AN ORDINANCE relating to residential rental properties; requiring a minimum of 180 days' prior written notice to tenants whenever the housing costs to be charged a tenant are to increase; and amending Sections 7.24.030, 22.202.080, and 22.206.180 of the Seattle Municipal Code.
So one. Yes. President Gonzalez? Yes. Eight is in favor and unopposed. The bill passes as amended and the chair will sign it. Will the clerk please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf? Well, please read item 11 into the record. The report is suspended. The bill excuse me. And Reference Rights Committee Agenda Item 11 counts 4119585 residential rental properties for clients, a minimum of 180 days prior eviction notice to tenants. Whenever the housing costs to be charge, a tenant are to increase and amending sections 7.20 4.0 or 3020 2.202.0 80 and 22.20 6.1 80. Of this code. The Committee recommends that will pass amended with councilmembers who want one Alice Suarez and Lewis in favor and council with an abstention from Councilmember Peterson. Thank you so much, Councilperson. Before we go through the steps of discussing the bill, would you also like to have Agenda Item 12 read into the record for purposes of discussion? Or are you fine handling each bill separately? I'm fine. We'll take it. We'll take a vote separately on both of them. But I just just for purposes of the conversation. Either way is fine with me if I think separately will also work. Okay. Well, we'll go ahead and do it separately. And if if it starts looking like people want to comment on item 12 as well, then we'll go ahead and take a pause and have that read into the record at that time. So. Okay. I'm going to hand it over to Councilmember Samant, who is the chair of the committee in order to provide the committee's report. Thank you. And I would like to make a few comments before moving the amendments, if that's okay. The this legislation. So I'm sorry, I'm speaking about item number drop. See what I mean? We're no. No, no. Go ahead. I know this legislation is the first of two bills from my office addressing the crisis renters face from rising rents as reported in the Sustainability and Rent Committee and and also in successive Monday morning briefings of the City Council. The data from apartment list dot com. A landlord website shows that rents in Seattle have increased over 25% in 2021 alone. I mean, this is just a staggering rate of increase. If this trend were to continue, rents will have increased by 40% by the end of this year. Imagine getting a 40% increase in your wages. I mean, that's just unheard of. So undoubtedly, this is an unmanageable situation for renters and also is a clear explanation of why we need rent control. And as members of the public and the members know, my office has drafted rent control legislation which we hope to bring to a vote in December. But in the meantime, we do need legislation to mitigate the harm that is going to be experienced by recent years because of the skyrocketing rents. And that's what today's vote for the bills today are intended to do. This bill in front of us right now requires landlords to provide six months notice for rent increases. Currently in Seattle, only two months notice is required, which is not nearly enough notice for renters to rearrange their lives when they are displaced by a rent increase, particularly given how difficult it's going to be for them to find another rental home, just given how unaffordable most housing has become across the city. And this is also a national phenomenon. And also, as I've mentioned before, this bill was originally requested by the City of Seattle Renters Commission. Oh. Increasing the notice landlords are required to give renters already. Freezes cannot stop the rent increase, but it does give renters the time they will need to find new housing and rearrange their lives when the rent, if and when a rent and these forces them to move. The Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee recommends the city council pass this bill, as Amelia mentioned, with all votes in favor and unopposed and one abstention. I just wanted to read an extract from a letter that was sent to the city council by a social worker, Heather Steiner, who also spoke in public comment a little while ago, who works in the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, who says, quote, I've had to move, slash, relocate eight times in ten years because my landlord kept raising my rent every year by 5 to 10%. I work in social services for the with disabled people, and I do not get income raises anywhere near this level. I cannot absorb thousands of dollars in increases every year. So I keep being forced to move every 12 months. And it is getting so hard on me, my pets and my work patients who operate out of my home office. These people are very disabled and any change in their schedule and structure is very hard on them. And I am drowning here. My work is very important to me. But if I cannot find a way to keep my head above water financially, I will be forced to abandon all my disabled patients and find a higher paying job . So I really urge the City Council to vote yes in favor of this bill because it's clear that it will make a real, tangible difference in the lives of renters. Thank you. Thank you so much, Councilmember San Juan. Are there any other comments on the bill? Elsewhere, Peterson pleads. To Council President colleagues on this bill. During the committee meeting, I proposed an amendment to exempt small landlords defined as owning four or fewer units in Seattle. And the amendment failed by a narrow vote. And so I abstained at committee to give myself more time to to think about what to do today. I do appreciate the intent of this bill and support helping struggling renters. A theme of our response to the COVID pandemic has been to boost rental assistance for those in need. We've also adopted several renters rights bills during the past two years, including the winter ban on evictions. I've heard from many small landlords, though, that the influx of multiple changes to the landlord rental regulations has created confusion and discourages them from continuing to provide rental housing in Seattle. Currently, we provide 60 days notice and so this bill would triple that time period. One approach would have been to perhaps double that to 220 days and then see how well that worked. These are tripling it. Regardless, I support expanding the notice period for larger corporate landlords, but my amendment again would have exempted small landlords owning four or fewer units. And since that committee meeting, nothing substantive has changed in the bill. In fact, I've heard from multiple mom and pop landlords concerned. So I will be voting no on this bill, mainly because it does not exempt small landlords. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Peterson. Next up is Councilmember Morales. Thank you. Council President. I am supporting this bill as I did in committee. In my opinion, this bill merely asks the landlord to give a few more months notice for rent increases. It does not because because state law currently bans rent stabilization. This bill does not prevent a landlord from increasing the rent, nor does it restrict the amount of an increase. And while this does mean that landlords have to wait a short amount of time before before implementing an increase, the more important piece of this bill for me is that it means tenants have adequate time to find a new job, to find new housing, to deal with childcare issues that may present as a result of this change, or to make any other number of adjustments that may be necessary so that they can pay for a rent increase or make the plans to move out and find something that's more affordable. So I think this is a relatively small ask from the landlords, but could have a really acute impact, a meaningful impact for for tenants. So I will be supporting the legislation. In due course their morals. Are there any other comments on the bill? I'm not seeing any hands raised. Customers want anything you'd like to see in closing. Just that. Of course, there are advocates that I would like to publicly thank, but I'll save them for the second bill because both the bills were advocated together, advocated for together, and only to add the small landlords are not the ones increasing rents by high rates which which is where it makes a difference how much notice you have. So as far as what the bills today that they're considering are concerned, they simply don't affect the small landlords who are not actually looking to gouge their tenants. Thank you so much, Councilmember. One paper does conclude debate on this bill. So will the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill? Strauss Yes. Herbold Yes. Lewis Yes. Morales That's. Must get a high. PETERSON No. So what? Yes. President Gonzalez I seven in favor one opposed. Thank you so much. The bill passes and the chair will sign it. Will a quick please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf? Will the clerk please read the short title of item 12 into the record?