A RESOLUTION urging Mayor Durkan and Governor Inslee to extend the City and State emergency moratoriums on evictions through no earlier than the end of 2021.
Agenda item two Resolution 31998. A resolution urging Mayor Durkan and Governor Inslee to extend the city and state emergency moratoriums on evictions through no earlier than the end of 2021. Thank you. So much. I move to adopt resolution 31998. Is there a second? I get back in? Great. Wonderful. Okay. Councilmember Sawant, you are the sponsor of the resolution. I'm going to hand it over to you to address this item. Thank you. And God surprise. And I will make the general comments I have and then move the amendment. Is that okay? On the U.S. amendment. No, let's let's address the base the base bill, and then we'll have you do the amendment, and then we can have a conversation about the amendment and do the vote on the amendment. Okay. Thank you. This resolution urges the mayor and governor to extend the moratorium on evictions through at least the end of this year. This resolution last came for a vote to the city council on March 15th, two weeks before the city and state eviction moratorium were poised to expire. At that time, renters were terrified that they could lose their homes in two weeks, and housing activists and organizations demanded that the mayor and the governor extend the eviction moratorium to the end of the year. Minutes before the city council meeting on that day where the resolution was going to be voted on now, Durkan relented and extended the moratorium for an additional three months. And later, Governor Inslee did the same. As we said at that time, this was a victory for the renters rights struggle, but it was also only a partial victory because it was extended. The moratorium was extended to only three months. I proposed at the time and the council unanimously agreed to delay the vote on the resolution until today, June 7th, because the eviction moratoriums are now. I'm going to expire on June 30th unless they're extended. Like in March, if the eviction moratoriums are permitted to expire at the end of this month, it will spell a real disaster for renters, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse survey. 270,000 Washington state renters have little to no confidence that they will be able to pay rent next month, which is 18% of all state renters and 98,000 Washington state renters think it is very or somewhat likely that they will be evicted in the next two months. And already, as a public comment, testimonials have stated, and as I have said in my comments and previous weeks, the data from the real estate industry in Seattle itself shows that rents are starting to skyrocket starting in January already, and that they are projected to increase at a greater rate than the rents were going up in the pre-pandemic period. So renters are facing a dire situation, both in terms of keeping up with the current trend, not to mention the debt that they are being forced to accumulate. We have fought for and won the right to a lawyer for renters facing eviction. Eviction. Defenses for renters and rental assistance. Money. All of those are extremely important, but none of them are an excuse to fail to extend the eviction moratorium when the eviction moratorium ends. Literally thousands of Seattle renters. Could be served with eviction paperwork, which is also known as unlawful detainers. An unknown number will evict moving before they are formally served with eviction paperwork. Then, statistically, half of those actually settled with formal eviction paperwork will be evicted by default because they are unable to respond to the paperwork or appear in court. And only those who make it to the eviction hearing can avoid eviction using Seattle's eviction defense, the right to counsel and rental assistance funds. I oppose evictions because housing should be a human right at the least. At the very least, however, the housing emergency renters are facing due to the economic shock of COVID 19 needs to be resolved before elected officials even consider lifting the eviction moratorium. This is a resolution. It's a resolution urging Mayor Durkan and Governor Inslee to extend the eviction moratorium to the end of this year. I want to move the amendment and then I have specific comment about the amended version. So I move Amendment One, which updates this resolution to account for changes over the past three months since it was last discussed. Can I get a second. Second I It's been moved in second hand. So as a result you may address your. Thank you. The amendment adds up to date statistics and also language on recent community organizing. For example, a quote from a Washington Community Action Network outreach letter. Quote, We are calling for an extension of the eviction moratorium to the end of this year, end of the year to make sure renters have time to access rent relief programs , get back to their normal incomes, and can get caught up on rent. We want some important policies in the state legislature, but to make sure those policies are effective, we need to ensure rent don't have time to catch up on rent and code. The amendment resolution also quotes from my Washington Low Income Housing Alliance letter stating, quote, Incredible numbers of renters are applying for rent rental assistance and it will take months to get the funds distributed. Lifting the moratorium and allowing landlords to proceed with evictions a month from now would be grossly irresponsible. And quite frankly, it is. I agree with them. It is not acceptable that elected officials would even consider lifting the moratorium before renters are able to get caught up on their past rent and stabilize their lives after this unprecedented emergency. The amendment also account for the provision in Senate Bill 5160 that shamefully ends the eviction moratorium statewide on June 30th. But to be clear, while the statewide moratorium is scheduled at this moment to end on June 30th, according to Senate Bill 5160, there is nothing legally stopping Governor Inslee from issuing a new moratorium proclamation. And Senate Bill 5160 says nothing about the city's moratorium. So I urge councilmembers to support this amendment. Updating the resolution language also urge council members to support the resolution as a whole. But at this time, I think we have the first vote on the amendment to update the language and then the vote on the resolution as a whole. And I'll just have some closing comments later on. Thank you so much. Perfect. That's exactly how we're going to handle this. So before we call the roll on proposed amendment and one, I would like to offer other council members an opportunity to ask any questions or make any comments about proposed Amendment one as published on the agenda. Hearing no comments or seeing any hands raised for questions. Will the clerk please call the will on the adoption. Of amendments one. Whereas. I. Lewis. I. Morales. Mystery. I. Peterson. I. So on. Yes. Council President Gonzales. I seven and seven. None of those. The amendment passes and the motion carries the amendment as adopted, and the amended resolution is now before the City Council. Are there any additional comments on the resolution as amended? And of course, Councilor Arsalan is the prime sponsor. You'll get the last word. All right. Scanning the zoom room for any hands. And I'm not seeing any hands raised. So, Councilmember Charlotte, you get the last word. You can close out debate and we'll call this to a vote. Thank you. I just wanted to add, the New York Times editorial board recently wrote an editorial with the Orwellian title To Prevent Elections and Moratoriums. This editorial advocates for ending eviction moratoriums around the country by making the neoliberal bootstraps argument that poor renters need the threat of eviction to be motivated to access rental assistance money. We know that such neoliberal arguments have no truth. And when you look at overwhelming statistical evidence, but we also know that this is the new line of the corporate establishment now. And we are seeing it being used around the country to erode renters rights from Philadelphia to Olympia. And it is being used as a cudgel against any any advocacy of extending eviction moratoriums nationally. The reality is that rental assistance agencies need time to distribute rental assistance funds. Renters do not need the threat of eviction. Renters need some guarantees that they will not lose their homes. And as progressives, we have a duty to push back against this neoliberal narrative. Housing should be a human right and not used as leverage. Like The New York Times editorial board proposes. So I would urge that we send a clear message to the governors and the mayors offices that the Seattle City Council supports renters and community organizations in demanding that the moratorium be extended to at least the end of this year. Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilmember and Salon, for those closing comments. We are not going to call this resolution to a vote. So will the clerk please call the will on the adoption of the amended resolution? Was I. Lewis. I. Morales. That a. I. Peterson. I so want. Yes. Council. President Gonzalez. I wasn't in favor and unopposed. The resolution is adopted as amended, and the chair will sign it. Well, the piece that fix my signature to the legislation on my behalf. Okay. Moving on to item three, will the clerk please read item three into the record? The Report of the Sustainability and Renters Rights Commission Agenda Item three Council Bill 120046 An ordinance relating to termination of residential rental tenancies, providing a defense to certain evictions of children, their families and educators during the school year, and amending Section 22.206160 of the Seattle Municipal Code.