may not have the financial means to line up other housing options for the length of time potentially required in the legislation as currently written.

And so in these very narrow circumstances, We are hoping that this helps to create greater housing stability for folks in this specific situation.

I really appreciate that there is a ongoing conversation that we have begun to address here today with the legislation in front of us through the other ordinances that we're continuing to pass today.

And that there's a clear understanding that we need to make sure that our language around owner move ins is strengthened that we make sure that there's penalties for people who are violating any of these narrow exemptions that we have written into statute.

I noted earlier during council briefing, I am very interested in trouble damages, making sure that renters receive triple the amount of their rent that would otherwise be paid to in the form of rent had they stayed in the place if there is any violation of the ordinance and also that we seek to enhance the enforcement statute by requiring.

private right of action that includes any damages as well be paid to the renter.

I think that many of these things are on the horizon for us to work on and they will apply broadly to the other tenant protections bills that we're considering today and the just cause language that's already on the book.

I know that there's much more work to be done.

I am hoping that in the case of this piece of legislation, unfortunately, we were not able to include some of the stronger enforcement provisions that council members want and I had been working on due to the time limitation.

But I am very committed to voting on this bill today, did not wanna hold it up, greatly appreciate that it's in front of us today, know how urgently needed it is.

And in an effort to move forward this narrow provision, I'm asking for your support on amendment number two, with the commitment, with the full-throated commitment that we continue to make sure that there are stronger enforcement standards related to the department's ability to make sure that folks are adhering to our just cause language.

I do want to thank Aaron House for the work that she has done with Councilmember so wants office, and a broad swath of stakeholders, including from the tenants rights groups, labor organizations, housing rights groups as well.

I think there's broad understanding that alone this is not enough, that this moratorium, including language from this amendment, needs to be coupled with rental relief and repayment for small landlords.

One MOMO that we received said that this moratorium is important, it's nice, but it doesn't stop rent debt from accumulating.

Rent relief and other forms of monetary support will definitely help and is much needed.

And that colleagues who are providing assistance for Seattle Public School students with immediate help Safety and housing and educational needs show that rent and housing support is one of the highest requests where most of their money goes so excited to pass this legislation.

I'm hopeful that we can include this narrow addition here today.

And we know that there's much more to do, both in terms of improving enforcement standards from the department.

and also making sure that we do more with rental assistance, which were teed up to do in the rental, excuse me, which were teed up to do with the federal relief dollars.

And we know we will continue to address in this fall's supplemental and budget process.

So thank you very much for your consideration today.

Thank you, Council Member Mosqueda, for the introduction of proposed Amendment 2. Are there any additional comments or questions about proposed Amendment 2?

Council Member Solano, please.

Thank you, President Gonzalez, and thank you, Council Member Mosqueda.

I really appreciate Council Member Mosqueda talking through this amendment with me in a very thorough manner, and I really appreciate The commitment to not holding up the boat because obviously overall, I would say on renters rights, the city has real work to do in terms of making sure that the laws we pass in favor of 10 protections are actually enforced and so that's a larger conversation that I would really be interested in having and something that.

I've been, my staff and I have been discussing with renters and renter activists over the years.

But as I've informed Council Member Mosqueda, I'm not going to be supporting adding this loophole to this school children eviction ban that would allow landlords to evict children in the middle of the school year in order to move themselves or their family members into the property.

I agree that this is a, It's very likely only a very narrow issue.

And I also agree that if it's applied in such a way that only small landlords who are facing this specific difficult kind of situation, then you cannot characterize it as a loophole.

But the reason I would be concerned about it is twofold.

One is that I don't think it is needed because with a little foresight, landlords should be able to arrange to move in over the summer so that they don't force a child to move during the school year, because it often also entails having to move schools in the middle of the school year and that's very, that's an onerous burden to put on a child.

And So, so in that sense, I probably this may not arise very often, but I would also be concerned that it may not be used by genuine landlords.

And, you know, again, that brings up the overall question of enforcement and the concern that an unscrupulous landlord might, might, you know, use a falsehood to saying that they intend to move into the unit and they have no And but that they have actually no intention of actually occupying and then after the fact it's impossible for the renters are nearly impossible to figure out and then follow up and and get reparations for it.

And also, I think.

This amendment would allow any building owner, not just small ones to move themselves or their family members into the unit.

So I still agree that it is probably not going to be very damaging, but at the same time, I would hesitate to.

be party to opening that door and so that's why I would not support this amendment at this time.

I really appreciate Council Member Mosqueda's interest in improving the enforcement in the future and as I said before my office has been eager to look into renters rights enforcement overall so this is something that we would really be I'm happy to follow up with you, Council Member Mosqueda, and any other Council Member who wants to look into this.

And I also wanted to share with members of the public that I've discussed with a small landlord who is facing a specific situation which sounds extremely problematic.

It is an outlier situation, but nonetheless it seems like a very troubling but the landlord also themselves agreed that it is an outlier situation.

And I also wanted to express publicly appreciation for the small landlord saying that they really support renters rights as a whole, and that they had some specific concerns and that they would be willing to speak out in favor of renters rights as a whole, because as a small landlord, they understand and appreciate the need for renters rights to be strengthened.

So I'll stop there, thank you.

Any other comments or questions on proposed amendment two?

And looks like there are no other comments from other council members.

So Council Member Muscatia, you have the last word.

If you could close out debate on proposed amendment two, that'd be great.

We can call it to a vote.

Thank you very much.

And I just wanted to thank council members want for her comments as well as we look forward to strengthening overall enforcement monitoring and and really compliance with legislation that's already on the books.

I think that's important as we also look to expand the moratoriums that are in place because We want to make sure that folks are adhering to the existing laws and that as we allow for greater protections for tenants, that everybody knows both their rights and their responsibilities.

So I look forward to that future conversation.

Thank you, Council Member Sawant.

continuing to push for broadening the enforcement element of this, which I will be there with you to further those discussions.

I really appreciate also that folks are acknowledging that this is a very narrow situation that we're talking about here, infrequent situation, but there have been a number of emails that we've received.

There's a few stories.

One example of a correspondence that we received was a family who has been living with other family.

but they've since welcomed a new baby and has always intended to move back into the home that they've purchased and don't have the means to both pay for mortgage and take on additional debt or housing costs.

And I want to reiterate that this is intending to try to find stability in the overall market, though we are very, very clear that the overall intent of this legislation is tremendously impactful, very strongly in support of the folks who have been advocating for this, from the housing and tenant folks Seattle Education and Martin Luther King County Labor Council really appreciate the strong coalition that's supporting this legislation today.

And so this very narrow amendment is, again, from our perspective, not a loophole.

There's lots of language that has already included this type of allowance, which also includes the two other bills that we're talking about today that look specifically at just cause reason for ending month-to-month agreements which is included in Council Member Sawant's and Morales' right to refuse the legislation.

That's also up for a vote this afternoon, which I'm very supportive of.

And we're going to be working towards a greater, I think, broader swath of making sure that all of our enforcement mechanisms are properly in place so that if there is any of these situations in which a lease moves automatically to a month-to-month conversion, that the Just Cause Ordinance and other protections are applied, applied appropriately, and that we are strongly enforcing who is using any of these standards, because this is paramount that we get this right and we send a strong message to landlords.

that they are going to be watched if they are using any of these provisions.

And overall housing stability is absolutely the goal of the legislation and the narrow amendment in front of us.

So with that, look forward to supporting the overall bill and bills in front of us today.

And thank very much Council Member Swatt for your comments.

All right, thank you so much for closing out debate on proposed amendment two.

With that being said, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment?

Warren.

Aye.

Lewis.

Yes.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

No.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Six in favor, one opposed.

The motion carries.

The amendment is adopted and the amended bill is now before the council.

I am not aware of any other amendments being brought forward on this particular bill, so I'm going to open it up for general comments.

Again, Council Member Sawant, you are the primary sponsor of this particular bill, so you'll get the last word to close out debate on the bill as amended.

But before that, just want to see if any other council members have any comments that they'd like to make on the bill as amended.

Council Member Peterson, please.

Thank you, Council President.

Colleagues, for those of you who are not on the Renter's Rights Committee, I offered several amendments, which I believe would make this legislation better.

I wanted to offer those amendments then, debate those amendments then at committee, rather than rehash them here.

But I do want to explain my vote on this.

I agree with the sponsor of the legislation that evictions present hardships for children and families, and no one wants to have this disruption that leads to learning loss and instability for children.

I voted in favor of numerous tenant protections during the past year, including the winter ban on evictions for low and moderate income residents, free legal counsel for those in need and facing eviction, and the payment plans for those negatively impacted by the COVID pandemic.

Today I supported the resolution to encourage another extension to the eviction moratorium to provide more time to have more rental assistance money flow from the federal and state governments to both housing providers and tenants.

Before joining the City Council, I helped to build and preserve tens of thousands of units of low-income housing, and I worked at the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development.

helping to allocate billions of dollars to address homelessness throughout the country.

However, I believe a more targeted, direct, and efficient solution is to fund tenant and landlord assistance for those in need rather than adding another regulation that could be legally challenged because it leaves one party, the providers of the house, bearing the brunt of the cost.

regulating rather than funding the solution on a permanent basis is more likely to have a negative substantial impact, not on so-called corporate landlords that can absorb these costs imposed by the council, but on the smallest landlords in our city.

So for the three ordinances before us today, I had offered amendments that would have exempted small landlords owning four or fewer units in Seattle.

Regarding this bill, 120046, this permanent bill that singles out educators for special rental protections, one of my amendments would have targeted the bill to assist teachers and substitute teachers and curriculum specialists rather than every single employee at the school who might not be involved in the direct education of children.

my amendment would still have kept the special new protection for the school children and their families.

Another amendment would have made the bill more like the law from San Francisco, which limits the eviction protections to when it is no fault of the tenant who is an educator.

But my amendment would have been broader than San Francisco's because it would have still banned the evictions for school children and their families.

Another amendment would have changed this permanent alteration of landlord-tenant relations to an 18-month pilot program to determine whether it's effective or what its impact is.

It's important for the general public to know that this bill is different from recent COVID relief bills because it would be permanent.

I believe we should focus on getting targeted funding to those in need rather than permanently altering the contractual relationships that put the burden entirely on the housing provider.

So to be consistent with my votes at committee, I'll be voting no on this council bill.

Thank you.

Thank you Council Member Peterson.

Are there any other colleagues who would like to make comments on this particular bill?

I'm not seeing any other hands raised.

So I did actually want to just add a little bit of context for the bill that we're about to be voting on.

I want to signal that I am very supportive of this particular piece of legislation.

And as a reminder, we have I have personally sponsored legislation and we have all supported multiple pieces of legislation over the last year and beyond.

to provide additional rental assistance to people who need it in this space.

So again, I think it's important to understand that in particular, some of these bills have identified funds, very much needed funds to address the issues related to students experiencing homelessness.

And of course, keeping students housed has been something that I have personally championed additional resources for during the last three years now.

For example, our families education preschool promise levy includes for the first time ever dedicated funding to the tune of $600,000 a year to address the experience of student homelessness.

We've also provided funding for child care for families experiencing homelessness.

And we have added language, we added language to the jumpstart spending plan to require work with small landlords in addition to language focused on families with school age children.

Our 2020 budget process ensured that there were additional dollars specifically designated for rental assistance to go to families with school age children for overall rental assistance.

resources.

So my support of this bill is recognizing that there is a holistic way for us to continue to support the needs, the housing stability needs of our families and kids.

And yes, more rental assistance is needed.

And yes, more dollars to allow for and invest in a family's housing stability is absolutely needed.

But that isn't enough.

We also have have an obligation as policymakers to fix regulations when regulations are part and parcel of one of the causes for why that housing instability begins and continues to pervade within our communities.

So I'm excited to support this legislation and I look forward to future conversations with all of you who have expressed interest in identifying additional resources to support families experiencing housing instability.

One of the things that my office has been following very closely is spending on the families education preschool and promise levy.

And one of the things that we have begun to learn is that many of the dollars that we have identified to support specifically students experiencing homelessness have not been able to be spent at the level that we expected in large part because of at home learning.

So there will be an opportunity for us to potentially work together as a council to reprioritize some of those dollars to still meet the needs of students in our public school system, but be very nimble and quick with some flexibility as it relates to existing revenue resources.

So I look forward to having those conversations with you all and to making sure that we address those concerns.

So I'm excited to vote on this bill.

And with that being said, I'm going to hand it over to Council Member Sawant to close out debate, and then we can vote on this bill and move on to the other suite of bills.

Thank you President Gonzalez and I appreciate your comments on this bill and your support of it.

I just wanted to thank the committee members, council members Morales and Lewis for standing with renters in the committee and voting against the amendments that Council Member Peterson brought forward because they are not in the interest of renters.

Specifically, I wanted to note that one of the amendments which would have divided public school workers into, you know, well-paid employees, better paid employees who would have access to this eviction protection and others who would not.

It was important that the committee rejected that amendment among others and it reflected the The ideas and the sentiments of many rank and file workers and union members who stand for solidarity among all public school workers and I really appreciate the Seattle Education Association among the many other unions representing workers in the public school district.

who have taken such positions in the past.

For example, the Seattle Education Association having public actions in solidarity with the ongoing strike at that time of the Teamsters 174 public school bus drivers.

And overall, I appreciate the organizing of the Seattle Education Association who have spoken out again and again in defense of their students and fellow workers in public schools.

Everyday educators see the devastating impact of housing insecurity on young people.

And they are organizing, actually, the CAs organizing was crucial also for passing the cap on move-in fees that my office developed in 2016 alongside the Washington Community Action Network.

And their support for today's legislation is also greatly appreciated.

And I wanted to especially thank the leadership of the Seattle Education Association, including Jennifer Matter and UT Hawkins, the president, the vice president, and Yvette also, all of whom who made time to meet with my office to discuss the legislation, and also rank and file union activists from SEA, like Bruce Jackson, who brought the resolution to the SEA representative assembly supporting this legislation, which passed overwhelmingly, and Matt Naley, who presented to our Sustainability and Rental Rights Committee also as an SEA member.

And I also wanted to thank the Martin Luther King County Labor Council, School Board Director Zachary DeWolf, who brought this legislation to our notice in the first place, El Centro de la Raza, Sound Alliance, Seattle Council, Parent Teacher Student Association, Socialist Alternative, and the organizations in the Stay House, Stay Healthy Coalition, all of whom who have advocated for city council to pass a strong bill protecting students and educators from school year evictions.

And most of all, I wanted to thank all the rank and file renters, working people, union members and socialists who have helped advocate for this bill.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Conspirator Salant, for those closing remarks.

All right, that does close out debate on this particular bill.

So I'm going to ask that the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the amended bill.

Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

No.

Sawant?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Six in favor, one opposed.

The bill passes as amended and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

All right, colleagues, we're going to move to item four.

Will the clerk please read item four into the record?

Agenda item four, council bill 120077, an ordinance relating to the termination of residential rental tenancies, providing a defense to eviction for rent due during the city's COVID-19 civil emergency and amending section 22.206.160 of the Seattle Municipal Code.

The committee recommends the bill pass with a divided report with council members Sawant, Morales and Lewis in favor and council member Peterson opposed.

Wonderful.

OK, thank you so much, Council Member Sawant.

You're the chair of the committee, so I am going to hand it over to you to provide the committee's report, and then we'll take it from there.

Oh, you're on mute.

Sorry.

Thank you, President Gonzalez.

This legislation is sponsored by Council Member Morales, and so I will turn it over to her to make introductory remarks.

Thank you.

Now I muted myself inadvertently.

Okay.

Thank you for facilitating that hand back over to Council Member Morales.

Council Member Morales, I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to you to walk us through this report.

Great.

Thank you.

Chair Sawant, and Council President Gonzalez.

I am excited to bring this before my colleagues.

I do want to begin by thanking the members of the Stay Housed, Stay Healthy Coalition.

We've been working with them for several months now, and I'm really excited to be bringing this forward at their request.

And I do specifically want to thank representatives from the Housing Justice Project, El Centro de la Raza, Washington Can, B Seattle, Wablock, the LGBTQ allyship, Transit Riders Union, Tenants Union, Real Change, Share the Cities, the landlords at Solid Ground and Lehigh, and many, many others who've been part of this work.

I think it's really important that they are pushing us as a council for more tenant protections and really holding us accountable to our neighbors who rent in the city.

So just a little bit of background.

According to the National Equity Atlas, county renters owe an average of $4,700 in back rent.

Combined, approximately 39,000 renters owe $186 million in pandemic-related back rent.

And we know that over a third of Black, Latino, and Native communities are burdened with rent debt, These are some of the same neighbors whose work often requires that they are at increased risk of exposure to COVID.

We also know that they are disproportionately uninsured, that something like a medical emergency during a pandemic could significantly affect people's ability to pay.

for food and child care and other bills.

These really are some of the essential workers that we've been talking about and hearing about for the last year and the people without whom our city would have kind of fallen apart last year.

So it's really important that we do what we can to help protect them.

We know that 58% of people facing a pandemic related financial hardship are low income themselves already.

59% are people of color and 71% lost employment related income in the last year.

So when you couple this with the fact that in just a few weeks, the eviction moratorium at this point is set to end, you can understand the urgency to provide a defense to eviction for renters who have fallen behind because of a financial hardship.

The impending avalanche of evictions is more than just an issue of money.

It's a systemic issue brought on by generations of disinvestment.

All right, that is Seattle Public Schools calling.

brought on by generations of disinvestment.

And we know that this disinvestment in communities of color and our racist housing policies have really continued to haunt us.

And that's part of the challenge here.

We're trying to solve for some of these problems that are longstanding.

So what will this bill do?

This bill would allow tenants to assert a financial hardship defense at any time.

If you're a renter who's faced or will face financial hardship during the civil emergency, you will be protected.

If a landlord does serve an eviction notice to tenants based on a non-payment of rent, they must include a statement that notifies tenants of their right to assert a defense based on non-payment of rent caused by a financial hardship during the COVID emergency.

Once in court, tenants will have access to representation now that we have a right to counsel legislation that we passed earlier this year.

And as part of that right to counsel process, tenants are asked to self-certify that they are facing financial hardship.

So following that certification, renters will be allowed to assert this defense.

As I've mentioned in Council briefing this morning, and I do think that this is important to reiterate, landlords have resources available as well.

King County Executive recently announced that King County will be offering close to $150 million in rental assistance to tenants and landlords.

Here at the City, we are also offering just over $20 million in rent assistance.

So I think it's important that landlords are aware of that and that they access those resources before considering evicting someone.

I will have some closing comments, but I will leave it at that, colleagues, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you have.

Great, thank you so much, Council Member Morales, for that report.

Are there any additional comments on Council Bill 12077?

I see a couple hands raised.

Council Member Sawant is next, and then Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, President Gonzalez, and thank you, Council Member Morales.

I'm happy to support this renters' rights bill, and I was happy to co-sponsor it in the Renters' Rights Committee.

As was stated, it creates a defense to eviction-protecting renters from being evicted for being behind on their rent.

All right, Council Member Mosqueda, you are not muted.

That was my cracker, I'm sorry.

Sorry, Council Member Solano, go ahead.

No problem.

It creates a defense to eviction, protecting renters from being evicted for being behind on their rent during the COVID emergency.

And it is very important.

And at the same time, we should recognize it is not the same as canceling COVID debt, both renter debt and mortgage debt for working class homeowners, which is what we really need to be fighting for.

And because renters would still owe that back rent, it will hurt people's credits and sometimes people might even face lawsuits.

But at the very least, it is extremely important that the City Council pass this bill because it will mean that people won't be evicted and forced into homelessness for that back rent that was accumulated, that renters were forced to accumulate during COVID.

So I hope all council members will vote yes on this.

And I also wanted to note that this is both an economic justice and a racial justice bill.

Because of the endemic racism under capitalism, communities of color are facing far greater COVID-related debt burdens on top of the pre-existing debt burden discrimination and therefore are at a far greater risk of eviction once the eviction moratoriums end.

And on that note, it's extremely important that the city council pass this resolution, urging the mayor and the governor to extend the eviction moratorium.

And we need to be following up with them to make sure that they actually do it.

Last September, industryanalystapartmentlist.com, which is a website for landlords and is followed by corporate landlords, reported that 31% of renters had unpaid rent.

And the report went on, quote, The share of white renters with unpaid rent is well below the overall rate at 24 percent.

Meanwhile, black and Hispanic renters are far more likely to owe unpaid rent with rates of 48 percent and 41 percent respectively." So even the corporate landlord websites are acknowledging the disparities between White renters and renters of color and renters of color are facing a very dire situation. And so it's really important that we pass this bill. Thank you.

Thanks so much, Council Member Sawant.

Council Member Peterson, I did see that you were in the queue.

Did you still want to make comments?

Go ahead.

Floor is yours.

Me too.

Okay, I'll put you in the queue.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez.

Go ahead, Council Member Peterson.

Thank you, Council President.

Just to provide context again for the Renters' Rights Committee that we had a couple weeks ago, for this Council Bill 120077, I had offered two amendments at committee on May 26th.

The first amendment would have exempted small landlords, and the second would have allowed this regulatory change for 18 months so that it corresponds to the potential lingering effects of the COVID recession.

I think we want to be mindful of the financial challenges faced by smaller housing providers who lack the economies of scale to absorb these costs.

I also don't think it's appropriate to make such regulatory legislation permanent at this time.

Neither of my amendments passed, so I voted no at committee.

as nothing has changed in a material way since that time, I'll be voting no again today.

Again, while this legislation is framed as being related to COVID civil emergency, it would be permanent.

Rather than making wholesale permanent regulatory changes to existing contractual relationships that put the entire burden onto the housing provider, regardless of their hardship, I believe we should instead get more funding into the hands of the housing providers and the tenants to make them whole.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Council Member Juarez.

Thank you, Council President.

I'm going to just say some brief comments about all three bills.

I reluctantly voted yes for the school year evictions, but not for some of the reasons that Council Peterson outlined.

But mainly my main concern, and I did vote yes, is ultimately we do want to protect children and their families and educators.

But I do feel like, as we were advised by legal, that there's going to be some issues on the definition and how broad that bill is.

But nevertheless, I voted yes because I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak.

However, on this bill, I cannot vote yes on this one.

I think that my main concern with the whole slate here, and I think we heard this from legal counsel as well, also including the preemption arguments and the recent bearing case, is that we really do need a comprehensive review of city tenant protections that work with state law.

And I think this pandemic field recession has really changed the landlord tenant and the, as we learned from legal counsel, the preemption landscape.

So I think this piecemeal approach on long-term consequences is really going to be difficult to unwind.

And so in regarding Council Bill 12077, this is a defense.

So it is not correct to say that you will be protected.

It means that you have a defense when you go to court.

That doesn't mean it's going to be successful.

I'm always concerned about raising expectations.

So what you're going to have is somebody to come into court, assert the defense of COVID.

That's why you couldn't pay your rent during the moratorium.

But that doesn't mean that a judge or a jury is going to buy that.

And that doesn't mean that you don't get to walk away from responsibilities.

Of course these are not, I'm not passing judgment because all of us have been affected by this recession and what it's done, but obviously to renters.

But a moratorium doesn't mean that you don't have to pay.

It just means that at some point you have to pay later or you have to work something out with your landlord with notice.

And so with that and what we've learned from legal counsel and the briefings that we've had and how it works with state law, And I don't think it works with state law.

I think that was made very clear to us.

But in any event, I'm sorry, but I cannot support this today.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Juarez, for those comments.

Really appreciate it.

Are there any additional comments on the bill?

Okay, I'm not seeing any other hands raised so Councilmember Morales, you will get the last word as the prime sponsor, and we'll close that debate after your comments and call the bill to a vote.

Thank you, colleagues.

So I do want to acknowledge and thank Council Member Sawant for joining me in sponsoring this.

I neglected to mention that at the beginning of my remarks.

Colleagues, we know that thousands of our neighbors will find themselves caught with a growing mountain of debt and a looming deadline for when that debt comes due.

And if we don't do something to provide a defense for renters now, we will face depression level Depression era levels of homelessness.

So, you know, our system is already overburdened.

This is a huge issue that we've been talking about.

And even if a quarter of the renters who currently owe rent debt fall into homelessness, our entire system could collapse.

So this is about providing some protection in the form of a defense so that there is at least an opportunity for them to have a discussion, to be able to work out the payments as council member, What has this talked about?

And these are things that we have also been discussing throughout this year as we talk about how to make sure that there are different levels, different mechanisms in place for folks.

So we have to respond to this impending crisis with the gravity that it deserves.

We have to take action now so that renters who have faced a financial hardship don't face eviction too.

And as Council Member Juarez said, we aren't saying that folks don't owe the rent.

We're saying that while they are dealing with the hardship during this era, during this time, that there is some protection for them from getting evicted.

This is the reason why they can't pay the rent for now.

So passing this bill will do just that and will help keep tens of thousands of renters from the threat of eviction.

So I urge my colleagues to support the bill today and give them that protection and that defense.

Thank you, Council Member Morales.

That does conclude debate on Council Bill 12077. So I'm going to ask that the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill.

Juarez?

No.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

No.

Sawant?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Five in favor, two opposed.

The bill passes and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf?

Will the clerk please read item five into the record?

Agenda item five, council bill 120090. an ordinance relating to new residential rental tenancies, giving a tenant a right of first refusal of a new tenancy after the expiration of a tenancy for a specified time, requiring a landlord to have just cause for declining to give a tenant the right of first refusal, requiring notice in advance of asserting just cause, creating a private right for action for the tenant, providing a defense to eviction when a landlord fails to give a tenant a right of first refusal, allowing a tenant to rescind a termination agreement and amending Section 7.24.030, 14.08.050, and 22.206.160 of the Seattle Municipal Code.

The committee recommends the bill pass with the divided report with Council Members Sawant, Morales, and Lewis in favor, and Council Member Peterson opposed.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Salant and Morales, is Council Member Morales going to take the lead on addressing this one, or are you Chair Salant?

Since we're both sponsoring, I'll speak as committee chair, and then, of course, Council Member Morales and also Luis, I'm sure, will want to add points.

Great.

Perfect.

Take it away.

Thank you.

This bill, as I said, is jointly prime sponsored by Councilmember Morales's office and my office, and co-sponsored by Councilmember Lewis.

This bill creates a right of first refusal for renters to renew their lease unless a landlord has a just cause for refusing to renew the lease.

As I've said before, this issue has been discussed by the Sustainability and Venture Sites Committee since March, and I really appreciate Councilmembers engaging on this issue, and I appreciate being able to work alongside the Councilmember Morales' office on this bill.

We've heard as a committee from two panels of impacted renters and renter rights activists.

We also discussed two previous drafts of the legislation developed by our two offices.

And through those discussions and technical feedback, it has become clear that what renters really need in these situations is the right of first refusal where a landlord is required to give the current tenant the first chance to sign a new lease before offering that lease to any other renters unless there is a just cause.

Renters need a new lease long before there's any question of eviction.

I mean, we've heard from hundreds of renters who've been in this situation or who are about to be in this situation and who are strongly advocating for the passage of this bill to make sure that Seattle Just Cause protections cover all renters.

Few renters who are told by their landlord that they will not have their lease renewed are going to refuse to leave because the law says they cannot be evicted because in real life renters will end up doing what's called self eviction, which is starting to look for a new place to live, even though that they know that it's unjust and that they cannot be evicted, because understandably, they don't feel confident with having to potentially fight it out in court.

And in the course of discussing our bill in the committee, we heard from dozens of renters who called in for public comment and several who testified at the committee table.

who all recognize this legislation as basic common sense.

And I wanted to express my gratitude to all the rank and file renters, not only those who testified publicly, but also signed the petition, community petition released from my office, and just hundreds of rank and file renters who have spoken up about this issue.

But I wanted to quote Starr Willey, who is a Starbucks worker and a trans activist who also testified at our committee who said, quote, as a barista in this city, I struggled for months to find an affordable apartment to rent.

Now, the apartment that I moved into has become less affordable each time I renew my lease because they raise the rent every year.

I'm afraid each time my lease is up that they will refuse to renew my lease, essentially putting me on the street, end quote.

And Matt Mealy, whom I quoted earlier, a public school educator, who spoke in favor of the ban on school year evictions, but also spoke in favor of this bill, who said, quote, the first time that I was evicted, it was after living in the house, along with five roommates, through two full six month leases without any problems, filling rooms or paying rent on time.

After the conclusion of the second lease, however, our landlord abruptly decided that he would not renew our lease and that we would all be having to move out.

The second time I was evicted, my landlord told us he was planning to convert our unit into an Airbnb and that we would not be able to renew our lease despite having no problems with us as tenants, end quote.

So this bill puts the right of first refusal into the part of Seattle's law, which is Chapter 7.24 of the Seattle Municipal Code.

The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections has the power to enforce.

That means that if the landlord does not offer a new lease and does not have a just cause 60 to 90 days before the end of the lease, just cause that they can back up in court, then SDCI has the power to follow up, investigate, Tell the landlord that they either need to offer a new lease or present a just cause not to.

SDCI can issue a citation or a notice of violation and start issuing fines.

If a landlord refuses to follow the law, all this can happen before the lease ends.

So ideally these issues can be resolved and the renter can get a new lease without anyone going to eviction court.

And besides discussing with renters, we also discussed in my office with some landlords who contacted us.

And as I informed the council this morning, several small landlords, we have spoken to support renters like legislation.

Some even signed our community petitions.

But some landlords that we talked to oppose this legislation, one of the landlords made an argument to us against this legislation, where he said they are that some renters are a quote unquote headache.

And the end of the lease is a convenient time to get rid of the so called headache renters.

But the fact is, over the last seven years, my office has supported many renters facing abuse from their landlord.

So when I hear claims like renters are a headache, I have to ask what that means.

I mean, this legislation allows landlords to refuse to renew a lease if they have a just cause to refuse to do so.

But, you know, it's a question of having being compliant with Seattle's just cause, the list of just causes to refuse to renew this lease, not just any headache.

So in other words, if a renter reports a landlord to the Seattle Department of Construction Inspections for housing code violations or violating the renter's rights, that might be a headache for the landlord, but it is completely legal and just for the renter to seek redressal, and it's not a just cause to kick out the renter.

And as I said before, it is not a hypothetical example.

This is a case that we've seen happen many times.

Just in closing, in the initial remarks, of course, I'll speak in closing again.

But last week, Council Member Morales' office and my office distributed four technical amendments to this legislation clarifying the language.

The amendments are attached to the agenda.

None of them make any substantive change.

And after Council Member Morales and Council Member Lewis make introductory remarks, we can move those technical amendments.

If Council Member Morales wants to move those amendments, that's also fine with me.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you so much, Council Member Sawant, for the initial introduction of that particular bill.

Council Member Morales or Lewis, do you have any additional comments you'd like to make?

I'll be brief.

I do thank Councilmember Sawant for providing a good overview of the technical aspects of how this will work.

And I think, you know, for 40 years, tenants have benefited from some kind of just cause protection in the city, which has been great.

But those protections offer no guarantee that their home will continue to be their home once their current lease ends.

And that's what we are trying to solve for here.

So this bill brings, I think, the best elements of the two previous bills that Council Member Sawant and I were working on.

And much like the prior legislation, proposes a really simple fix.

that will ensure all tenants, regardless of where they are in their lease term or what kind of contract they have, that they'll be protected from a threat of no-fault, no-cause removal from their homes.

It provides tenants the first right of refusal to either stay in their home on a new lease or a month-to-month lease, or to voluntarily leave, and also allows landlords to pursue removal if they have a just cause reason for doing so.

And then lastly, it does strengthen a tenant's bargaining power by allowing them to rescind a mutual lease termination in the case where they were pressured into signing one.

So this is another way to make sure that we are keeping folks, our neighbors who rent, keeping some protections for them, extending protections from them, and also ensures that more renters in our city will benefit from tenant relocation assistance that is offered by the city.

So, you know, as we as we start to move through recovery, as the emergency tenant protections are lifted, it's important that our neighbors who rent continue to receive some stability.

And this is another way for us to make sure that that happens.

I do want to thank Devin Silvernail on my staff.

He's been trooper, really making sure that all these different tenant protections, the work that we're doing to try to protect our homeless neighbors, all reflect what we are hearing from community and from our our houseless neighbors and from our renters in community.

So I really want to thank him for helping Shepard bring their ideas into our council office and before full council today.

That is all I have, Councilwoman.

Thank you so much, Council Member Morales.

Council Member Lewis, please.

Thank you, Madam President.

I'm going to be brief on this and rest mostly on my comments that I made at committee.

I did have the opportunity then to address several of the issues that have been raised by a lot of folks that have concerns over this bill.

are mostly addressed by the fact that with Just Cause, there can be notice provided.

So it's not a, you know, if you still do not want to, for whatever reason, renew a lease.

So this is a pretty reasonable change to make sure that the spirit of our Just Cause eviction protections are defending tenants when they are seeking a renewal to roll their tenancy that they've depended on and the place where they have found community and living as our neighbors to continue to do that.

I think we in a lot of ways tend to take for granted uh the um the investment uh the tenants make uh when they really put down roots and become part of the neighborhoods in our city and this is really making sure that we continue to hold tenants up as um as equal members of our neighborhoods and not uh somehow folks that are more fungible and that don't deserve the kind of security that folks who own homes can enjoy.

And I think this gets us one step closer to that.

And I'm happy to support this.

And I don't really have anything else to add, but the co-sponsors did not add.

So in the interest of time, I think I'll leave it there.

Thank you so much, Council Member Lewis.

Are there any additional comments before we close out debate?

Actually, we're not going to close out debate because we have four amendments we need to consider.

So I got ahead of myself there.

Okay, so looks like there's no additional comments from the sponsors of the bill.

So now we're going to go ahead and consider.

We have four different amendments to consider, and I am going to hand it back over to Councilmember Sawant to give me some direction on who is going to advance those amendments.

It doesn't matter to me, Council Member Wallace, did you want to move the first three amendments and I'll move the last one?

Sure, that works for me.

Shall I?

I move amendment one.

Second.

All right.

It's been moved and seconded to adopt proposed Amendment 1. Council Member Morales, would you like to describe Amendment 1?

Sure.

As I said, this is a technical amendment.

It acknowledges that federal law supersedes local law in this matter.

Great.

Any comments or questions on proposed Amendment 1?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment 1?

Flores?

Aye.

Lewis.

Aye.

Morales.

Yes.

Mosqueda.

Aye.

Peterson.

Aye.

Sawant.

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez.

Aye.

Seven in favor and none opposed.

The motion carries.

The amendment is adopted and the amended bill is before the council.

Proposed amendment two.

Councilor Morales.

I move amendment two.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to amend the bill as presented on Amendment 2. I'm going to hand it back over to Council Member Morales to address Amendment 2, and then we'll take comments.

Sure.

This amendment just clarifies that a new lease will start on the day following the expiration of the previous lease.

Pretty straightforward.

Are there any additional comments on proposed Amendment 2?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of amendment two.

Flores?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries.

The amendment is adopted, and the amended bill is before the council.

I'm going to hand it back over to Council Member Morales for Amendment 3. I move Amendment 3. Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to amend the bill as presented on Amendment 3. So Council Member Morales, I'll let you quickly address it, and then we'll take comments, if any.

Sure.

This just clarifies that a landlord and tenant can agree to a new lease before the 60-90 day window mandated in this legislation.

Any comments or questions on proposed Amendment 3?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment 3?

Morales?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries.

The amendment is adopted and the amended bill is before the council.

Council Member Sawant, you have amendment four.

I move Amendment 4.

Is there a second?

Second.

It's been moved and seconded to amend the bill as presented on Amendment 4. Council Member Sawant, would you like to address Amendment 4?

Yes.

This is also a technical amendment.

It removes redundant language about how mutual termination agreements work when the renter has a housing voucher.

Great.

Are there any additional comments or questions on proposed Amendment 4?

Hearing none, will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of Amendment 4. Juarez?

Aye.

Lewis?

Aye.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

Aye.

Sawant?

Yes.

Council President Gonzalez?

Aye.

Seven in favor, none opposed.

The motion carries.

The amendment is adopted and the amended bill is before the council.

Okay, that does cover all of the proposed amendments.

So we now have a fully amended bill before the council.

Are there any additional comments on the bill as amended?

Council Member Peterson, please.

Thank you, Council President.

I think I would have been able to support this legislation, House Bill 12090, especially with these good technical amendments today.

If a similar state law had not recently passed, but a similar state law has recently passed, House Bill 1236, And in my opinion, Council Bill 12090 is preempted by the state law, which includes, but it's not limited to that House Bill 1236. As I understand it, local laws are generally preempted by state laws that conflict on the same subject matter, even if the state law does not expressly include a preemption clause.

So it's not clear to me why the city council is proceeding to adopt a city law that could burden the city with substantial legal risk.

So consistent with my vote at the committee level, I'll be voting no on Council Bill 12090 because of the concerns with preemption by the state government.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Peterson.

Are there any other comments about the bill as amended?

All right, I'm not seeing any hands raised.

Council Member Salant, Morales, or Lewis, any closing remarks?

I did have closing remarks, but I wanted to invite Council Member Morales to speak.

She's saying she doesn't have anything else she wants to say, and I'm not seeing Council Member Lewis, so you get the last word, Council Member Salant, and then we'll call this bill to a vote.

Okay, thank you Councilperson Gonzalez and thank you Councilmember Morales for your office's work on this alongside our office.

It's really important that we have brought this bill to potential passage in a few minutes and thank you Councilmember Lewis for co-sponsoring.

This bill is part of the overall important victories that renters are winning today in Seattle as protection from unjust and devastating eviction.

With this bill, we are closing the loophole, as Councilman Morales said, as for decades left renters on external leases like a one-year lease or a six-month lease with zero protections at the end of the lease.

And we, in this council meeting, we've passed legislation providing renters with additional eviction protections for rent debt due to COVID, eviction protections for children during the school year, and we've urged the mayor and the governor to extend the eviction moratorium.

These are all crucial victories, but we also need to be clear that eviction is only one issue renters face.

It's a very crucial issue, but in addition to that, we also know that renters are facing unaffordable rent increases.

And as far as the corporate landlord lobby is concerned, it's going to be business as usual now that vaccinations have been available and the economy is starting to go back to what seems like a little bit of a normalcy since the last year.

But nationwide, we're seeing every time average rents increase, and this was pre-pandemic, every time average rents increased by $100, homelessness increases by 15%.

It's a staggering causal link between rent increase and homelessness increase.

And rents in Seattle have increased by $100 many times over.

So as I've informed the city council before, my office has prepared several renters' rights bills related to rent increases.

including rent control that we will be bringing to the sustainability and renters rights committee later this month but first what we are what we have is a bill that we've introduced requiring landloss to give renters six months notice for rent increases which has been a successful measure in cities around the world so we won't be Charging new terrain here, we will be following other cities that have already passed such a law.

We also have sent to the city attorney's office for introduction a bill that creates relocation assistance for renters who are forced to move by unacceptable rent increases.

And as I said, we've shared a draft rent control bill that will limit rent increases to no more than the rate of inflation and is devoid of the many problematic loopholes that laws in New York or California have introduced, which end up affecting renters badly and also damages the credibility of the ability of rent control to actually provide protections.

For the last several years, I've called for a renter's Bill of Rights centering around rent control, but also including all these other issues.

And I thank Council Member Morales for also calling for such a Bill of Rights that is really important.

And once again, I wanted to thank her and her office, everyone in my office, specifically want to recognize Ted Verdone and Jonathan Rosenblum, who were part of really making sure that we had everything ready and making sure that we had all our our technical work and our organizing work ready to go.

I wanted to thank Adam Zimkowski and Nick Jones and Sasha Somer also, and also the volunteers who have been working with our office and talking to renters around the city.

I wanted to thank everyone who called in support of the renters' rights bills today and in the previous committee meetings.

And I urge everybody who's watching to join us at the next meeting of the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee on June 22nd to begin the discussion of the upcoming renters' rights bills.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Council Member Sawant.

That does conclude debate on this particular bill, so I'm going to ask that the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the amended bill.

Torres?

No.

Lewis?

Yes.

Morales?

Yes.

Mosqueda?

Aye.

Peterson?

No.

Council President Gonzales.

Aye.

Five in favor, two opposed.

The bill passes as amended and the chair will sign it.

Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf.

Other business, is there any other further business to come before the council?

Hearing none, colleagues this does conclude the items of business on today's agenda.

Our next regularly scheduled city council meeting is on Tuesday I'm sorry.

Is that right?

Tuesday?

I think it's a Monday, Monday, June 14th, Monday, June 14th, 2021 at two o'clock PM.

I hope that you all have a wonderful afternoon.

We're adjourned.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Bye.

Bye.