Tag Archives: rent

With nearly 100,000 behind on rent, Harrell makes Valentine’s Day extension of Seattle’s ban on pandemic evictions

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Mayor Bruce Harrell will extend Seattle’s eviction protections another 30 days into February but the new administration says it wants to do more to inform people about the rules and measure its impact on leases and real estate in the city.

The latest extension protecting residential tenants, businesses, and organizations from eviction during the pandemic will keep the restrictions in place through February 14th.

Saying his administration wants to better understand “the algebra behind it,” Harrell said the next executive order includes the creation of “an advisory group for the mayor composed of tenant advocates and small landlords,” and an evaluation of “Seattle’s intergovernmental coordination in receiving and distributing financial assistance to tenants and small landlords.” Harrell also promised a new online “portal” to provide information to tenants and property owners. Continue reading →

With sixth extension of COVID-19 eviction moratorium, Seattle buying more time for federal aid, new programs to help tenants and landlords

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Items left outside after a past Capitol Hill eviction (Image: CHS)

Seattle is buying time for thousands of renters and landlords as Mayor Jenny Durkan has signed an executive order for the sixth extension of the city’s moratorium on residential and commercial evictions during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

The ban on evictions will now stretch into January 2022. By then, the city will have a new mayor and, perhaps, a plan and the relief funding necessary to emerge from the looming tenant and landlord crisis. Continue reading →

‘I am with the people’ — Sawant sets out to complete the big three: $15 minimum wage, Tax Amazon, and, now, rent control in Seattle

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(Image: CHS)

A poster from 2019 — ready for a re-run in 2021

In October of 2013, CHS was there as an upstart challenger squared off with incumbent Seattle City Councilmember Richard Conlin in a debate on rent control held at Seattle Central that would set the tone for the major political upset that would remove the veteran lawmaker from office a few weeks later.

That win built on causes like the $15 minimum wage, a tax on big business, and controlling rents came at the start of Kshama Sawant’s political career in the city.

“We’ve done $15 an hour and taxing big business. We haven’t done rent control,” Sawant told CHS Wednesday.

“Between 2013 and 2019, there was a huge shift in broad consciousness… Now, in post-pandemic, it is even greater. People’s eyes are opening,” the now longest serving member on the council said.

Eight years later as she faces the ultimate political fight to keep her place on the council, Sawant says it is time to complete her initial goals in the city, announcing in a rally at 22nd and Union a renewed push of her bid to prepare Seattle with rent control legislation that would slow and sometimes prohibit yearly increases in rent by tying a cap to inflation and pressure lawmakers in Olympia to lift the state ban that forbids it. Continue reading →

King County $41M rental assistance and eviction prevention hoped to help low income tenants — and their landlords — make it through 2020

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King County hopes a $41 million program to help renters and both large-scale and small, individual landlords can help stave off eviction for between 7,000 and 10,000 low income households during the COVID-19 crisis.

Executive Dow Constantine announced the rental assistance and eviction prevention proposal for “individual tenants, large and small property managers and landlords, and mobile home parks” Thursday and the county is taking feedback on the plan through the end of the month before rolling it out.

The county proposal includes four categories of funding to address “several approaches to serve as many households as possible, as quickly as possible” — Continue reading →

Seattle’s ‘Eviction Defense for Renters’ hoped to give tenants added protection during COVID-19 economic fallout

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Seattle has put a so-called “Eviction Defense for Renters” in place to protect tenants for six months after the state’s ban on evictions during the COVID-19 crisis is eventually lifted.

The Seattle City Council bill from president M. Lorena González addresses what comes after the state and city’s moratorium on evictions is lifted and provides “a defense a tenant may use for six months should a landlord take their tenant to eviction court” and establishes that renters can use “non-payment of rent for any reason as a defense to eviction, as long as they submit a declaration of financial hardship to the court,” an announcement on the bill’s passage reads.

“After the immediate health crisis is over, we know the economic ripple effects will be felt for some time. Tenants who have lost their jobs or seen their income significantly dropped during this pandemic need time to find their way back to economic stability. This legislation provides tenants recovering from this crisis an additional six months of housing stability through an added defense in eviction proceedings after the city’s eviction moratorium ends,” González said after the unanimous vote to pass the bill Monday afternoon. Continue reading →

May Day: Sawant calls for ‘Rent Strike’ in Seattle — UPDATE

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UPDATED 4/16/20 following our interview with council member Sawant

Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant says the COVID-19 crisis calls for a rent freeze and relief for vulnerable populations dealing with economic hardship as thousands of workers have been laid off.

Her office representing Capitol Hill, the Central District, and nearby neighborhoods is now planning a May 1st rent strike to put pressure on landlords and politicians to get a statewide suspension of rent, mortgage, and utility payments.

“[T]he political establishment will not act, given their ties to corporate landlords and big business,” she said on Facebook. “It will take a real fight, it will take a Rent Strike! And we will need to be organized, building by building, neighborhood by neighborhood, while of course maintaining social distancing.”

While nearly 9,000 have signed a petition urging Gov. Jay Inslee to immediately enact such a suspension as well as a freeze on rent increases for the rest of the year, Sawant says more needs to be done.

“It’s not that anybody is telling them not to pay rent, they simply don’t have money to pay rent,” Sawant says of the call for a strike.

The Socialist Alternative council member says she is launching this new effort because “individual renters and families, working families, simply saying ‘Well I can’t pay rent, so I’m not gonna pay rent’ doesn’t protect you from eviction. That doesn’t protect you from the corporate landlords and the big banks.”

“We need to understand that renter organizing is no different fundamentally from workplace organizing.” First, she says, renters must collectively organize.

Continue reading →

To weather COVID-19, Seattle freezes rent for small businesses

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Work from artist James Spencer on E Olive Way’s Revolver

Seattle’s small businesses and nonprofits hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis got a small boost Monday as the City Council passed legislation that freezes their rents and enacts a ban on commercial eviction during the crisis in the form of negotiated “payment plan” requirements.

The legislation follows Mayor Jenny Durkan’s order prohibiting “the eviction of a small business or nonprofit tenant for non-payment of rent or because an existing lease terminated during the civil emergency period.”

“Small businesses are struggling to stay afloat, and those forced to shut down are worried they won’t be able to restart their businesses after the initial crisis is over,” West Seattle representative Lisa Herbold said about the passage of her bill: Continue reading →

To blunt COVID-19 crisis, Seattle leaders make call to cancel rent, house payments

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It’s the end of the month and Capitol Hill and Central District renters know the check is due. For homeowners, it is time to pay the lenders.

With that in mind, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a resolution Monday calling on Gov. Jay Inslee and the federal government to impose an immediate moratorium on rent and mortgage payments as workers are laid off amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 133,000 Washingtonians filed for unemployment benefits from March 15-21, up from just over 14,000 the week before, according to the Employment Security Department, as the state’s moves to blunt the spread of the novel coronavirus virus got more and more restrictive.

King County residents accounted for 37,296 of the jobless claims that week. More than 41,000 were in the accommodation and food services industry.

“All of us as a council is eager to make sure that we’re protecting our neighbors,” council member Tammy Morales said, adding she’s been getting hundreds of emails from worried constituents. Morales, the sponsor of the resolution, also said this effort is in tandem with legislators across the country, from San Francisco to Boston, who are working on similar measures to push federal lawmakers to act.

Last week, CHS reported on District 3’s Kshama Sawant calling for a COVID-19 rent freeze to combat “shockingly unconscionable” rent increases. Monday, she said a petition in support of the movement had over 6,300 signatures calling on Inslee to immediately suspend rent payments.

“Elected officials have a moral and political duty to ensure the burden of this serious crisis does not land on the same working people and marginalized communities who are already struggling under ‘normal’ periods of capitalism,” Sawant wrote in a letter to Inslee on Thursday. “It would be criminal to allow landlords to carry out rent increases during this pandemic, leading to further evictions and putting public welfare and health at grave risk.”

Monday, the resolution passed with Sawant unable to participate in the initial vote thanks to a momentary technological blip. The council held its session via teleconference, joining thousands of workers across the region under COVID-19 “work from home” restrictions. The District 3 representative said later that a technical difficulty prevented her from voting and that she was able to add her support. Continue reading →

Super green Pike/Pine development unveils giant ‘Amaterasu’ mural, change from condo plans

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The work, titled Amaterasu, peers over 13th Ave (Image: CHS)

It’s too early — and not enough is known — to call Capitol Hill’s spurt of condominium development over but a high profile project appears to be a sign that rent is still king in Pike/Pine.

If its quest for sustainability wasn’t enough, the giant, colorful, north-facing mural from “urban artist” Fin DAC has drawn plenty of attention to the nearly complete Solis development at 13th and Pike. But the project on a quest to be Capitol Hill’s — and Seattle’s –first Passive House-certified mixed-use project won’t come to market as condos as had been planned.

In an announcement, the developer announced the 45-unit building “will be retained by SolTerra’s investment group as an apartment community.” Continue reading →

Sawant says she will make new push on Seattle rent control, ordinance against ‘Economic Evictions’

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(Image: Seattle City Council)

Building on recommendations from the Seattle Renters’ Commission, City Council member Kshama Sawant announced two measures Monday aimed would alleviate some of the burden for Seattle renters. The first is a proposal to enact a Seattle rent control ordinance. The second, the Economic Evictions Assistance Ordinance, would look to protect tenants against substantial rent increases.

“We have two choices,” Sawant said at a Monday morning press conference at City Hall to announce her planned proposals. “One, just sit on our hands and expect that some day, in the distant future, the Democratic establishment will gather the courage to break from the real estate lobby and finally stand with us. We’ve done that kind of waiting for 40 years.”

“Or we can begin the fight here.” Continue reading →