Thank you, and good morning to everybody.
This is the regularly scheduled meeting of the Sustainability and Renters' Rights Committee of the Seattle City Council.
Today is Friday, January 6th, 2023, and the time is 9.33 a.m.
I am the chair of the committee, Council Member Kshama Sawant.
Would the clerk, Ted Verdone from my office, please call the roll.
Council Member Sawant.
Present.
Council Member Nelson.
Present.
Council Member Morales.
Here.
Council Member Lewis, Council Member Juarez.
Three present.
Thank you, Ted, and welcome members of this committee.
Council Member Lewis and Council President Juarez have let my office know that they would be unable to attend today and have been excused.
Today will be a short committee meeting.
We have two points on the agenda, both of which are appointments to the Seattle Renters Commission.
The Seattle Renters Commission has played a tremendous role in Seattle advocating for renters rights, since its inception, they have made several important recommendations for new legislation, which have passed into law.
My office, not only as the current chair of the Renters Rights Committee, but also as a council office that has been dedicated to winning a renter's bill of rights, has had a lot of experience with the members of the Renters Commission who are clearly committed to making the lives of renters better, especially in this city where housing is so unaffordable.
They recommended the 180 days notice for rent increase, or in other words, six months notice for rent increase, and supported relocation assistance for people economically evicted by rent increases, the eviction moratorium, and they have also been advocating for rent control.
And as people who are listening will know, we won the six-day, sorry, six-month notice for rent increases and the economic assistance ordinance for people who are economically evicted by rent increases.
They recently recommended prohibiting credit checks from rental housing histories, which is legislation that my office supports and hopes to pass this year in addition to other bills for renters' rights.
This year, I also intend for this committee to pass comprehensive rent control legislation, capping rent increases at no more than the rate of inflation, and a legislation without corporate loopholes.
We are also preparing legislation to cap late fees, which I believe will be the next bill coming before this committee.
Before hearing from the nominees of the Renters Commission, we will hear public comment.
How many do we have signed up for public comment?
There are three signed up for public comment, one in chambers and two remote.
Okay.
Speakers will have two minutes.
Each dead.
We'll read out the names of the speakers for, we'll start with the in-person and then we'll go to online for people speaking remotely.
When your name is called, you will be prompted to unmute yourself.
When you hear that, please hit star six on your phone to unmute yourself and begin that.
Please call the room.
I mean, call the speakers.
Uh, first speakers, Alex Zimmerman.
Sieg Heil, damn Nazi, Gestapo, democracy, fascist.
I'm up and psycho.
My name Alex Zimmerman and I'm president of Stand Up America.
I stay in here always with my red sign and my yellow David star.
Because I am a Jew, what else I can do?
And everybody have a problem.
But the problem is we have hair.
It's a bit rent right now.
This is a nightmare.
And I'm totally confused because I go to this committee many times and try to understand why you always support appointments as a cheap, dirty crook for the renter committee.
You know what I mean?
But nothing has changed.
Prices have almost doubled for the last six years.
So how can we change this?
Most minority out from city from black and low income is not more in Seattle.
Is this what is you doing?
So consul, I'm totally confused.
They all to me look like you.
You, for example, approve 12 mile trespasses.
Why?
Because I'm a Jew and you anti-Semite?
Why is reason for this?
You know what this mean?
Nobody in America have 12. And you talking about people, ordinary people, you know what this mean?
For the people in your country, Comrades come to this place with big noisy always broken the rule in law.
I never broken law or rule for one second.
It's exactly what's happened.
So I right now speak to this 750,000 slave and zombie, you know what I mean?
Need clean this chamber totally.
Three go out, another four need go too.
And you supposed to be go out too, because you have too many problem, too many problem.
And I am classic example, how people like you, immigrant, like me, you know what I mean, acting like a Nazi.
This is exactly who you are.
So please stand up America, stand up freaking Seattle idiot, cleanse this chamber totally.
Thank you very much.
The next speaker is Howard Gale followed by Megan Murphy.
Good morning, Howard Gale, the district seven renter speaking about the now rampant abuse by corporate property owners of Seattle laws that allow for the legal end runs around just cause evictions and limits to rental increases.
Over this last year, massive investor developer property owners like Cadence Realty that famously displaced Section 8 tenants from the Chateau on Capitol Hill have discovered a way to functionally evict people and raise rents way beyond the limits of Seattle law without having to pay the full burden of tenant relocation assistance or provide the 180 day notice.
A property owner simply claims they are doing renovations that supposedly cost over $6,000 and would require a tenant to vacate the property for three days or more.
In my building with 48 apartments, Cadence Realty is simply replacing cabinets, fixtures, and appliances in the kitchen and bathroom.
None of these changes are required for code compliance or safety.
So as to force people out without paying most people any relocation fees whatsoever, and then raising rents by 70%, 70%.
As an added bonus for Cadence, the few tenants that will meet income guidelines for relocation assistance, the city must pay one half of that.
This is a flagrant abuse of city code, one that will convert 48 affordable units into being unaffordable and displacing 48 families.
Cadence and other corporate property owners are doing this in many dozens of buildings all across the city.
With SDCI happily issuing permanence because SDCI fears legal action from the developers, whereas they feel no threat from disempowered tenants or city's elected officials?
How can the council claim they are fighting homelessness when the city regularly issues permits for an end run around the meager tenant laws that we have that will simply produce more homeless people?
Thank you.
Final remote speaker is Megan Murphy and then we have one more speaker in chambers after Megan Murphy.
Megan, go ahead.
Good morning.
I would much rather be talking about how I was at the Human Rights Commission meeting and they want to sue the mayor for violating the rights of homeless people.
Instead, I have to talk about being stalked by a CEO, a former CEO in town with a lot of money.
I was the nanny for the Waite family who owned Gateway Computers in 1999. I turned them down for the big position of living with them more and getting a lot of money from them, like graduate school, a car.
And I'm a socialist.
And I turned them down in 99. I lost custody of my son in 2011, because I sensed I was being stalked.
I don't know how many other activists feel like they're being stalked.
But I feel like this has undertones of sexual harassment.
And because of my lack of economic, I'm on disability for anxiety, my lack of economic power and ties.
These people have enough money to send people that look like them to like my AA meetings.
And it's doing me personal damage and psychologically harassing me.
And I lost custody of my son in 2011 because I went to the police and the police didn't believe me.
I just said, do you have a list of domestic violence shelters?
I feel like I'm being stalked and they said I was having a psychotic break and they took my son and 90 days later I lost my son and that's been 12 years.
So now it almost seems like the CEO of Microsoft is stalking me and would you believe based on my socialist beliefs, I'm reading Vandana Shiva about Monsanto and it feels like I'm having Monsanto sprayed all over my life and I support Julian Assange and I believe that carbon capture is a political front to prolong fossil fuels.
So, you know, breakthrough energy doesn't really impress me at all.
So I'm just, I wanted to stop.
I demand that any stalking stops.
Anyone who wants to follow me needs to ask me in person, tangibly, in a humane way, because this is causing me great personal damage to my life.
It's cost me 12 years with my son, and it's extremely psychologically harassment.
I almost believe I'm being gaslit instead of it being real.
Like I'm supposed to expect that some billionaires from their cloud.
And I'm on a lower level when in reality we're on the same level and I demand to be communicated with in a humane way and not a psychologically abusive way.
Thank you.
Our final speaker in chambers is Alonzo.
He's the microphone right here.
I need you to look at me.
I know everybody in this whole entire building I'm on the other side of this point right now.
And I don't care.
I'm a trooper like that, a soldier.
I don't mean in the military sense, spiritual.
But if shit doesn't change, I promise you, I promise you in my mother's eyes, everything I ever loved in this institution we call Seattle, I got to pull any resources that I possibly can to do so.
I promise you, I will.
It's not a threat.
It's an observation.
I'm tired of being ran through.
I'm tired of looking like I'm insane when I'm one of the most smartest, educated, young African-Americans in this city.
When you talk about Black Lives Matter, all lives matter.
That's the final speaker for public comment.
Thank you to everybody who spoke in public comment.
We will now begin our items of business, the appointment to the Seattle Renters Commission.
First, I'll read the appointments into the record, and then we will hear from the appointees.
Appointment 02434, appointment of Dan Godfrey as member of Seattle Renters Commission for a term to February 28, 2024. And appointment 02435, appointment of Atif Osmani as member of Seattle Renters Commission for a term to February 28, 2024. Dan and Atif, thank you for volunteering for the commission and for being here today.
Please introduce yourselves and tell us a little about your experience as a renter in the city and maybe in other cities and why you want to help out the Renters Commission.
And please also include what you are hoping the Renters Commission can accomplish this year.
So Dan, did you want to go first?
Hi there.
My name is Dan Godfrey.
I've been a renter in the Seattle area since 2015, and I've been on the commission for the last year or so as a Get Engaged member.
I'm a social worker.
I work with homeless folks in the Capitol Hill area, and I've rented all over the city.
Uh, on the commission, I'd, I'd like to increase our productivity and be more engaged with, uh, the city council and goings on in the city, um, pushing for renter friendly legislation and advocacy.
Um, you know, both operating within the tenants of the free market and potentially, you know, in the right political circumstances, pushing for, uh, more renter friendly policy, um, I've really enjoyed my time there so far, and I think I have more to add, and I appreciate everyone taking the time today.
Thank you.
Adif?
Hello everyone.
My name is money.
I moved to Seattle in 2021. So I studied public policy and health policy has always been a sub specialization that I've been interested in housing is a huge part of that and You know, my experience renting in the city of Seattle has been an interesting one.
When I first moved here, I actually was in a housing agreement where I was running an Airbnb along with my partner to then get a subsidized rent, along with doing our full-time jobs.
And we're not doing that situation anymore.
But while I've been in the city, I, one, would love to advocate for an expansion of renters' rights in terms of, you know, when people can get out of their leases given other life circumstances, what is the representation that renters have for HOAs that might be making decisions that impact their lives, and also just working with city members to ideally create legislation that will A, allow people to afford their housing, but also make sure that people have the protections necessary to live meaningful, healthy lives.
So thank you for having me.
Thank you.
Ted from council member Sawant's office, talking on the phone prior to this meeting, the Airbnb story is a valuable one for people to hear because they were It's not that they owned the Airbnb, their landlord owned the Airbnb.
So then in order to get subsidized rent, they managed this Airbnb for the landlord, which shows the, um, you know, in the building, which just shows how it, in my mind, it's, it just shows how renters look, uh, really have to just scramble every day in order to, in order to afford, uh, in order to afford rent.
It's a really strong example of why rent control is needed.
Thank you, Ted.
Thank you, Atif and Dan, for introducing yourselves.
Can you both weigh in on how you think and what are the concrete things you think need to change in Seattle to, as both of you said, to make renters' lives better?
And so what are the concrete ideas that you think need to be put in place in order to make it better?
And also, how do you think the renters commission should go about doing its work?
You know, so for example, do you, how do you, how do you believe the renters commission can have the political influence that they need to have in order to advocate for successfully advocate for progressive changes for renters?
Do either of you want to respond?
Yeah, I can start Dan.
So, as I was speaking out earlier, one, I definitely think we should either a allow renters to have a vote in HOAs that are making decisions about their lives.
In the prior situation that I had mentioned, the reason I had to leave my housing situation was because the HOA had at some point made the decision that they weren't going to allow for short term rentals, which then made our housing contract where we were, you know, running this Airbnb, where again, To make it clear we weren't getting the profits from that, that made that agreement void.
And so that is one thing that I would love for the renters commission to advocate for but then also, I would love if in our renters Bill of Rights, we were able to expand the reasons for when a person can leave their lease.
We know that with the current economic situation, and we've already seen this with many tech layoffs, that people's employment statuses will be probably changing, unfortunately, over the course of the next year.
And right now, if you were in a lease that you can't afford, there's not really a meaningful way to get out of that.
And then this forces people into financial situations of instability, which then leads to homelessness.
in certain cases, unless you have a cushion.
And then also, what about scenarios where you have a death in the family or things of that nature?
We don't have anything codified into law that allows someone to say, hey, I had this circumstance that was out of my control, but is very much affecting my life.
And I would love if we could figure out a way to codify those sorts of scenarios into law.
But then also, I know that, unfortunately, rent control is a more difficult issue to legislate for, but ideally some kind of rental cap would be awesome.
And in terms of how the Renters Commission could have more of an influence, I would love to grow our social presence just so that, A, we can get a lot more public comment, right, as we're making our decisions and trying to create policy, or rather advocate for policy that makes sense for the citizens of Seattle.
That way, also, we can, our work can seem more of a conversation rather than us talking about our issues in a commission, if that makes sense.
And then also, I think if we had a greater public presence, that would just allow us to make sure that whatever actions we are taking are just more in line with the people who vote in the city.
And we can actually respond to changes that we're seeing, say, in the student rent population, or just have a greater sense of the different issues that are going on.
Dan, I'll turn it over to you.
Thanks Satif.
Some of the things we're talking about, I mean, obviously rent control is, would be a tremendous boon to renters.
And I believe the commission is very interested in that, but that's a very ambitious.
We're talking about trying to improve representation of like ADA qualified housing to be proportional to the general population at large.
We've heard a lot about the SDCI and accountability not quite meeting the needs of low-income renters across the city and rental abuse by landlords.
We're kind of exploring doing research on rental housing supply and low-income housing rental supply as well as rental density and ways to advocate for like strategic increases in those volumes to, you know, reduce rent for renters and make the rental market easier to enter and navigate.
And I think we can really improve the publicity of what we are doing as an advocacy and education group, you know, with no, with no budget and The capacity that we do have.
I think we can do a lot better about public education, we can do more collaborations with other commissions and nonprofits in the city.
And I think we could better educate renters on what their rights are, because when you're looking around on Facebook marketplace and Craigslist the.
Like just the things that are requirements listed by landlords alone are in violation of Seattle law for rental protection.
So I think there are a lot of tangible steps we could take to have an impact in the city.
Sorry, Dan, can you just say the last thing again?
I'm sorry, I didn't catch fully.
What specific violations of rental law by landlords were you referring to?
Or were you saying generally abused by landlords, the law?
Yeah, requirements for background checks that are not supported by the Rental Act, and income limits, criminal history, et cetera, they're very specific crimes that renters can be prevented from getting housing as a result of.
And it's not a super broad list.
I'm sure we've all seen the packet that renters get when they go to a lease signing and it's, if they get the packet, it's quite extensive, but it's kind of too late in a lot of those situations.
And I think, you know, we should be on, we should be on social media and other forums, like presenting the, the information that renters need about what their rights are and when a landlord can enter your unit and like what the SDCI can do for you.
What we, you know, what rehousing resources could look like.
Renters need to be informed.
And I think that's a big part of what the commission should be doing.
Yeah.
Thanks for clarifying that.
So yeah, first of all, I really appreciate all the.
concrete points that both Dan and Atif have brought forward.
I just wanted to quickly go over some of the ideas because I hope you all know as incoming, hopefully once the vote happens in the city council, incoming members of the Seattle Renters Commission, you know how deeply committed my office is and has been for over nine years now.
for renters rights and the number of victories that we have won, including the ones I just mentioned earlier, the six-month notice and also the three months rent worth of economic eviction assistance, the winter eviction moratorium, the ban on evictions of children and public school workers during the school year.
All of these have been significant.
And at the same time, I'm really gratified actually as an office that fights for renters rights, the community organizers in my office and I, we are extremely gratified that both of you have talked about rent control without me prompting for that information.
I mean, I was going to ask you about rent control anyway, but I'm really happy that you brought it up yourself.
I want to say a few things about rent control in a second.
But just on your concrete points, firstly, both Atif and Danny, both of you have talked about the greater need for the Seattle Renters Commission to have more of a public presence.
And specifically that public presence could help in better public dissemination of rental law I think Dan is absolutely correct that the existing law enforcing the existing law, I think we need a lot of changes on the city front in the sense of, you know, actually how the law is being enforced.
Do we need a greater budget in order to make sure that the Department of Construction Inspection has the staff that they need in order to actually enforce the law and to just share with the public?
our office is discussing this amongst ourselves and we want to delve more deeply into how the law is enforced.
But the other part of enforcing the law is just renters knowing what the law is and what rights they have.
You're absolutely right that the Renters Commission can play an even bigger role than that they have been playing.
I just wanted to share with you that my office and I personally would be very interested in helping you do that.
Also, let's see if we can connect other organizations like the Tenants Union and just individual renters who want to fight.
Maybe we can do a public meeting in various districts in order to make sure that we get as many renters as possible to attend those meetings and make sure that the information goes to them.
The other points you brought up, Adif talked about, votes for tenants in HOAs.
That's a very interesting idea.
I'm really thankful that you shared it.
I would urge that if the Renters Commission is discussing that, if you can include Ted Verdun from my office who's clerking this committee and also is the policy analyst for my office.
If we can discuss this together and see if that is legally possible, then that is something I would personally be interested in.
I think that's a very interesting point.
In fact, it brings up the fundamental question of in the housing industry, in the housing market, a big part of why renters are at such a receiving end of Just a very difficult situation and how why it is so skewed between landlords and renters that just tenants don't have the voice that they need.
So I think this is an interesting point.
I also really agree with the.
I think Dan brought this up, the increasing ADA qualified housing, affordable housing, to be clear, it needs to be affordable, ADA qualified affordable housing in proportion with the general population.
Absolutely, that should already have been the case, but yes, that is something also very specifically my office would be interested in pushing forward.
So I would really be excited to discuss this further with the Renters Commission and see if we can make sure that legally make that a requirement as soon as possible.
On the flexible breaking of the rental lease, you know, Atif brought up this important point, you know, yeah, especially with people, when people lose their jobs and as we head into the recession, that is going to be a specific concern.
I'm not sure how we could do this.
I was just briefly going back and forth with Ted about this.
I think we run into complications with contract law, but we should not still not give up.
Let's talk about it.
I think all of the ideas that you've brought forward are elements that we should include in a renter's bill of rights.
I'll make sure that my office shares with you our renter's bill of rights, many of which we have one.
Obviously, the big ticket item there is rent control because without rent control, There's limited efficacy of every other victory we win.
But we also want to add the new things that are new to us that you just brought up.
And then, last but not least on rent control yeah it is absolutely essential that we fight to win rent control and this year, we should be doing this because the.
It's very clear how welcome rent control will be for ordinary people.
I mean, there's no suspense about what renters feel about rent control and becoming a majority renter city.
I think that's the basic requirement that we should have in the law.
And just to share with Dan and Atif and also council members, in 2019, my office brought forward a draft legislation for rent control.
It's a very strong legislation and it is necessary that it should be strong because it is the corporate loopholes themselves that then make rent control law less effective than the same corporate landlords who use their influence to insert those loopholes in the law.
will then turn around and say, well, rent control doesn't work.
So we have to avoid that kind of pitfall, but that will only happen through building a strong movement.
And to this end, in 2019, as I said, my office brought forward a legislation At that time, we also tabled throughout the city collecting petition signatures, and it was very strong support.
At that time, we got 15,000 signatures.
We will be doing that again this year to make sure that people know that such a law can be won.
I have no doubt in my mind that there will be, once again, very strong support.
If anything, it's probably stronger if you did a statistical poll, which we don't have the resources to do, but if somebody wanted to do that, I'm quite confident that it will be very strong, probably stronger than ever before in our lifetimes.
So I will make sure that we will share from our office our draft legislation.
We may already have shared, but with new incoming members, we'll make sure that you have access to that as well.
And just one specific thing I will mention in rent control, one of the main loopholes that we have to avoid is what's called vacancy decontrol.
I'm sure Dan and Artef know what I'm talking about, basically meaning that when a tenant moves out of a rental unit, rental home, then vacancy decontrol says that apartment or that apartment that rental home is no longer under rent control but that basically just completely writes the demise of rent control into the law itself so it absolutely we have to hold the line on that and so in other words we need vacancy control so the law that the legislation that we have drafted from our office has vacancy control it also says that all buildings all rental units will be under rent control because that's another way the the corporate landlord industry What's in a loophole where some are rent control units, some are not, and they can do a divide and conquer by dividing the interests of renters by, you know, renters who are in rental rent controlled homes and those who are not, you know, sort of pitting them against each other.
We don't want that either.
So that's just a little bit about.
The legislation that we've drafted, I would be really interested in talking to you both and also other members of Renters Commission more so this year.
As I said, my interest in our office is that we bring forward that legislation, this committee, as soon as possible in addition to the other bills that we can bring and when maybe earlier than rent control.
That's what I had to share in response to the very useful points that were brought up by both.
I will ask committee members if you have things to add.
No, thank you.
I do want to thank both of you for your existing service and your willingness to continue serving and look forward to working with both of you.
Keep raising these issues and to, as the chair said, help develop some policy ideas for the city.
Thank you.
Thank you.
If there are no other comments, And I don't see any request to speak.
So in that case, I think there wouldn't be any opposition to vote.
So if there is no objection, the committee will vote on both appointments in a single vote.
I see no objections coming forward.
So I move appointments 02434 and 02435. Second, second.
Thank you.
For the second council members, Ted, please call the roll on the appointments.
Council member Sawant.
Yes.
Council member Nelson.
Aye.
Council member Morales.
Yes.
Three in favor.
Thank you committee members appointments 02434 and 02435 have passed in committee and will be voted on by the full city council on January 17th.
Dan and Atif, you are not expected to be there on the 17th.
So, you know, don't worry about having to come again.
And I believe that the appointments will be voted, will be approved by the city council.
I thank you again for volunteering for the Renters Commission and really look forward to working with you both and your fellow members of the Renters Commission.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Great.
So those two appointments were the only topics for this committee meeting today.
Are there any comments for the good of the order?
Seeing none, meeting is adjourned.
Thank you, committee members.
Thank you.