From now through Thanksgiving, the Seattle City Council will focus on two things: affordability and City Hall’s 2016 budget. Everything else is canceled.

Tuesday night, brings the first council committee hearing on the proposed 2016 budget. CHS outlined the Capitol Hill and Central Seattle highlights including a DPD overhaul, streetcar extension, homelessness funding, bike share expansion, and cop body cams here.

Budget Committee Agenda
Tuesday, October 6, 2015 5:30 PM
Public Hearing
The Seattle City Council Budget Committee will conduct a public hearing to solicit public comment on: (1) the City’s 2016 General Revenue Sources, including a possible property tax levy increase; and (2) Mayor Edward B. Murray’s 2016 Proposed Budget.
This hearing will continue until all in-person comments have been received. In the interest of time, members of groups with similar interests are encouraged to combine their presentations. Group presentations will be limited to five minutes. Individual comments will be limited to two minutes or less.

Written comment can be sent to [email protected]. The hearing will be shown live on Seattle Channel 21 and online at www.seattle.gov/council. A second hearing will be held Tuesday, October 20th at 5:30 PM, also at City Hall.

Monday, the full council approved legislation to help stop “economic evictions” in Seattle:

Council unanimously adopted a bill today to prevent landlords from drastically raising rents on low-income tenants for the purpose of evicting them without providing relocation assistance.  Currently, if a building is to be torn down or renovated, landlords must give tenants who have to move 90 days notice and pay $3,255 in Tenant Relocation Assistance to low-income households. Recently, there have been reports of low-income tenants’ rents doubling so they’ll voluntarily vacate, all so landlords can avoid paying the required relocation assistance.

The bill prohibits rent increases for the purpose of avoiding the required Tenant Relocation Assistance process:

If a landlord increases rent by 20% or more, which results in a tenant vacating a unit within 90 days, then applies for a permit to substantially rehabilitate the unit within 6 months, the owner can have their building permit denied until the owner pays the penalties. Penalties are $1,000 per day for each day from the date the violation began.

The Select Committee on Housing Affordability — which will continue to meet through the budget process — is currently shaping the first legislation out of the city’s affordability task force recommendations.