AN ORDINANCE relating to the termination of residential rental tenancies; providing a defense to eviction for rent due during the City’s COVID-19 civil emergency; and amending Section 22.206.160 of the Seattle Municipal Code.
Jan the item for Council Bill 120077 an ordinance relating to the termination of residential rental tenancies providing a defense to eviction for rent due during the city's COVID 19 civil emergency. And amending Section 22.20 6.160 of the Seattle Municipal Code. The committee recommends the bill passed with a divided report, with council members swap Morales and Lewis in favor and Councilmember Peterson opposed. Wonderful. Okay. Thank you so much, Councilmember. So once you're the chair of the committee, so I am going to hand it over to you to provide the committee's report and then we'll take it from there. Oh, you're on mute. Sorry. Thank you, President Gonzalez. This legislation is sponsored by Councilmember Morales, and so I will turn it over to her to make introductory remarks. Thank you. Now I muted myself advertently. Okay. Thank you for for facilitating that that hand back over to Councilmember Morales. Councilmember Ellis, I'm going to go ahead and hand it over to you to walk us through this reporting. Okay. Thank you, Chair. So on. And Council President Gonzalez. I am excited to bring this before my colleagues. I do want to begin by thanking the members of the State House Stay Healthy Coalition. We've been working with them for several months now and I'm really excited to be bringing this forward at their request. And I do specifically want to thank representatives from the Housing Justice Project, El Centro de la Raza. Washington can be Seattle, a black LGBTQ ally. Ship Transit Riders, Union Tenants Union, real change share the cities, the landlords at Solid Ground and Lehigh and many, many others who've been part of this work. I think it's really important that they are pushing us as a council for more tenant protections and really holding us accountable to our neighbors who rent in the city. So just a little bit of background. According to the National Equity Atlas. County renters owe an average of 40 $700 in back rent. Combined, approximately 39,000 letters owe $186 million in pandemic related rent. And we know that over a third of black, Latino and native communities are burdened with rent debt. These are some of the same neighbors whose work often requires that they are at increased risk of exposure to COVID. We also know that they are disproportionately uninsured, that something like a medical emergency during a pandemic could significantly affect people's ability to pay for food and child care and other bills. These really are some of the essential workers that we've been talking about and hearing about for the last year. And the people without whom our city would have kind of fallen apart last year. So it's really important that we do what we can to help help protect them. We know that 58% of people are facing a pandemic related financial hardship are low income themselves already. 59% are people of color, and 71% lost employment related income in the last year. So when you couple this with the fact that in just a few weeks, the eviction moratorium at this point is set to end, you can understand the urgency to provide a defense to eviction for renters who have fallen behind because of financial hardship. The impending avalanche of evictions is more than just an issue of money. It's a systemic issue brought on by generations of disinvestment. Why that is. Seattle Public Schools calling brought on by generations of disinvestment. And we know that, you know, this this this disinvestment in communities of color and our racist housing policies have really continued to haunt us. And that's part of the challenge here we're trying to solve for some of these problems that are that are long standing . So what will this bill do? This bill would allow tenants to assert a financial hardship defense at any time. If you're a renter who's faced or will face financial hardship during the civil emergency, you will be protected. If a landlord does serve an eviction notice to tenants based on nonpayment of rent, they must include a statement that notifies tenants of their right to assert a defense based on nonpayment of rent caused by a financial hardship during the COVID emergency. Once in court, tenants will have access to representation now that we have a right to counsel legislation that we passed earlier this year and as part of that right to counsel process, tenants are asked to self-certify that they are facing financial hardship. So following that certification, renters will be allowed to assert this defense, as I've mentioned in council briefing this morning. And I do think that this is important to reiterate landlords have resources available as well. King County executive recently announced that King County will be offering slots to $150 million in rental assistance to tenants and landlords. Here at the city. We are also offering just over $20 million in rent assistance. So I think it's important that landlords are aware of that and that they access those resources before considering evicting someone. I will have some closing comments, but I will leave it at that colleagues and I'm happy to answer any questions that could help. Thank you so much, Councilmember Morales, for that report. Are there any additional comments on the 120077? See, I see a couple of hands raised as member. So what is next? And then Councilmember Peterson. Thank you, President Gonzalez, and thank you. I'm happy to support those renters rights bill. And I was happy to co-sponsor it in the Renters Rights Committee. As was stated, it creates a defense to eviction, protecting renters from being evicted for being behind on their name. Stop. Innocence. Sorry. Sorry. Councilmember Mosqueda, you are not mute. And that was my cracker. I'm sorry. Code. Sorry. Councilmember silent. Go ahead. No problem. It creates a defense to eviction, protecting renters from being evicted for being behind on their rent during the COVID emergency. It is very important. And at the same time, we should recognize it's not the same as canceling corporate debt, both renter debt and mortgage debt for working class homeowners, which is what we really need to be fighting for. And because renters would still owe that back rent, it will hurt people's credit. And sometimes people might even face lawsuits. But at the very least, it is extremely important that the city council pass this bill because it will mean that people won't be evicted and forced into homelessness for that back rent that was accumulated that renters were forced to accumulate during COVID. So I hope all council members will vote yes on this. And I also wanted to note that this is both an economic justice and a racial justice bill. Because of the pandemic racism under capitalism, communities of color are facing far greater COVID related debt burdens on top of the preexisting debt burden discrimination and therefore are at a great power greater risk of eviction once the eviction moratoriums end. And on that note, it's extremely important that the city council passed this resolution urging the mayor and the governor to extend the eviction moratorium. And we need to be following up with that to make sure that they actually do it. Last September, industry analyst apartment list dot com which is which is a website for landlords and is followed by corporate landlords reported that 31% of renters had unpaid rent and the report went on for the share of white renters with unpaid rent is well below the overall rate at 24%. Meanwhile, black and Hispanic renters are far more likely to own a 48% and 41%, respectively. So even though corporate landlord websites are acknowledging the disparities between white renters and renters of color, and renters of color are facing a very dire situation. And so it's really important that we pass this bill. Thank you. It's so much I can see where we are there. Casimir Petersen I didn't see that you were in the queue. Do you still want to make comments? Go ahead. Floor is yours. Me too. I'll put you in the queue. Thank you. Customer. We're going to have more Peterson. Thank you. Council President. Just to provide context, again, for the Renters Rights Committee that we had a couple of weeks ago for this council bill. 110 0077. I had offered two amendments at committee on May 26th. The First Amendment would have exempted small landlords, and the second would have allowed this regulatory change for 18 months so that it corresponds to the potential lingering effects of the COVID recession. I think we want to be mindful of the financial challenges faced by smaller housing providers who lack the economies of scale to absorb these costs. I also don't think it's appropriate to make such regulatory legislation permanent at this time. Neither of my opponents passed, so I voted no at committee, and as nothing has changed in a material way since that time, I'll be voting no today. Again, while this legislation is framed as being related to COVID civil emergency, it would be permanent. Rather than making wholesale permanent regulatory changes to existing contractual relationships, I put the entire burden on to the housing provider regardless of their hardship. I believe we should instead get more funding in the hands of the housing providers and the tenants to make them whole. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Peterson, because there was. Thank you. Council President I'm going to just say some brief comments about all three bills. I reluctantly voted yes for the school year evictions, but not for some of the reasons that Council Peterson outlined. But mainly my main concern and I did vote yes, is ultimately we do want to protect children in their families and educators. But I do feel like, as we were advised by legal, that there's going to be some issues on the definition and how broad that bill is. But nevertheless, I voted yes because I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, so to speak. However, on this bill, I cannot vote yes on this one. I think that my main concern with the whole slate here and I think we heard this from legal counsel as well, and also including the preemption arguments and the recent variant case is that we really do need a comprehensive review of city tenant protections that work with state law. And I think this pandemic field recession has really changed the landlord tenant and the as we learned from legal counsel, the preemption landscape. So I think this piecemeal approach on long term consequences is really going to be difficult to unwind. And so it regarding Council Bill 120077 this is a defense, so it is not correct to say that you will be protected. It means that you have a defense when you go to court. That doesn't mean it's going to be successful. I'm always concerned about raising expectations. So what you're going to have is somebody to come into court, assert the defense of COVID. That's why you couldn't pay your rent during the moratorium. That doesn't mean that a judge or jury is going to buy that, and that doesn't mean that you don't get to walk away from responsibilities. Of course, these are not I'm not passing judgment because all of us have been affected by this by this recession and what it's done, but obviously to renters. But a morea a moratorium doesn't mean that you don't have to pay. It just means that at some point you have to pay. Later you have to work something out with your landlord, with notice. And so with that and what we've learned from legal counsel and the briefings that we've had and how it works with state law and the it I don't think it works with state law. I think that's been was made very clear to us. But in any event, I'm sorry, but I cannot support this today. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Juarez, for those comments. Really appreciate it. Are there any additional comments on the bill? I'm not seeing any of their hands raised. So, Councilmember Morales, you will get the last word as the prime sponsor and we'll close out debate after your comments and call the bill to vote. Thank you. Colleagues. So I do want to acknowledge and thank council members a lot for joining me in sponsoring this. I neglected to mention that beginning of my remarks. Colleagues, we know that thousands of our neighbors will find themselves caught with a growing mountain of debt and a looming deadline for when that that comes due. And if we don't do something to provide a defense for renters now, we will face depression level, depression era levels of homelessness. So, you know, our system is already overburdened. This is a huge issue that we've been talking about. And even if a quarter of the renters who currently owe rent that fall into homelessness, our entire system could collapse. So this is about providing some protection in the form of a defense so that there is at least an opportunity for them to to have a discussion, to be able to work out the payments as council member , as is talked about. And these are things that we have also been discussing throughout this year as we talk about how to make sure that there are different levels, different mechanisms in place for folks. So we have to respond to this impending crisis with the gravity that it deserves. We have to take action now so that renters who have faced a financial hardship don't face eviction, too. And as Council Member Water said, we aren't saying that folks don't owe the rent. We're saying that while they are dealing with a hardship during this era, during this time, that there is some protection from them from getting evicted . This is the reason why they can't pay the rent for now. So passing this bill will do just that and will help keep tens of thousands of renters from the threat of eviction. So I urge my colleagues to support the bill today and give them that then that protection and assistance. Thank you. Councilmember morales that does conclude debate on Council Bill 120077. So I'm going to ask that the clerk please call the roll on the passage of the bill. Whereas now. Lewis. Yes. Morales as. ROSQUETA. I. Peterson. You know, salon? Yes. Council President Gonzalez. I. Five in favor to oppose. The bill passes and the chair will sign it will the first please affix my signature to the legislation on my behalf. Well, Clark, please read item five into the record. Agenda Item five Council Bill 120090 An ordinance relating to new residential rental tenancies. Giving a tenant a right of first refusal of a new tenancy after the expiration of a tenancy for a specified time. Requiring a landlord to have just cause for declining to give a tenant the right of first refusal requiring notice in advance of asserting