The City Council will decide Tuesday whether to adopt a resolution brought by District 3 representative Kshama Sawant that would legally change the date the city’s prohibition on residential evictions end in Seattle.

UPDATE 4:25 PM: Following council president Debora Juarez’s recitation of two years of passed legislation involving pandemic renter protections, the body rejected the Sawant resolution in a 3-5 vote. Only Teresa Mosqueda and Lisa Herbold joined Sawant in yes votes on the extension. Tammy Morales was not present for the vote.

The rejection followed an attempt at compromise in sorting out an extension on the city’s eviction restrictions as Herbold proposed an amendment that would have extended the restrictions only through April 30th. But that path was rejected with Sawant joining the “no” voters setting up the vote rejecting her proposed longer extension. Before the final vote, Sawant thanked the dozens of speakers who had commented in favor of the resolution and told the council the rejection would be part of a spike in evictions after February 28th.

Original report: The move would reset the clock on Mayor Bruce Harrell’s plan to end the restrictions on February 28th leaving residential tenants behind on their rent around six months more of pandemic protections. Commercial tenants, meanwhile, will only have their own negotiating skills to fall back on.

Sawant’s resolution would modify the civil emergency order that is the legal framework for the restrictions to be in effect “until the termination of the COVID civil emergency” which was proclaimed on March 3, 2020 and “affirmed and modified” previously via resolution.

Sawant is calling on supporters to speak out in support of the extension. “If the City Council does not vote yes on our resolution to extend the COVID-19 pandemic eviction moratorium, it will result in a spate of evictions and homelessness,” she said in an email to supporters.

Her office cites new census reporting and says 132,000 households in the Seattle-metro area are behind on rent.

“Unless we fight back, the Democrats on the City Council are prepared to join Mayor Harrell in evicting tens of thousands of struggling renters and working-class families,” Sawant writes. “The families and renters facing eviction are disproportionately Black, Indigenous, and people of color.”

The Seattle City Council meets Tuesday, February 22, 2022 at 2:00 PM
Remote Meeting. Call 253-215-8782; Meeting ID: 586 416 9164; or
Seattle Channel online.

The full proposed resolution is below.

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