Good evening, everyone.
Thank you to all the community members who are here, organizations, and members of the media.
I wanted to start our momentous rent control press conference first by acknowledging a few congratulations.
First, congratulations to the tenants and all the allies who stood with the tenants of the Chateau building in the Central District who have recently won a breakthrough victory against their corporate developer, Cadence Real Estate.
I also wanted to acknowledge that we have been joined tonight by some courageous high schoolers in Seattle Public Schools specifically the members of the student advisory board to Superintendent Juneau who urged Superintendent Juneau and the school board to allow excused absences for the youth climate strike on Friday and then yet had a turnout of nearly 10,000 students despite the fact that the school board refused to excuse absences.
Can we have a shout out for the student advisory board.
We are all here together because we know we need bold public policy to address the serious affordability and homelessness crisis in our city.
Rents in Seattle have risen by 70% in a 10-year period, pushing people, their families, their children, their elderly out of the city or into homelessness.
Policies like rent control and a major expansion of social housing by taxing big business have widespread support from Seattle's renters, homeowners, and small business owners.
We already have over 12,000 signatures on our rent control petition.
of- eighteen different organizations have endorsed our rent control campaign.
And these organizations not only include renters rights organizations but also labor unions, socialist organizations and community organizations.
The rent control bill that we are putting forward as a draft from our movement will limit annual rent increases to the rent of inflation, which has been roughly 2% to 3% per year for all rental homes in the city, regardless of the type of rental home and regardless of the date of construction.
This rent control draft legislation has zero corporate loopholes that would otherwise diminish the bill over time and increasingly leave tenants unprotected.
Seattle's movements led on the $15 an hour victory.
We won $15 an hour here, and then it went nationwide.
We can do that with rent control also, am I right?
Except, thankfully, we don't have to be the first ones this time because other movements have already achieved incredible historic victories in the last several months.
Oregon lifted its rent control ban and passed rent control.
California just passed a statewide rent control measure.
Perhaps the most historic and the biggest victories have been attained by the incredible movements led by ordinary people all across New York State, strengthening existing rent control laws in New York and enabling newer cities to establish rent control in the state.
We.
We have a powerful example from multiple states to follow, and I have no doubt in my mind that we will be able to win a historic victory in Seattle as well.
We will talk more about this in committee, but for now, I wanted to introduce Reverend Angela Ying, Senior Pastor at Bethany United Church of Christ, whose members have been centrally involved in the fight for rent control and against displacement of working class people from our city.
Good afternoon.
I'm the Reverend Angela Ying from Bethany United Church of Christ.
And on our campus, we have not only got green, which is also trying to stop the displacement of the South End and doing climate justice.
We also have the Tyree Scott Freedom School, the Black Power Epicenter.
and also Nurturing Roots and Youth Undoing Institutionalized Racism, along with REWA, Refugee Women's Alliance, and the Rainier Valley Cooperative Preschool, not to mention the South End Rapid Network.
So we are a community, along with all our neighbors up here, talking about the importance of rent control.
As a person of faith, as a pastor, as a preacher, as a mother, and as a daughter, I often tell my community about the story that has haunted us, the Good Samaritan.
And what happens is, it's been taught 2,000 years ago that the pastor-preach-rabbi, if it may, passed on the other side when somebody was in need.
And so tonight, we're going to talk about how it's important that we change that narrative.
That the people of faith, whether you have faith or no faith, come together as a community, as one people in a movement to have rent control in this city.
Now, why is it so important?
I mean, rent has gone up, as our council member has shared, 69, 70% in the last 10 years.
That's unjust, okay?
That is just plain unjust.
And so in my neighborhood, where we live on the south end, it is disproportionately connected and affected by the rising of rents, because we are immigrants, we are refugees, we are people of color, we are LGBTQ, we are rainbow people of God, and we continue to be affected by this unjust rent rising.
So we need rent control, and we need it now.
It is our just duty.
It is our moral compass.
It is our moral necessity to do so.
So let's bring on rent control now for the people, for all the people, for all the rainbow people of God.
Thank you.
What do we want?
Rent control.
When do we want it?
Now.
What do we want?
Rent control.
When do we want it?
Now.
What do we want?
Rent control.
When do we want it?
Our next speaker is Renee Gordon, caregiver to her mother Gordon at their Chateau building and a leader in their Chateau tenants organizing victory.
Good evening, everyone.
I just want to say thank you first to Kshama and her team, Jonathan, Sasha, Adam, Nick, and Chris.
You're the impetus.
And without your help, we would have been pushed out of our neighborhood, and who knows where we may have ended up.
My neighbors and I just went through a fight that proves that when we organize and fight back, we win.
Eight months ago, we found out that our new landlord, Cadence Real Estate, worth $185 million in real estate assets, was planning to tear down our home, affordable and low-income housing in the Central District, and replace them with expensive studio apartments.
We got organized.
and fought back to stay in our neighborhood, to be compensated for moving costs, to be able to stay in the building longer, and to have desperately needed repairs made while we were still there.
We got a petition with 800 signatures, we held big public meetings, we brought a delegation to Cadence's office to deliver our demands, and more.
Now we have won a major victory.
All the low-income residents have a guaranteed place to live in our neighborhood.
And Cadence fought us every step of the way, and they dragged their feet for months.
We won because we got organized, but there are tens of thousands of renters facing similar situations in Seattle and around the state.
If you're in a similar situation, organize like we did, because you can win.
There is strength in numbers.
We are so grateful that Councilmember Sawant's office has been such a valuable resource for building the movement.
We are also very grateful to Reverend Jeffrey, Reverend Angela Ying, Devin at B-Seattle, Violent and Amy of the Seattle Tenants Union, the Central Area Collaborative, the NAACP, and the members of the community.
We thank you.
This is a small step for just one apartment.
Now it's time to take a stand for Seattle and Washington as a whole and make it affordable for all.
We need rent control to address the housing crisis.
It makes me sad to see brothers and sisters and even children sleeping on the streets.
It's cold outside and everyone deserves a roof over their heads.
Wouldn't you agree?
I took a walk with my Aunt Mother Gordon the other day in preparation for moving.
We stopped in a new building over on Jackson Street.
It was a very nice building, just two bedrooms and two baths, but the starting rate was $2,800.
Now, I previously lived in California before I relocated back to Seattle to take care of Mother Gordon, and that rent is $600 more than my rent in Seattle, or in Orange County, excuse me.
We know that the real estate developers and the corporate landlords around the state will fight us just as hard than Cadence fought us, but we need rent control, and we need it now.
So join us.
It's time to get organized and build a movement.
Look inside your soul.
We need rent control.
New York has rent control.
California and Oregon too.
Washington, it's our turn.
Let's show them what we can do.
I know together we can.
And remember Martin Luther King said, the time is always right to do what's right.
And don't forget St. Mark 836, for what should a profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
Look inside your soul.
We need rent control.
Next, we have Violet Lavatai, Executive Director of Tenants Union of Washington State, a grassroots organization of tenants that has fought for renters' rights and rent control for decades.
Thank you.
We got some landlords over here that are saying that we don't need rent control.
Let me repeat ourselves.
We need rent control.
I want to first say congratulations to the tenants who won a big victory.
Thank you council members for helping all of the tenants.
I think right now Listen, you're not going to deter us from saying what we want to say.
And we do need rent control.
So we're going to say it again.
What do we need?
Rent control!
When do we need it?
Now!
When do we need it?
Now!
So yeah.
Thank you.
I think one of the things that I'm up here, I'm Violet Lavatay, and I'm with the Tenant Union of Washington, and I'm a director there.
Every day, when we have landlords who are putting unjust practices on the tenants, we are having more people go on the streets.
We need something in place so where the landlords cannot increase the rent.
That is playing into our city, our state, and our homeless numbers are going way up.
So today, we are taking a stand, all of us you see here, we want rent control.
And we're gonna fight for it, and we're not gonna stop.
We are gonna make it, not only in the city of Seattle, but we want it statewide for every tenant that lives here in the state of Washington.
So anybody who says we don't need rent control, those are the ones that are dictating the tenant how they should live.
We should have a say in what our rent is.
Listen, they're saying without us, you don't have a place.
No, without the tenant, you don't have a business.
Understand?
So today as we celebrate, we're so happy for Chateau apartment tenants.
We're happy that we can get together and this movement of building rent control again starts tonight.
What do we want?
Rent control.
When do we want it?
Now.
What do we need?
Please welcome Devin Silvernail, co-chair of the City of Seattle Renters Commission, which have unanimously called for rent control free of loopholes.
And as executive director of Be Seattle, a community organization, Devin has been a leader in our successful rent control signature gathering drive.
all right well hey everybody thank you for being here uh...
i'd like to say one thing uh...
frederick douglas he said power concedes nothing without a demand and never has and it never will and that's absolutely true when it comes to this the folks over here who are trying to shout down this amazing powerful woman who organized her building who actually stood up for her neighbors don't have a clue because here are all of the here is the proof of the folks who are coming to to to to make a demand of power and that is the sound of power being afraid of the people and i'll tell you the these folks here just ambassadors of twelve thousand people from across washington state who have signed a petition that says that we need it in seattle and in washington because tenants deserve stable predictable and affordable rents You know I found out that I was I'm gonna be a dad soon and and I want a place where I can raise my Family, and I know that there are a hell of a lot of other people that want to do it, too And that's why you know at the renters Commission.
We knew that we saw that families women people of color are Disproportionately affected by rent increases in the city and in the state of Washington.
We're outside of Seattle We don't have just cause so a landlord can evict you if you're simply maybe wearing a yellow shirt right and You know, and so at Be Seattle, we went out in the community, and we had organizers talking to folks on the street.
And you know what?
I'll tell you, even the landlords that we talked to agreed that we need rent control.
So you're in the minority.
I'm sorry.
It's fun to come and yell.
But these are the folks that are going to win it, because they know that they deserve it.
So again, what do we need?
Rent control!
When do we want it?
Now!
What do we need?
Rent control!
When do we want it?
Many small landlords have joined our struggle for rent control.
One of those rent control supporters, Kathy Yassi, says, who couldn't be here today with us, she says, I am a small landlord and I try to keep rents affordable, but tens of thousands of Seattle's renters are being exploited by corporate landlords.
We need rent control to protect these tenants.
As I mentioned earlier, a number of labor unions in our city and region are supporting Seattle's campaign for rent control free of corporate loopholes.
One of those unions that recently passed a unanimous resolution supporting our rent control campaign is the Seattle Education Association, the union that represents the educators in the public school district.
So please welcome Matt Mailey, who is a rank and file member of the Seattle Education Association and is himself an educator at Nova High School in the Central District.
Thank you all so much for coming out.
Specifically, thank you to everybody behind me.
As Shama said, my name is Matt Maley.
I am a rank-and-file educator.
I am a union member.
I am a renter in the Central District, and I am a socialist.
I'm out here fighting because I know that we all need housing.
The school that I work at, the Nova Project High School, it's a small, alternative high school.
About 70% of our students are queer and trans.
facing some of the highest barriers to housing and to health care in the city.
Shama's office, thank you so much for helping organize this.
Thank you to BCATL.
Shama's office helped us win $100,000 for an LGBTQ plus health center going into Nova Project High School.
The same way we won that hundred thousand dollars is the same way we're going to win rent control.
And that's by fighting one in every 10 students in Seattle Public Schools is homeless or with housing insecurity at some elementary schools.
That's right in elementary school in District 3 Lowell one in five students is housing is housing insecure.
What do we need.
When do we need it.
Thank you very much.
And now we are going to be joined by Shirley Henderson, Central District small business owner, who is advocating for both residential rent control and commercial rent control so that we can make Seattle affordable, not only for working families, but for struggling small businesses.
Hello, friends, fellow activists, and enemies.
I've lived in Seattle for many years now, and a lot of those years on Capitol Hill.
And I am so sad to see the fact that so many can no longer afford to live in the city that we call home, my wife and I included.
As Matt said, I am a renter, I'm a small business owner, I'm queer, I'm a socialist, and I'm here to demand rent control.
As a small business owner, I know that it's not just, I witnessed firsthand that my staff have a hard time getting to work because they have to commute such long distances because they can't afford to live in the neighborhood they serve.
Friends, this is a common problem for service industry folks.
In fact, employers complain that they can't hire because employees can't afford to live close enough to make it to work.
That's a problem.
I want to say that as so many of my friends and activists have already said, the momentum and movements are building.
We saw it in Oregon, we saw it in New York, we saw it in California, and we're seeing it in Washington.
These 12,000 signatures are a start, my friends.
People are ready.
Some of the signatures were gathered in small businesses like Squirrel Chops, businesses who understand that the rent is too damn high.
And it's not just for residents, it's also for small, minority-owned businesses who are being displaced right, left, and center.
Shama's office just fought hard for Saba's Ethiopian cuisine restaurant, who was forced to be evicted economically from their location.
This is a business who has been a cornerstone in the community for years.
And without a thought, this big developer just decides to kick them out.
And while we're not right now introducing commercial rent control here today, it's a piece of the holistic picture that we're fighting for.
We need to make this city affordable for all, from bus drivers to baristas.
Because when we fight, we win!
When we fight, we win!
When we fight, we win!
On October 12th, my office will be hosting a progressive small business summit where we will be discussing commercial rent control, relocation assistance for small businesses, and just cost protections for small businesses.
I welcome everybody who is interested in exploring that more to join us there.
In a few minutes, we will be heading up into chambers.
We will march upstairs as a collective, and we have copies of the 12,000 signatures for every council member, because we want them to know we mean business.
I wanted to quickly go over a few points in the legislation.
I don't intend to go into it into too much detail because that's precisely what we will be discussing as one of the agenda items in the committee.
So I really appeal to the media to join us there because we will have that discussion.
I don't want to go into detail here also because community members also need to go home at some point soon because they have to get back to their families.
Just want to go over a couple of things and then I'm happy to answer questions and community members who spoke here are also happy to answer questions, I'm sure, but we will have to keep that somewhat limited and then, you know, my office is available at other hours.
Very quickly.
This law, the draft legislation that we have put forward through our Seattle Needs Rent Control Movement, is a universal rent control law.
Meaning, regardless of whether you are renting an apartment in an apartment building, whether you're renting a condo, a room in a house, a whole single family home is rented, it doesn't matter what kind of space it is, whether it's an accessory dwelling unit or a townhouse, Rent control applies to you if you're a landlord and you're renting residential spaces out.
The other aspect that makes this draft legislation a universal rent control law is that it will apply regardless of the date of construction.
We should note that in cities that have had rent control experience for decades, they have observed that one of the corporate loopholes has been saying that if a building was built before such and such a date or after such and such a date, rent control does not apply to it.
That has meant a death knell to the rent control law, and we want to make sure our movement is fighting on the correct footing of no corporate loopholes, and we stand on the shoulders of the New York movement that just closed many of the existing loopholes.
The other loophole we are fighting against is vacancy decontrol.
To say it in other words, the draft legislation has vacancy control, meaning It doesn't matter whether a tenant vacates a rental home at one point and a new tenant comes in, rent control applies throughout.
Because vacancy decontrol allows, if we allow that corporate loophole, that would allow corporate landlords to revert a rental home to market rate rent, meaning steep rent increases when the current tenant vacates the home.
I don't think that makes sense.
As a guard against loopholes, the law also says no renovictions.
Renovictions meaning evictions resulting from your affordable building being torn down to renovate it into something high priced.
So if a landlord demolishes rental homes and builds newer housing in its place, they will be required by law to replace one-to-one the homes at the same rent.
In other words, corporate developers have to always comply with the rent control law if our movement has any say in it.
So I just wanted to say Before we open to media questions, our movement has to be very clear.
We are starting off on a very strong footing, but we will come up against vicious opposition from the corporate real estate lobby, which means not just corporate landlords, but venture capitalists, big banks, property management corporations, and very often The real culprits, the multi-millionaires and billionaires will be behind the scenes and they will send their lobbyists and spokespeople to do their dirty work.
Which means we will have to build our movement even stronger.
Ten times, twenty times, a hundred times stronger if we are to prevail.
Are we ready?
The last point I wanted to address before media questions is the question of statewide strategy.
Many in the corporate media have asked us, if you fight for rent control here in Seattle, doesn't that undermine the effort to repeal the statewide ban on rent control?
This is our movement's response.
The state legislature, unfortunately Democrats and Republicans, have failed for decades not only to repeal the state ban, that's not enough, we need rent control.
So what they have failed to do is repealing the ban and instituting statewide rent control.
Our lives, the lives of tens of thousands of families have gotten so hard, we have no time to wait and hold our breath that maybe these corporate politicians in Olympia didn't do anything for the last 40 years, maybe sometime in the next 40 years they will do something.
We refuse to wait.
Because we don't believe that they will act, certainly not without the pressure of a movement, because many of them are bought by the same real estate interests that will oppose our movement.
Just like the statewide minimum wage increase came directly as the result of Seattle's $15 victory, we have no doubt that if we succeed in fighting for rent control in Seattle, it will create tremendous momentum for a statewide struggle, not only to repeal the ban, but to ensure either that we have a statewide, strong statewide rent control law free of loopholes, or that different municipalities all the way from Bellingham to Spokane can have their own rent control law.
That is why our draft legislation says that it will go into effect as soon as the state ban is lifted.
This is legal.
Our draft legislation is perfectly legal, but The main thrust of our movement is that if we are able to build the kind of movement we will need to win this in Seattle, it will create serious steps forward for a statewide movement.
That is why we are fighting for Seattle rent control, and we have a lot of support from tenants' rights organizations and activists in many other cities in the state.
I wanted to open it up for media questions, and as I said, we have limited time.
Well, legally speaking, it won't go into effect until the state ban is lifted, and it will go into effect as soon as that ban is lifted.
However, we don't expect that the trajectory of events will simply be legalistic by any means.
In order to win this, we are taking on a mighty battle against real estate interests.
And in order to get nine votes on this legislation, we will need such a tremendous struggle that it will automatically create steps forward for a statewide ban.
Because as we have seen with every example in recent and in not so recent history, the courts and the legislatures follow movements on the streets.
That's what we're doing here in Seattle.
Any other questions?
So we want to head up to chambers now and media, I would appeal to you all to come as well.