Speaker 1: Agenda item 13, Resolution 3 to 0 44, modifying resolution 31938 and the March 14th, 2020. Emergency order relating to residential evictions.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Counselor. So, one sponsor, you were recognized to move this item.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Do I have to move the item or to.
Speaker 1: Mention that you.
Speaker 0: Are recognized and then you move it and then somebody will second it for you?
Speaker 3: Okay. I move the resolution to extend the eviction moratorium.
Speaker 0: That we resolution 32044. It's its second for council councilmember. So on.
Speaker 1: Again.
Speaker 0: It's been moved and seconded to adopt Resolution 32044 councilors who want you were recognized in order to address this resolution.
Speaker 3: Thank you. President Juarez, this is a resolution that extends Seattle's eviction moratorium to the end of our city's COVID emergency. The losing home report commissioned by the Seattle Women's Commission in 2017 found that those facing eviction are disproportionately black, working class renters and other communities of color. The report also found that nearly nine out of ten people who are evicted become homeless. As we know, homelessness is an absolutely devastating, alienating and dangerous experience. When you are homeless, your physical and mental health suffers and you are vulnerable to violence. The women in Black held a vigil earlier this month. They report that, quote, The first King County medical examiner's list of presumed homeless temporarily housed that of 2022, arrived this week and was horrible. Horrible. At least 21 homeless, temporarily housed men died outside or in public in King County just in January and upwards. There has been vitally important progress with COVID vaccinations, and as a result, cases are declining. However, the reality is that the fatality rate from COVID is still frighteningly high. In fact, the daily fatality rate is still nearly as high as during the peaks of earlier waves of the pandemic. Ending the eviction moratorium now would lead to a deadly wave of evictions and increased homelessness in the midst of this ongoing crisis. And when someone is addicted, they are suddenly unable to self-quarantine, placing themselves and the community at large at risk. Mayor Howell's decision to end the eviction moratorium is, in reality, a plan to allow the eviction of thousands of working class renters in Seattle. This is inhumane and unacceptable. According to this month's U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse survey. An estimated 133,000 Seattle metro area renters are behind on rent. Even before the pandemic, conditions for renters in Seattle had already become intolerable. Skyrocketing rents driven by predatory real estate speculation, forced many working class renters out of their homes, out of the city or into homelessness. The economic devastation triggered by the pandemic massively exacerbated that crisis. The real estate lobby has claimed that renters rights are somehow the cause of increased rent, but that is the exact opposite of what the data show. Rent. Rent started skyrocketing in Seattle long before any new renters rights laws were passed. Rents have been spiking across the country and in cities around the world because real estate speculation is a nationwide and a global economic trend. What these steeply rising rents show is that we must fight for and win rent control and major expansion of social housing funded by taxes on the wealthy. Without doubt, every rental right we win is only buying time until the next rent hike. As I I've said, I am committed to bringing comprehensive rent control legislation this year. The landlord lobby has also claimed that renters rights are causing landlords to sell their rental properties. Let's be real. Landlords are selling real family single family homes because the prices they can sell them for have gone through the roof, not because they have to give more notice for rent increases. Of course, I can see why giving any rights to renters is a concern for Windermere property management and real estate billionaires like George Petrie , who is a CEO of Goodman Real Estate, Seattle's most evicting landlord in 2019. But as far as our city's hundreds of thousands of working people are concerned, these are only basic protections they need in order to have somewhere to live. I also want to respond to questions about the so-called or comment about the so-called bad tenants. Eviction is not the only recourse that landlords have, and that is the only thing that this moratorium prevents. Violence is illegal regardless of whether someone is a renter, homeowner or landlord. Landlords have many legal options to collect rental. That's not just eviction. We live in a society that is unfortunately full of punishments for the poor. The eviction moratorium simply prevents people from being thrown out on the streets during a pandemic. And I am genuinely struck by the fear mongering about working class renters. That being done by landlords, quite frankly, it is not unlike Trump's attacks on immigrants as violent and Reaganesque, racist and anti-poor welfare queen arguments that were used to eviscerate social services in the eighties and the nineties. The speed with which the political establishment is moving to open the eviction floodgates is scandalous. The city of Seattle is still in a state of emergency. This council meeting is being held remotely to protect the health of council members. Working class renters and the poor deserve at least the same consideration. Across the country, big business is eager to end any pandemic restriction that limits their profits. In this case, those profits are counter posed to both the health and the very lives of renters, and I urge council members to decide what side they are on. Mayor Harrell and other Democratic Party politicians have attempted to justify a. Think the eviction moratorium by referencing past victories, victories that were won by renter movements such as rental assistance funds and defenses against eviction. In certain situations, those victories are important, and my office has sponsored and co-sponsored many and fought for all of them. But they are no substitute for extending the lifeline of the eviction moratorium. As long as the pandemic public health emergency remains. A moratorium means that renters cannot be sent to election court, which is far stronger than a defense to eviction, which only means that renters can defend themselves in eviction court to avoid eviction. That is a monumental difference because statistically, half of renters who are served eviction paperwork are unable to challenge the eviction in court and consequently are elected by default. If that happens, even a watertight eviction defense opportunity does not keep a roof over your head because you never had your day in court. And as we all know very well, this disproportionately happens to the most vulnerable renters. I want to end my opening remarks by calling in Coleman and Christy Templeton, landlords who wrote to the city council saying, quote, Please help relieve suffering and keep the eviction moratorium until the emergency is over. And, quote, I will come back in to close the discussion because the council rules clearly state that the sponsor of the legislation speaks first and also last before the voting. I urge council members to vote yes. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Council members want and with that, are there any comments?
Speaker 1: Casper Herbert I'm sure I would request that the rules be suspended to consider an amendment not lifted by 12 noon today.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilor. If there is no objection, the Council will relating to circulation of amendments 2 hours before the City Council meeting will be suspended to allow consideration of an amendment.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I move to amend resolution 3 to 0 four for an Exhibit E of the resolution AS and on the recently submitted amendment. Again.
Speaker 0: It has been moved and seconded that the Council will be suspended, so we will proceed with Council Member Herbert's motion to amend cancel her book. Go ahead.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. And so this amendment extends the moratorium and April 30th, in order to allow the council consider all set of measures that have been unable to pay their rent financial hardship. I at all. We have heard from small landlords about losing funds, fighting to stop operating rent, housing or suffering other real harms associated with the eviction moratorium. Often the work that we as policymakers do is using to address greater harm or lesser harms. This is one of those times. Nearly 46,000 households have applied for rental assistance throughout the county. Again, these are primarily county numbers that you can extrapolate about. About Seattle, so far, about 17,400 households received assistance during the second round of the program. And then for all the applications closed and the money is spent on, he expects about 7000 to 8000 tenants throughout the county will be left without assistance. We know that there is additional assistance in our funding for King County that will help serve some, but not all. About $66 million in additional funding. And across the Seattle area, including all of you in Everett. We know that 13% of renters are still behind on rent, according to an early January census survey. That is 1000, 24,000 renters. The effects are disproportionate. And we know, of course, that renters of color are more likely to report being behind on rent. I think at my my offering of alternative amendments while still extending the moratorium and addresses one of the concerns with the moratorium as currently proposed on top of the protections that we have already enacted as described by Council Member. So what are concerns that an independently of extended moratorium could invite more lawsuits? And those lawsuits may not be limited to moratorium. They impact other pandemic related actions that we have enacted, and they could challenge the just cause eviction ordinance itself, a law that has Seattle tenants for decades. So unless and until the existing lawsuits are resolved and we can get more clarity on the legal landscape, I'm offering this alternative rather than an indefinite extension of the moratorium that could invite more litigation that could threaten other, older, more valuable protections. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. CARLSON Verbal. CARLSON must get a see. Your hand is up. Are you to you wanted to have comments to the proposed amendment?
Speaker 1: Yes. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam President, I did want to offer my support. I appreciate Councilmember Purple bringing amendment number one forward. I will be supporting this amendment. I'm also supportive of the underlying legislation as described by the sponsor. I'm supportive of the amendment here today because I think it addresses the concerns as articulated by a councilmember for both the sponsor to make sure that we're protecting the legislation and allowing for the city to distribute the rental assistance dollars that we have on hand. I'll make a few comments, Madam President, and then I won't speak again about the underlying bill. Since I have the microphone briefly, I just wanted to recognize that there's a lot of factors that went into play, I'm sure, with this decision to both bring the eviction moratorium to a sunset. I know that that was probably a tough decision, but I also know that it's a tough decision for us to continue to look at the need out there and for the desire to make sure that we're addressing those needs due to the timing of the current eviction moratorium. I understand that there was an urgency to bring this resolution in front of us today, but I know that that came together quickly for various reasons. I think that there are some policy considerations that have been discussed by Councilmember Herbal that I know that others have similar interest in helping. To make sure that we're looking at ways to extend the protections in place and to make sure that we're looking for solutions for vulnerable tenants. I think the resolution in front of us today is one of those some other policy considerations that I know folks are interested in looking at is certain considerations for small landlords on our move in conversations, ramp down options to make sure protections are in place when we anticipate a moratorium going away at some point in the future. But I have a lot of sympathy for some of those considerations. But the most important thing for me that I'm looking at, both with the amendment in front of us that I think , again, strengthens the approach here today. And the underlying bill is making sure that we get all of the rental assistance dollars out the door. There is still $25 million to be spent from the rental assistance amount, 59 million that was allocated throughout last year. And importantly, for any small landlords who are out there concerned about the ability to pay their bills, 96% of those rental assistance dollars have gone directly to landlords. So I hope that does dispel any misinformation out there about landlords not being able to access that. What we want to do is make sure that all of those dollars get into the hands of especially the smallest landlords or the past few weeks as well. And want to note that I've been reaching out to our state legislative partners, asking for more rental assistance dollars for Seattle, and hoping that our state budget and our champions in the state legislature will help provide a dollars to King County that get passed through to our city. We've also been in communication with the Office of Housing to get the remaining rental assistance out out the door as fast as possible. Again, that's $25 million that the council authorized in our 2022 budget that we'd like to see spent a.S.A.P. And know that we need much more than that as well, especially if the moratorium is to go away. I want to thank folks like Chief Seattle Club, El Centro de la Raza, United Way of King County have been working very hard with other community partners to get those dollars out the door. But until folks have those dollars in hand, I'm concerned about the eviction moratorium going away and look forward to supporting the excuse me, I look forward to supporting this amendment and would also be a yes on the bill, given the various reasons that I noted above. And and also note, this is this is just part of the solution as we look forward to getting the $194 million from council's budget passed for housing out the door and implemented to make sure that there's more affordable housing options across our city. Thank you very much. And thanks to councilmember horrible for bringing this for.
Speaker 0: Thank you councilmember skate under 10 minutes to thank you. I see that Councilor Sawant has her hand up and then Councilmember Peterson customers.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Just speaking in response to the amendment, I will be voting no on the amendment renders. I have lived in constant fear of the end of the moratorium through several three month extensions of the moratorium than one month and two weeks. Either there is an emergency or there isn't, and in my view, the moratorium is justified as long as there is an emergency. However, I also want to be clear that if this resolution passes with a two month extension, then that will be vastly better than the resolution not passing at all better for the renters who are the most vulnerable and suffering. It will give renters two more months to get back on their feet, and it will also give renters rights movement another opportunity to fight to extend the moratorium in two months time if the pandemic emergency has not ended by then. So I will vote no on this amendment. But regardless of whether this amendment passes or fails, I really urge council members to vote yes on the resolution as a whole. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Councilors want Councilor Peterson.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Council President. Just to clarify, is this the first we have to vote on suspending the rules?
Speaker 0: We already did that. We suspended the rules to allow council over her vote to bring forward her amendments. I thought we did. Did we not? Yeah, we did.
Speaker 2: Okay. So I'm just now seeing this amendment. It looks like this circulated while a council meeting was was going on. And as I understand it, it would be would amend council members to wants resolution to April 30th. And I guess the question is seems to be about nine and a half weeks from now. And is there any sort of rational basis for that particular date of April 30th?
Speaker 0: Are you asking that question of Council member Herbold I.
Speaker 2: Think so, yes.
Speaker 0: A council referral did give an introduction of why she was doing what she's doing because we're herbal. Do you want to respond to Councilmember Peterson?
Speaker 1: Q Yes, in addition to as I described, the start of the description of the amendment will allow the Council to consider all set of measures to tenants that have been unable pay their rent, financial hardship, some of the things that ideas that Councilmember Mosqueda described in her her remarks. In addition, it is, as we discussed earlier today, the date is more closely tied. You'll see there's some some like some updated language, the recitals more closely tied to the health impacts of of the pandemic. And yes, I'm sorry for getting the amendment late. As you know, we had an executive session at 1:00 that ran right up to the to the 2:00 deadline. And I really wanted to have the benefit of the advice that we got in that executive session in order to craft this amendment. Thank you.
Speaker 0: If he calls for her bill, does that answer your question, Councilmember Peterson? Great. Okay. So with that, not seen any more hands raised. Well, the clerk, please call the roll on the adoption of the amendment to the resolution and exhibit C.
Speaker 1: Councilmember Herbold? Yes. Councilmember Lewis.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 1: Council member macheda i. Council member Nelson. No. Councilmember Peterson.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: Councilmember Swan. No. Councilmember Strauss.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Council. President Suarez. No. Three in favor, five opposed.
Speaker 0: So with that, the motion fails. The meeting is not adopted. So with that, now we're going to go on to the base legislation. This is where you have an opportunity. Council members, as Councilman Stewart rightly pointed out. She will close us on this on this last piece of legislation. Are there any council members that want to address the base legislation as it has before us? Before the final vote. Okay. Not seen. Oh, I'm sorry. Nope. No hands. Okay, so with that, then I have something to say. And then after that, Keltner Excellent. Will close this out. But, Counselor Strauss, your hand is up.
Speaker 2: No, thank you. Thank you. Council President Juarez colleagues, I assume that everyone will be jumping at the line. So I held my hand for a moment. I just want to highlight, as others have highlighted here, a number of other defenses that we have put forward, the six month defense, the repayment plan, the failure to pay defense. I think what is very clear for me in this conversation is that we don't have enough rental assistance and we don't have a good step down process from the cliff that the moratorium is creating. A moratorium is not a good long term solution. And while I could support a moratorium that was connected to it date, certainly I do have trouble supporting and voting for a moratorium that is vague in its end date because I do think that we want to understand what the cliff we are facing is and address it with the resources that are needed. So I know that this legislation was crafted in short order over a.
Speaker 5: Holiday weekend.
Speaker 2: And we just received an amendment during the during the meeting. And in that time type I. Short timeframe does not allow for the different options to be fully vetted. So our council president, colleagues, I won't be supporting the resolution today.
Speaker 5: And they will be bringing forward more.
Speaker 2: Protections and resources alongside each of you as we move forward. Thank you, Council president, colleagues.
Speaker 0: Thank you. That being said, in anticipation, as Councilmember Strauss pointed out, we had a three day weekend and we did receive a memo and a legal memo last week and some additional information. And thank you customers to want for your office for getting the information to us. Councilmember It's nice to have someone to take. Okay, so I'm going to speak and then when I'm done, then Councilor Swan is going to speak and then we're going to vote. Okay, good. So when the COVID 19 pandemic hit, the city council and the mayor were leaders in passing protections for passing protections of renters. We were one of the first in the country to understand the gravity of the economic recession, especially for low income renters. Just 13 days after Mayor Durkan passed the proclamation of civil emergency, she issued an emergency order placing a temporary moratorium on residential evictions. But the key word is temporary. We knew this moratorium would not last forever. We cannot have a healthy economy when nobody pays rent. With that in mind, the interim. In the interim, the city council's focus has been to create as many protections as possible. It's certainly harking back to a casserole ROSQUETA had shared with us in her comments. Kent County has allocated $340 million in funding for struggling renters, according to the Department of Community and Human Services. King County has processed nearly 40,000 applications since the program began early in the pandemic and has handed out more than 244 million to help keep renters housed and landlords paid. According to the Stsci. The city has allocated $59 million for rental assistance during the COVID 19 pandemic. Thank you to Director Tara Wilson of the Department of Construction and Expansion Inspections CCI for sharing all the ways in which the city of Seattle supports renters, including free legal assistance from the Housing Justice Project and assistance for rent and utility payments due to COVID hardships. Most all of you received, I believe, Friday, a memo from Director Robertson on the issues of what the renters rights are and what programs are available. I don't have that at my fingertips right now. Here is a non-exhaustive list of some of the protections that we have passed in the last two years. I had my staff at least just briefly go over the work that this city council and the former mayor's office had done. Just within the COVID period, beginning in February 2020, the city council passed Council Bill 119726 prohibiting evictions in winter months in March of 2020. An emergency order went into effect, placing an immediate and temporary moratorium on residential evictions in the city of Seattle in May of 2020. The council passed an ordinance 126075 providing a defense to evictions occurring within six months after the termination of the mayor's residential eviction moratorium. In May 2020, the Council adopted a repayment plan requirement via ordinance 126081 in March of 2021. The Council Bill the Council passed Council Bill 120007 providing a right to counsel for all low income tenants facing eviction and June 20, 2021. The Council passed Council Bill 120046 providing a defense to certain evictions of children, their families and educators during the school year. Thank you, Casper Resort, for bringing that forward. In June of 2021, Council created a defense to an eviction action. The tenant fails to pay rent during the proclamation of civil emergency order via ordinance 126368 in November 2021. The Seattle City Council again allocated funding for two additional supports. That is for Stsci, which added staff in a position to implement the Economic Displacement Relocation Assistance Ordinance and SSI 011b001, which added 400,000 for tenant service contracts like eviction, defense. The 400,000 was added to baseline investments of about 615,000 for tenant service grants, including eviction, legal defense bills or budget actions that were passed in November 22nd, 2021 , under the leadership of Councilmember Mosquera. Additionally and just this just a history here. The Just Cause eviction ordinance passed in 1980 states that the Seattle landlords must have one of 16 just cause reasons if they want to terminate a tenancy. And we've added to that. Thank you council members so want your leadership in that area. All of this just to say we have been preparing for this moment for a long time. Seattle is one of two municipalities with an existing ban on evictions. Mayor Durkan and Mayor Harrell have extended the eviction moratorium together a total of nine times. Governor Inslee's protections lapsed on October 31st, 2021, and given that COVID cases continue to decline, it's probably now time for Seattle to do the same. However, while eviction proceedings will start, folks will still have another six months to pay back their outstanding rent payments so people can pay back rent over time. I'm hoping and I believe in the voters and the residents of this city that we will make this transition as humane as possible about exasperating our homelessness crisis and yet balancing the needs of our recovering economy. And with that, I will be voting no on this matter. Councilmember So what would you like to wrap up this debate?
Speaker 3: Yes. Thank you. President Juarez, I want you to clarify that for renters and working people who are watching that, I do not think that many of the council members, as has been just said, who voted no on the amendment that just got voted on, share my position of why I voted no on that and are very likely to be voting no on this resolution, the resolution that would leave the eviction moratorium in place until the end of the public health emergency. This is really unfortunate. I also find it quite unfortunate and pretty stunning that there are council members who are complaining about the short time frame when we have had renters who have dealt with enormous uncertainty during an unprecedented crisis. Every time the eviction moratorium was up for either expiring or renewal and we had to deal with tremendous uncertainty and difficulties for a since before the pandemic. In Meirelles press release, he said that he identified $25 million for rental assistance, which makes it sound like there is $25 million being added to the funds available to rental assistance. Let's make a note of the fact across the U.S. there were $46.5 billion in federal rental assistance money. Some of that went to the city of Seattle, some to Washington State County. And that money has been periodically available for renters and for landlords to pay down rental that has been absolutely essential to keep renters from becoming totally bankrupted by the crisis. However, the impact of the pandemic has been monumental and that money has is running out and it was never adequate in the first place. We just saw the Seattle Times reported that King County has announced it is going to stop taking any new applications for rental assistance starting February 20. So basically, renters eviction moratorium is about to expire. That's when new applications are also not going to be accepted. So when mayor says that he has identified $25 million, what it actually means is that there is only $25 million left, not that there are additional $25 million being added. I want to thank the Church Council of Greater Seattle, who strongly supported this resolution to extend the eviction moratorium. They said, quote, We came into being on the heels of the influenza pandemic of 1918 19, just like 100 years ago. We are facing a pandemic that has disrupted and ended many lives among our loved ones and in our communities, end quote. Most of all, I wanted to thank all the renters and housing advocates, the progressive labor unions and community organizations who have spoken up in favor of extending the eviction moratorium. Renters, working people, union members. Socialists. We see again and again that we cannot rely on the establishment. Several of the renters, like the president was just right read out, as she also acknowledged, came from the fight that renters in our Socialist Council office let on. And every single one that was you know, that had different council members sponsoring them was one because renters were fighting back, including the eviction moratorium in the first place. And even the federal games that were put in place, at least temporarily, to deal with a pandemic, that was because people spoke up nationally. So, you know, it is clear that from today's vote, it's going to be clear that working people cannot rest and we will need to fight back and we cannot rely on the establishment. And furthermore, it is not going to be enough to agitate around the eviction moratorium. QUESTION We will need stronger and permanent protections like a citywide strong rent control policy. We will need to increase the fight to win an increase in the Amazon tax, to have a massive expansion of publicly owned, high quality union build social housing. All of this is going to be necessary. I'll just end by noting how stunning it is that only about an hour or so ago, the same council members were about to vote no on this resolution, signed a proclamation on Black History Month, getting ready to essentially pave the way for vulnerable black community members to be evicted in big numbers and to the point that has been brought up by several landlords and also from council members earlier. No, the evictions don't start showing up on day one, but they are going to happen. We are already seeing data from the Princeton University eviction lab that monitors that is monitoring evictions in 31 different cities. That evictions have spiked as soon as the eviction moratoriums were ended, just that they take a little bit of time showing up to the courts, which is the most unfriendly way for ordinary people because they don't even get their day in court in the first place. Most of them evictions will restart in seven days and more and more than ever. We need to build this movement for rent control and for expanding social housing. So I urge people to continue fighting back and also remember not to rely on the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party at the state level has sat on a statewide ban on rent control for the last 41 years, including during this legislative session when not one state legislature proposed. Legislative proposed. Lifting the ban on rent control despite the Democrats controlling all three houses in the state government. And so we cannot do that. But on the other hand, if we build a strong enough movement began when we have seen that again and again, we in 2018, we tried to pass legislation to tax big corporations like Amazon, but our movement was not strong enough to win them. And it got repealed. Or two years later, in the midst of the Black Lives Matter protest, the tax Amazon movement gathered 30,000 signatures on a possible ballot initiative. And then we succeeded in passing that measure four times the size of the first one proposed in 2018. We're going to lose this vote today. But I urge everyone fighting for renters rights to continue building the movement alongside our office and alongside progressive labor unions. Because when we fight, we can win. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Most of us want. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right. So we have now finished debate council member still wants resolution. She close this on the debate. Will the clerk please call the roll on the adoption of the resolution?
Speaker 1: Council member Herbold. Yes. Council Member Lewis NOW. Council Member Macheda I. Council Member Nelson. No. Council member Petersen.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: Council member. So what?
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: Council member Strauss.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 1: Council. President suarez.
Speaker 0: No.
Speaker 1: Three in favor. Five opposed.
Speaker 0: With that. The motion fails and the resolution is not adopted. So before we move on here, one can just hold up two other business. Are there is there any other further business to come before the council today? Not seen any hands before we journey, colleagues. This does conclude this items of business on today's agenda for next regularly scheduled council meeting is on March 1st at 2:00. I hope you have a wonderful afternoon. We are adjourned. Thank you.
A RESOLUTION modifying Resolution 31938 and the March 14, 2020 emergency order relating to residential evictions.