Speaker 1: Agenda item to council bill 119788 an ordinance relating to residential rental agreements allowing residential tenants to pay rent in installments when the tenant is unable to timely pay rent. Declaring an emergency and establishing an immediate effective date all by a vote of the City Council.
Speaker 0: I thank you, Madam Clerk. I will move to pass Council Bill 119788. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved in, seconded to pass the bill. This is a bill that I have sponsored, and so I'm going to make a few comments about it in advance, and then I'll go ahead and open it up or ask for additional comment. So, colleagues, today we have this bill before us to ensure more flexibility and time for more households that may need to stay housed. That will definitely need to stay housed as we enter week 11 of this public health emergency. We know that many of our constituents have found themselves laid off, furloughed or with a loss of income and are still waiting for unemployment benefits to cover household expenses. And we are still waiting for other forms of relief and aid such as the CARES Act, to provide cash and rental assistance to tenants and small landlords. This bill will enable more households to enter into payments with their landlords. And I want to take a moment to acknowledge that the landlords who already have this practice in place with their tenants, it is considered the industry's best practice and many good landlords are engaging in that behavior. But there are many that are not. So this best practice, again, is to voluntarily enter into these payment plans. We want to ensure that the greatest number of tenants have access to the this best practice and that this legislation ultimately will mandate that they participate in that best practice. Additionally, this bill would prohibit late fees, interest or other charges that are associated with late payment of rent. This would apply throughout the course of a civil emergency and for six months after the mayor declares the public health crisis to be over. Governor Inslee's extended and expanded evictions order contains similar protection around late fees, and I believe this bill complements protections for renters in the governors and mayors moratoriums. I want to thank the Seattle Department of Construction Inspection, the King County Bar Association's Housing Justice Project, Washington Pan and the Washington Multifamily Housing Association, which represents landlords and other property owners for their feedback and insights in the development of this legislation. For something that is very straightforward, simple, and will allow tenants the flexibility they need to stay in their homes in the event that they fall behind on the rent. This is a common sense solution to just create a pathway for tenants and landlords to come to an agreement that is mutually beneficial to both of them, that will promote housing stability, and that will ultimately create an opportunity for people to stay in place for as long as possible. I was pleased that when I had an opportunity to talk to the governor's office about this legislation, that they implemented a similar effort statewide. And I think that it is important for us to now follow up on on that particular route and do the same right here in the city of Seattle. So I would appreciate your all support of this particular bill. I just think it's so important and creates sort of a really rich ecosystem for for renters who are really seeking a little bit more time and a lot more assistance to be able to stay housed. So with that being said, I'm happy to open it up to colleagues if there are any comments on the bill. Councilmember Herbold, followed by Councilmember Peterson. Thank you. I want to thank Council President Gonzales for putting this forward. I want to thank her as well for her collaboration in developing this legislation, collaboration that led to some unfortunate delays. But I appreciate your doing so. The sum of some of the changes in this new version relate specifically to modify the reason for which tenants can use the payment plan that required a title change and a requirement to re reintroduce it. And this was really important because it would be very difficult to ask a judge to make a determination whether or not a nonpayment of rent eviction is the result of of COVID 19. And so making this change in the ordinance lifts that barrier.
Speaker 3: For for the courts.
Speaker 0: And and helps tenants in doing so. But again, that required the patience of the bill's sponsor in order to do so. And as as our council president is always very patient with us. Again, much appreciated. So I want to thank her for other elements that were included in the substitute. Specifically related to. Late fees and attorney's fees and court costs. That is very, very helpful. And I just want to underscore some of the comments that the sponsor already made related to this just being a common sense path between an eviction moratorium where people don't have anything to do with their their short on rent but not pay rent and and paying the full rent. When the mayor.
Speaker 3: Proposed.
Speaker 0: Her eviction moratorium in the FAA queue, the frequently answered questions. One of the one of the pieces of guidance for for tenants when they when they don't have enough money to pay is to encourage tenants to work on developing a payment plan for partial payments in order to reduce the amount of money owed at the end of the moratorium. This puts into into ordinance, into policy, a way to do that. And again, I think it's just a really common sense approach expert expressing our expectations that landlords should accept partial payments because it's good both for landlords and it's good for tenants as well. So thanks again. Thank you so much, Councilman, for really have appreciated your partnership on this bill as well and and have appreciated benefiting from your experience in this space. So thank you so much. Okay. Next up is Councilmember Peterson.
Speaker 2: Thank you, council president. And thank you to your staff and to the council, central staff for their hard work on this bill. We had plenty of notice to think about this one. So we appreciate that. Did have some concerns and questions. The just want to confirm for the record that if there is a rental agreement or a payment plan in effect between a tenant and a landlord, that's. Fully executed already. Would this legislation preempt that or supersede that or with it still be in place?
Speaker 0: The the it does isn't designed to preempt anything. It would sort of provide a minimal flaw. So if the existing agreement between the landlord and tenant is stricter or harsher, for example, than than what the ordinance or I should say, not as beneficial to the tenant as the ordinance, then the ordinance would come into into effect.
Speaker 2: Oh. Okay. All right, that's. I did not know that. I thought that if there was a written agreement already in place, that this would not supersede it. But it sounds like it would, that it's not as beneficial for the tenant.
Speaker 0: So according to council central staff, it would not again, it does not preempt existing agreements.
Speaker 2: Okay. Okay. Thank you. And just wanted to better understand. I know I know in my remarks for the previous bill, my concern is that we don't know when the mayor's emergency declaration will end. Your your previous bill was six months after the eviction moratorium, whereas this is six months after the emergency declaration. And since that may go on for a long period of time, I just I didn't know would help for the. Public. And for me to understand why that different starting point in the legislation.
Speaker 0: Well, I think I think it's just it's just as you mentioned, it's sort of these things are not done with precision. And it's a little unclear to us when exactly the moratorium is going to end. I acknowledge that that creates some uncertainty. But the reality is, is that the financial crisis or the, you know, opportunity to enter into a mutually beneficial rental agreement is, I think, a valid policy priority regardless of of the timing. So, again, you know, I think originally we thought about, you know, sort of starting that point somewhere else. But I think at this juncture makes most sense to allow the greatest possible period of time for landlords and tenants to enter into a mutually beneficial agreement, to allow for landlords to get their rent and for renters to pay their rent and avoid eviction. So again, as Councilmember Herbold so artfully described, this is really about middle ground area. So we have extremes in the landlord tenant law. Right now, we have one extreme is eviction. You lose your housing. The other option is don't pay your rent. And we're trying to create a pathway forward here in the middle that says, look, we want to for those landlords and tenants who agree that that rent needs to be paid. And I believe that the vast majority of folks, we need to be able to create an opportunity for them to come up with a pathway to do so. And so this codifies that intent and that opportunity for landlords and tenants to agree with each other about what that rental repayment plan is going to look like.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 0: He and colleagues. Any other questions or comments? Okay. So I'm going to go ahead and close out debate. I really do appreciate the ongoing attention in this area. And again, when I said this during council briefing, but I want to say it again now, I really want to thank Asha from council central staff and from my office for being stellar on this policy issue and really working hard to make sure that as pieces were moving at the state related to the Governor's proclamation about our rental payment plan statewide and our version of the bill, that we weren't sort of running into areas of conflict potentially. Also, I really want to thank the executive for their support in moving in this direction as well, and have been grateful for their cooperation on understanding the enforcement issues that would be at play and looking forward to the mayor signing this into law pretty quickly, as has been indicated to me she will do. So with that being said, I am going to go ahead and ask that the clerk please call the role of pass. Please call the role in the passage of the bill strauss.
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Speaker 2: Hi.
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Speaker 3: High.
Speaker 1: Macheda.
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Speaker 1: Peterson.
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Speaker 1: So aren't I? President Gonzalez, 39, in favor? None. Oppose.
Speaker 0: I think you so much colleagues really appreciate your support of that bill. The bill passes and the chair will sign it and it gives a fixed my signature to the legislation. I'm moving right along. We'll go to agenda item three. Will the clerk please read the short title of the bill? Even to the right? Agenda Item three Council Bill 119 785 relating to funding for housing and community development programs. Adopting the City of Seattle 2020 Annual Action Plan to the 2018 through 2020 consolidated a Plan for Housing and Community Development and upgrades in its submission to the
AN ORDINANCE relating to residential rental agreements; allowing residential tenants to pay rent in installments when the tenant is unable to timely pay rent; declaring an emergency; and establishing an immediate effective date; all by a 3/4 vote of the City Council.