Good morning everyone, thank you for joining us outside the Terrace Crest Apartments in Seattle's First Hill neighborhood where we are standing alongside the tenants of this building who are here to demand that their landlord Briar Sheets Properties fix the egregious conditions that the tenants have been subjected to for nearly two months, both the absence of heating and the absence of hot water.
And the tenants are going to be talking about their own experiences, so I'll leave that to them.
But what I want to say is, it's so crucial that the tenants of this building, of Rainier Court in Mount Baker, And building after building in the city of Seattle are starting to get organized and fight for their rights.
And we know that it is extremely urgent and important because there is an unbelievable power imbalance between corporate landlords and landlords in general on the one end and tenants who are now renters who are now the majority of our city on the other.
It's important to note that Briar Sheets is a landlord who owns nine buildings all across the city and as of 2012 they owned 400 apartments.
I am going to read a statement of solidarity with the tenants from the tenants union and I'm going to be announcing a new legislation that my council office will be exploring but before that I wanted to invite the Terrace Crest tenants to speak about their experience and why they have, a large majority of them, have signed a petition which is demanding that Briar Sheets, the landlord, fix the hot water and heating problems that have been pervasive for two months and also, importantly, that the tenants are refunded, that the landlord refund the tenants the rent for each day that they have gone without hot water and heating and is still going without hot water and heating.
So I would like to invite Alison Rao who is a terrorist correspondent and is a healthcare disaster planner and policy writer.
Hi there, my name is Allison Rau.
I moved into this apartment complex in late August of this year after coming back to it from a 15-year break because I really love this building.
And I only had hot water and heat for about three weeks before our boiler failed.
There was no communication about the outage of the boiler until we applied pressure on the landlord in late October.
And at this point, we are approaching three months of not having heat and hot water in the building on a consistent basis.
We have a simple demand.
We want them to fix it with qualified people who are able to properly repair the boiler and reimburse our rent for the days that we did not have heat and hot water.
And we just ask that you make this right.
Thank you, Allison.
I want to invite Fran Love, who is also a tenant in this building and is retired.
Hi, my name is Fran Love.
In August, I had to go for two emergency surgeries.
And everything was working well when I left.
But when I returned in September, There was no hot water and there was no heat and I still had wound care that I had to take care of myself when I got home, but there wasn't any sanitary conditions.
I just boiled water on the stove and I turned my oven on for heat to get warm.
And the owners of the gym across the street are allowing me to walk over there and take my showers.
I do have heat this morning, but I have no hot water.
And so I just don't know.
how long this can go on.
The other thing that really bothers me is that the only information we've gotten from the landlord are notices that it'll be repaired in a few days.
And we get that every week or so.
It's going to be repaired in a few days.
The part's on the way, but it never came.
And the part that did come that we thought would fix it isn't working.
It's the wrong part we found out.
So now we have to wait some more.
He hasn't expressed any concern to us, just letters that we're gonna get it repaired in a couple of days.
But there's been no heartfelt concern about what we're going through.
And I guess that's what bothers me the most.
I can boil water, I could take spit baths, but I need somebody to say they care about what we're going through.
And that just hasn't happened, so thanks.
Thank you friend for sharing with everybody who is watching that there are real health consequences for not having hot water and heat, especially in the season like we are in this one.
I also wanted to share with everyone that The tenants have not only signed the petition, at least 15 out of the 21 tenants have signed the petition.
And this morning they have sent that to the landlord and they have copied all city council members on that email.
And I also have sent a letter to the landlord from my office copying all city council members.
And I would really hope that the city council members speak up in favor of the tenants.
I wanted to note that silence in the face of the crisis, tenant crisis that people are facing, tenants are facing throughout the city is complicity in allowing landlords to have not only dilapidated and deplorable conditions but also skyrocketing rents.
And that's why it's important that tenants in every building who are facing these problems speak out.
And in that spirit, I wanted to invite Terrace Crest tenant, Thaddeus Hug.
Hi, everyone.
Thank you.
So I'd like to go back over kind of our situation.
First, we first reported issues with the hot water and heat on September 19th.
And despite repeated tenant complaints, Briar Sheets Properties did not send out any official communications regarding those ongoing issues and what was being done to resolve them until collective tenant pressure forced them to.
And the first communication was not sent out until mid-October, and the initial fix was not until early November.
Even still today, approximately two months later, many tenants heat in hot water still run lukewarm at best.
Because of that, as tenants, we are demanding that the hot water and the heating issues be immediately fixed for all tenants and that the rent be refunded for all days that we have gone without those basic needs.
In my personal situation, through these cold months heading into the fall, As I work from home at my computer each day, I've had to bundle up with multiple sweaters and jackets just to be able to sit down at my desk to work.
I've been forced to regularly travel to friends' apartments just to take a shower each day.
I've been personally seriously inconvenienced despite not having any unique needs for water and heat.
And we get to hear from some of the specific issues that tenants have had, but there are many untold stories from those who couldn't make it today.
Many tenants have been forced to move out and find other housing to meet their basic needs.
I can only imagine the many difficulties this has caused each and every tenant.
I'd like to thank Council Member Sawant and her staff for proactively helping Terrace Crest tenants organize and make our situation known.
After over a month without any heat and hot water, for many tenants, a temporary patch was After over a month without any heat and hot water for many tenants, a temporary patch was only applied to the building's central boiler as a result of tenants' collective and clear demands.
As tenants, we will continue to push till all our basic living needs are met and we are compensated for the time spent living without them.
Thank you, Thaddeus, especially for reiterating the very important demand that you all as tenants have in your petition that the landlord must compensate you and pay you back the rent for all the days that you have gone and are still going without hot water and or heating.
It is outrageous that tenants pay their rent and if they were to fail to pay their rent even by a few days, they would without a doubt get an eviction notice.
But there are no such laws for landlords and that is something absolutely essential that we have to talk about before we end today's program.
But now I want to invite Terrace Crest tenant Mark Dunn.
Thank you Council Swatt.
I believe that Council Swatt has answered our call to help before the owners Breyer and Sheets did.
It took all this time to be where we are today.
In my personal situation, I have a medical diagnosis being treated of neuropathy.
And my medical care has been halted and interrupted because for Restless Leg Syndrome, health care, home care, self-help to do an Epsom salt bath soak is literally impossible to do in cold water.
So some days it's cold water.
Some days it's no heat.
It's hit or miss.
You pick the day.
Some days we don't have hot water.
Some days we don't have heat.
Some days it's both.
So it's been truly a hardship on me personally.
Thank you, Council Swat.
Thank you, Mark.
Yes, it is indeed a hardship.
This is no exaggeration.
And last but not least, Terrace Crest tenant Perry Holstein.
Hi, so I mean, I just feel like we made when we moved in here, we made a deal with Terrace Crest.
You know, we're going to give them our money and then they give us basic necessities and they're not holding up that end of the deal.
And It's just, yeah, it's wrong.
I mean, I, for one, after getting laid off for COVID, I finally got back on my feet.
I'm starting a new job.
And as soon as I start my new job, I can't bathe and I get home and it's freezing when it's time to go to bed.
So yeah, I just, I think landlords in this city need to hold up their end of the bargain.
Cause I mean, we're, we're holding up our end.
It's, it's an agreement, you know.
Thank you, Perry.
Next I wanted to read a statement from Violet Lovatay who was unable to be with us and sent her apologies and has sent her statement.
She says, my name is Violet Lovatay.
I am the Executive Director of the Tenants Union.
It is outrageous that you, Briar Sheets Properties, have not fixed the problems that is solely your responsibility.
This is a blatant disregard for the tenants that reside in your building.
Having no hot water and heat is unacceptable.
Under city and state laws, you can fix the problems but blame it on waiting for parts which is a huge failure on your part and it is your responsibility to fix.
At the Tenants Union we get calls about unmade repairs and this is probably the most outrageous of any complaint about heat and hot water I have heard since I've been with the Tenants Union.
Landlords responsibilities are to fix these repairs in a timely fashion.
Heat and hot water for tenants is their absolute right.
We live in a state that the temperatures can drop into freezing.
I am sure your house is warm, Briar Sheets, and you have heat, but you collect rent from tenants and they don't have heat and hot water that they are entitled to.
Stop your empty promises.
and do the right thing and fix this issue that you are responsible for.
We will not stop and go away until you fix this.
Only slumlords behave the way you are behaving.
You have made it to the top of the tenants union slumlord list today.
As I write this note, the temperature in Seattle is in the 40s.
How do you sleep at night?
That's right.
Slumlords have no moral compass.
Briar Sheets do better.
Thank you so much, Violet Lavati, for that statement.
And again, last but not least, we have Melina McCombs, who is, interestingly, a former Terrace Crest tenant.
but she is a current tenant at Columbia Gardens building at the Rainier Court Affordable Housing Complex, where hundreds of tenants have recently gotten organized alongside our office, alongside the Tenants Union and community leaders, including faith leaders, and who recently defeated rent increases from their landlord's seed, which is an almost unheard of victory.
So welcome, Melina.
Thank you, Councilwoman Swan.
My name is Melina.
I am a former resident of Terrace Crest.
I used to live right up there in that apartment on top there, and remember the bells ringing, too.
I come today to support the residents' fight for tenant rights.
Over 25 years ago, I, my husband, and other residents moved out of Terrace Crest Shortly after, new owners purchased the building and immediately gave notice of rent increases before dismissing the elderly couple who had efficiently managed the building for years, giving that couple one month to vacate, and they were without a job.
At the time, my husband was receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer.
Yes, men do get breast cancer.
It was a difficult decision to move, but our protest and solidarity with our former managers and against the new owner's sudden rent increase was important to us.
Our new apartment, just nine blocks north from here, was a blessing.
The woman who owned the 18-story building treated her residents like welcomed guests, which is phenomenal.
She only raised rents when her property taxes went up or if major upgrades were required.
My husband enjoyed four years of community there before he died.
I too enjoyed 16 more years after his death and before the owner herself passed away.
The building was sold shortly thereafter and the new owners gave everyone two months notice to vacate so they could remodel the whole building all at once, to save money of course.
It was a shock, not only because of the two months notice and the brutal culture shock of a huge community of nearly 400 being disrupted abruptly by the stroke of a pen, But the added shock was really when we all realized the shortage of affordable and low income housing in Seattle.
I fared a bit better than many of my building former tenant neighbors who had to move out of Seattle to locate housing.
As a senior still working 40 hours a week and not collecting social security yet, I qualified for low income housing in a new brand new building.
the third building of what is now today Rainier Court.
I had reservations when I moved in.
I had friends who lived in the first and second buildings, and their buildings were showing an enormous array of signs of long-term neglect.
But I hoped my new building would fare better.
I have lived in that building for seven years.
We have gone through two management companies and five on-site management teams.
We have had more than 10 different apartment inspections where repair requests were noted.
In many cases, the same unaddressed repairs noted over and over again.
I and my neighbors are still waiting for over 50% of those repairs to be addressed.
And yet, every year or two, they have raised our rents.
I would move again and protest as I did from Terrace Crest, but moving out doesn't seem to change anything or delay the seemingly citywide rent hikes.
In 10 years, if rent increases are not controlled, I see myself living in a pod apartment, which is doable.
But in 20 years, I see myself living in a tent in a park.
And in 30 years, if I'm blessed to live that long, I don't know where I will be living.
The fight for tennis right is not new.
Terrace Crest has been fighting for tennis rights off and on for 25 years, and they are in the midst of the biggest fight yet concerning nearly three months without hot water and heat, and the request for reimbursement for their rent during the time of their delayed repairs.
The four buildings at Rainier Court have been fighting for tenants' rights off and on for 15 years and are currently requesting no more rent increases until all maintenance repairs are completed.
The fight for tenants' rights is not new, but in 2021, the fight for tenants' rights is taking on a new strength.
A strength that comes in unity and unifying our voices and support with one another.
One building standing with another and another and another.
Rainier Court and Terrace Crest today.
Tomorrow we will stand with others.
Tenants in Seattle and beyond will gain strength in unity.
In unity we have a stronger presence, a stronger voice, and a common set of concerns.
rent increase issues, address delay and poor quality building and unit repairs, full or partial rent reimbursement for delayed building and unit repairs, the need for quality professional housekeeping in common areas, the need for scheduled proactive pest control protocols, resolving environmental safety and security issues, building owner accountability for building management teams, open and transparent conversations between management teams and tenants, and especially the expectation of better business practices from building owners, their management companies, and their building management teams that include courtesy, kindness, respect, dignity, and in-person accessibility.
I thank in part to Congresswoman Shama Sawant and to her staff for us being here today.
We gather stronger together, Terrace Crest and Rainier Court, tomorrow with others, taking the fight for tenants' rights to a new level.
Thank you.
Thank you, Melina, so much for that brilliant statement.
And I think you captured many, many aspects of what make tenant struggles not only stronger, but victorious.
And one of the things Melina said was the need for solidarity, not only solidarity within buildings, which is the starting point without which you cannot actually fight for better conditions and you cannot change the power imbalance you face with your landlord.
but also solidarity across buildings, solidarity among renters across the city.
I really am so grateful for Milena for joining here in solidarity with Terrace Crest tenants and in that same spirit, I would urge all Terrace Crest tenants who are able to, if you're not at work, please join us.
for what will be a powerful rally in solidarity with Rainier Court tenants at their building in Mount Baker.
It's a short ride from here.
If you have transportation issues, we will help you with that.
Please let my office know.
But it's important that we continue building this cross building solidarity.
The rally is on Friday, November 19th at 5.30 p.m.
at Rainier Court.
We have leaflets here.
And it's really important you come because another point that Melina made was also that leaving your current building as a tenant in protest is really not the solution.
Because this crisis that tenants are facing, renters are facing, is not only citywide, it is statewide, it is national, and in fact it is international.
Internationally, renters are facing a crisis, and the only real solution is for us to get organized in solidarity with one another as working people and fighting back.
And that is why it's inspiring to see Terrace Crest and Rainier Court tenants fighting back.
And that is why it's also important for us to fight for citywide policy.
Part of what the rally is going to be about on Friday is the fight for rent control, citywide rent control.
My office has put forward a legislation way back in September for a strong citywide rent control policy which would say, if passed, would say that landlords are prohibited from increasing rents by anything more than the inflation rate.
This is absolutely essential because otherwise the crisis that tenants are facing is spiraling out of control and there is no real solution.
In addition to rent control, we need an expansion of social housing which is publicly owned housing where we can hold our city council and mayor accountable for that housing.
That housing needs to be expanded.
Last year we won the Amazon tax to fund that housing but we need to expand that tax because billionaires have made profits hand over fist even during the pandemic and working people whether you're a tech worker or a barista or a public health worker, we are all facing this crisis together and as renters we need to unite.
In addition, the crisis that terrorist tenants are facing brought to mind, and this came up in conversations with the tenants themselves, is how can this even be legal?
How is it legal for the landlord to take all your rent and then leave these conditions persisting.
That should not be illegal.
Many might remember, around this time, in the autumn of 2015, my office was fighting alongside the tenants in South Seattle, mostly immigrants from East Africa, who courageously fought back And out of that struggle, we, in the following year, in 2016, won what came to be known as the Carl Hagelin Law, named after the landlord who had provided extremely dilapidated conditions and was exploiting his tenants.
That Carl Hagelin Law says that If tenants have filed housing code violations with the Seattle Department of Construction Inspections, then it is illegal for the landlord to increase rents in that situation.
While the Terrace Crest tenants' struggle is reminding my office that actually we need to shore up that law by passing an additional legislation that says that landlords are liable to pay compensation in terms of rent per day when they have egregious housing code violations.
It is exactly modeled along the lines of what Terrace Crest tenants are demanding.
So come January, we will be fighting for that law and it will be called Hagelin Law Part 2. I quickly also wanted to share something about briar sheets.
Milena shared a few things about them.
They have a history of not looking after their tenants.
I really appreciate what Fran said that I want the landlord to at least express that they care but that has not happened.
Well, in reality, In 2017, a U.S. federal court judge ruled that Breyer Sheets violated housing anti-discrimination laws by refusing to rent studio apartments in the Granada apartments on Capitol Hill to families.
The landlord insisted on one occupant per apartment rental policy.
The court completely disagreed with the landlord and awarded the plaintiff, the Fair Housing Association of Washington, $100,000 in punitive damages against Breyer Sheets after finding that the landlord exhibited what the court called a, quote, a level of recklessness or callous indifference to the fair housing rights of others, end quote.
This is the landlord we're talking about.
there's more to that court case that i don't have time to read but i'll also share this is also the landlord who in 2012 those of you who were in seattle will remember in 2012 we were fighting for marriage equality referendum 70 74 briar sheets properties llc contributed twenty thousand dollars to preserve marriage washington which was the campaign opposing marriage equality on that fall 2012 ballot according to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission.
That made Briar Sheets the fourth largest donor to the campaign attempting to reject referendum 74 and thereby blocking a state law to legalize same-sex marriages.
Luckily They didn't win.
Referendum 74 was passed.
We are proud of having passed that in our state.
But that was just to give a full picture of what landlord we're talking about.
Obviously, ending this press conference is only the beginning of this struggle.
Tenants know that they have to continue fighting back.
And we have to make sure that we hold this landlord into account.
Two simple and reasonable demands.
Fix all the problems of heating and hot water immediately.
We have tenants, including seniors, who are facing real health risks, and compensate the tenants by paying them back the rent for every day that they have gone with these problems.
And I'll also say, if you don't want to pay them back, but if you can If the tenants can prorate their future month's rent, meaning pay less by the amount that you are owed by them, that is fine too.
But we would want the landlord to get in touch with the tenants and my office right away.
Thank you all so much.
The fight continues.