The Seattle City Council Tuesday afternoon will consider legislation that would amend a Seattle protection for tenants behind on their rent by tying repayment plan requirements to the city’s ongoing COVID-19 civil emergency, not the state’s.

UPDATE: The bill has passed. “Rather than limiting tenants to six months to repay debts accumulated over two years, Council Bill 120305 defines a reasonable repayment plan as one in which debts can be repaid in monthly installments, with no monthly installment exceeding one-third of the tenant’s monthly rent,” an announcement from sponsoring councilmember Dan Strauss’s office reads. “This repayment plan will apply to any rental debts incurred during the City of Seattle’s ongoing COVID-19 civil emergency, or within six-months after the end of the civil emergency.”

The procedural change comes amid legal challenges and will create a new timeline for the protections which require landlords to accept a repayment plan “of rental arrears accrued during or within six months after the termination of the COVID civil emergency.”

Mayor Bruce Harrell has not said what his plans are to terminate the city’s civil emergency, established by Jenny Durkan in March 2020. In February, Harrell decided to end the long string of extensions, bringing an end to the city’s ban on evictions.

In February 2021, a King County Superior Court judge upheld a set of renter protection laws passed to help Seattle tenants through the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The ordinances included payment plan options for late rent during or within six months after the COVID-19 state of emergency ends, a “financial hardship” defense for eviction court proceedings, and a ban on eviction during winter months.

But earlier this year, the key component of Seattle’s efforts to protect renters from eviction as the city emerges from years of COVID-19 restrictions was struck down by the Washington State Court of Appeals. The decision upended Seattle’s “Eviction Defense for Renters,” the policy that was designed to provide renters with a six-month cushion after the lifting of COVID-19 eviction restrictions. The appeals court agreed with the landlord-friendly Rental Housing Association of Washington, ruling that the eviction defense deprives landlords of due process. Meanwhile, the court upheld Seattle’s ban on wintertime evictions.

Changing the repayment plan legislation to tie it to Seattle’s civil emergency should protect the ordinance from the courts and meet state requirements, the city council summary of the legislation says.

“The revisions to the repayment plan to conform with the state’s requirements will ensure that households have the ability to repay rental arrears in a way that does not increase the risk of eviction,” it reads. “As a result, the bill will protect public health and support stable housing, decrease the likelihood that individuals and families will fall into homelessness, enable tenants in the City whose income and ability to work is affected due to COVID-19 to remain in their homes; and increase the ability of some tenants to repay rental arrears.”

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