Speaker 6: The Report of the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee. Agenda Item three Cancel 1190 15 related to housing regulations. Adding a new Chapter 14.09 to the Senate is required to regulate the use of criminal history in rental housing, otherwise in Seattle Office for Civil Rights to enforce the regulation set out in this new chapter in amending section 3.14 point 931 of the CNM is required to expand this to other Human Rights Commissions. Duties Committee recommended the bill passed as amended.
Speaker 0: Thank you very much, Councilmember Herbold.
Speaker 5: I move to amend Council Bill 11 9015 by substituting version five. Version for.
Speaker 6: Second.
Speaker 0: Has been moved in second and substitute version five for version four and comes from. I heard you just want to speak to the amendment, please.
Speaker 5: Absolutely. I want to speak first to the technical amendments and I'll defer to Councilmember Gonzalez to speak to a section that is consistent with the action of the committee. But a little bit more substantive for the technical amendments. There are three. One is to strike from the definitions section. That's 14.0 9.010 the phrase, except that pursuant to 14.0 9.0 to 5 convictions are limited to those found in registry information. The second is in 14.0 9.020, adding the phrase except for information pursuant to subs section 14.0 9.0 25a3 and also adding the phrase subject to the exclusions and legal requirements in section 14.0 9.10. I'm sorry, 110. And then the third is in section 14.0 9.025 to strike the term juvenile record.
Speaker 0: Very good. So we have a substitution for version five for version for any of the concerns. You want to speak just on the amendment piece?
Speaker 6: I just need to speak as to the police amendment that Councilmember Herbold is offering to me. So this is in section 14.0 9.1 15c. With regard to the definition of dwelling unit in committee, we had voted out a version that would that that excluded the phrase single family before dwelling unit. And upon further reflection and analysis, it appears that without the term single family, that would have essentially set up a framework in which all dwellings, all dwelling units, including apartments and micro-housing, would be excluded and exempted from the applicability of the of the new legal requirements being created under this ordinance. So we have modified that language to reintroduce the phrase single family before dwelling unit, to make clear that the City Council's intent is that multifamily housing spaces such as apartments and micro-housing will be subject to the restrictions and regulations reflected in this Council bill.
Speaker 0: Very good. Any further comments or concerns on the substitution to going to vote? Just on the substitution first? It's been moved in second to substitute version five for version. For all those in favor, say I. I opposed the ayes have it. Councilman Herbold, I'll turn it back to you for the base legislation as amended.
Speaker 5: Thank you. I'm going to start and end my remarks with thanks. I want to first thank the Fair Coalition. The voices of people with lived experiences have been very important to the development and passage of this legislation. We all know that one in three people in Seattle have a criminal background, but the reality is that no matter how many facts and figures exist, what actually creates structural change is our collective awareness of these lived experiences. They're worth more than all of the studies combined, and it takes incredible courage to speak in public about one's experience with the criminal justice system. And I want to acknowledge and honor those who have. You have humbled me, and we are here today because of your courage. The legislation before the council today was developed collaboratively over the past year through a stakeholder process that included renters, landlords, advocates, the Office of Mayor Ed Murray and the Office of Civil Rights. The bill the bill was considered in my committee at four different meetings, including a stakeholder discussion and evening forum highlighting feedback from formerly incarcerated people, tenants, advocacy organizations, the Rental Housing Association and the Washington Multifamily Housing Association. Before that process, it was a recommendation of memories, housing affordability and livability agenda in 2015, and even before that, in 2013, it was an issue that Councilmember O'Brien Laquita had spearheaded with the Office of Housing, focusing on the housing providers that receive city funds to ensure that they're removing barriers to housing funded with city taxpayer dollars. The Civil Rights Utilities Economic Development Arts Committee last week recommended approval of their Fair Chance housing ordinance by a60 vote. The legislation, sponsored by myself and Council President Harrell, prohibits landlords from screening applicants based on past arrests or criminal convictions. This ordinance would prevent landlords from screening screening applicants based on criminal convictions, arrests that did not lead to conviction, convictions that have been expunged, vacated or sealed juvenile records. The bill also prohibits the use of advertising language that categorically excludes people with arrests or conviction records. The legislation does not apply to people registered as sex offenders who committed their crime as an adult. Landlords will still be able to screen applicants based on employment, credit scores, income ratios or other criteria to ensure that people will be good tenants. They'll merely be unable to use criminal history when considering applicants. Something no study has shown affects a person's ability to successfully be a good tenant or neighbor today, largely because of the new access to data that historically has been less accessibly accessible. Landlords now can reject tenants because they've been harassed in the past seven years, not convicted, arrested for a criminal justice system that disproportionately arrest people of color. Punishing someone who has not been found guilty is a true injustice for those who have been convicted. The way I see it, you've paid your debt to society if you've served your time. Blocking formerly incarcerated people from accessing stable housing is an extrajudicial punishment and not consistent with the rule of law. It is also a recipe for recidivism and less safety for our communities. Recidivism decreases significantly when people get housing with housing. A person is seven times less likely to reenter the criminal justice system. I would expect anyone in favor of a safer. Seattle to support this bill. Further, we're in a homelessness state of emergency. If we do not do more to ensure housing providers provide housing for the 55% of unsheltered homeless people in Seattle who identify their criminal background as a barrier to access accessing housing, then we're derelict in our duty to address the homelessness state of emergency. In addition, the legislation will not go into effect for nearly six months in order to support a new Fair Housing Home program, in which the city will help landlords learn how they can implement practices that will affirmatively further fair housing by reducing racial and other biases in tenant selection. I've heard concerns that with passage of this law and others, that small landlords have been and will continue to leave the business of operating rental housing in a hot real estate market where property put on the market is quickly sold sometimes to developers who charge hard for higher rents after redevelopment. I share this concern using a combination of rental registration data as well as county sales records and taxpayer information. Central staff will work to identify the number of properties that have sold over a defined period of time. We can then compare the taxpayer's address with property addresses to get a sense of if it's still a rental. I hope to begin some of this work prior to the effective date of the ordinance. And in addition, the county auditor, the city auditor will be doing an assessment of the ordinance after its implementation as well. In closing, in addition to my thanks to the very coalition and specifically people with experiences with the criminal justice system, I'd also like to thank Leslie Pryce with the mayor's office, Erica, Pablo and Brenda Anna Barro at the Seattle Office of Civil Rights. Asha then then Carter Turman of counsel, central staff under counselor, formerly of my office that I'm sure is out there listening, as well as Councilmembers O'Brian and Gonzales and their staff whose leadership helped make the legislation stronger.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman Herbold. Any other comments? I'm sure many of us have a lot to say about this and hear the comments from my colleagues. Councilmember Brian Foreclosures.
Speaker 1: Councilmember Herbold, I want to just add on to the thanks everyone you name. There has been some amazing work. This is a long process and I want to thank you for your leadership throughout this and kind of steadfast in holding this process and keeping it rolling, complex and challenging legislation like this. It is so easy for it to get derailed. And as we've heard from so many folks today at the multiple meetings, how important this is for so many community members to keep going forward. So I'm really grateful for your work on that. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Councilmember back back Jordan Gonzalez.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much. Just to underscore some of the really good work that has been done. Councilmember Herbold, I don't know whether you mentioned or public defenders who are out there and if I see you sitting there. But I am so grateful that you came forward with this. As a former prosecuting attorney, one of the things that I'm keenly aware of is that if somebody is let out of prison but doesn't have a plan to get housing and to get a job, they are doomed to that spin cycle of being back on the street. And if they're back on the street, people have to survive and they figure out a way to survive. And oftentimes, unfortunately, it puts them right back in jail or prison again. We have got to stop this and to break that point, I think recognizing that we all need a second chance at some point, something Councilmember Herbold just already stated. But this legislation is going to give individuals who have been convicted of a criminal offense and had they have completed their sentence, we're giving them another opportunity to get stable housing. And as someone who's working really closely and hard with our Human Services Department, we know that getting people stable in housing. So it's a housing stability, housing first and a harm reduction model. That is what is going to change and really make things better for people who are out on the street and ultimately making it safer for everybody who is actually housed. So I want to say thank you to all who have been involved in this. It really matters. It is going to be something we can try. And if it works well, we will know that we're on the right track. If for some reason it doesn't work, we can always take a step back and fine tune. And I also want to acknowledge I've heard this from a number of landlords. I want everybody to be reassured if they're worried about the sexual offender list. The sexual offender list is still available. Landlords can check that. So this is just a step in the right direction. I think it's going to be much more fair and I appreciate all the work that's gone into it.
Speaker 0: Thank you very much. Councilmember Gonzalez.
Speaker 6: Thank you. I just wanted to lift up and highlight a set of supporting documents that goes along with this council bill. And that's the clerk filed 320351. And I think it's important to highlight, because I think it emphasizes many of the points that Councilmember Herbold has so articulately, artfully laid out for us. And that clerk file has well over 300 pages of literature supporting the policy positions that we are going to take here today on this council bill. And I think that's really important for the public to understand that this council, under the leadership of Councilmember Herbold and and under the guidance of impacted community members and advocates of impacted community members, really took this issue seriously. And we understood the complexities related to it. And we did our homework as it relates to reading through the literature that his informed the policy positions that are reflected in this particular ordinance. And I think that, you know, I think what that over 300 pages of literature says is that an arrest or a conviction is not an accurate indicator of bad tendency. It is, however, a tool for discrimination and it's judicial punishment for a crime for which penance has been presumably paid. And so I am incredibly proud to have been able to support Councilmember Herbals work on this particular bill. I think it is an important advancement for and in having a more equitable system in our society where we stand true with our with our state and values, that once you pay your debt to society by virtue of spending time in prison or jail for a conviction, that at that point you deserve a second chance. And this is in and of itself a second chance, Bill. And I'm really proud to be able to support it. And I'm really looking forward to seeing how this will advance our goals of making sure that we can provide folks a place to stay and to heal and to become and to continue to be contributing positively contributing members in our community. So thank you so much for your leadership.
Speaker 0: Thank you for those comments. I'll say a few words if my colleagues are finished to this point by now. Most of us, I think, fully understand that when you look at our country that we have truly been a country of mass incarceration. And I think when you hear that, I think we sort of get that. But even our state, when you look at every year, around 8000 people are being released from prisons and jails in our state. And about 15 years ago, there's a study done and looking at recidivism. And at that point in 2002, over 67% of the folks that were released had recidivate. And of that number, over 51% had actually gone back to prison. And so when I look at this, coupled with the banning the box employment legislation that we're that we passed a few years ago, that the only way to sort of correct these policies and those are policies and actions that we've taken are to embrace is to embrace this kind of legislation when we are looking at giving people a second chance now. I want I want to thank some of the folks who come forward today to talk about their past and the struggles they've had. I jokingly joked with a childhood friend, Daniel, growing up when he was serving our country and I was in college. But we don't have to go far to look at the folks that were arrested and charged. Many folks in our neighborhood have records. And as a not an old man, as a mature man, I talked to so many friends that have really they've paid their debt. I mean, that is the bottom line. They have paid their debt to society and they're just looking for they're looking to be evaluated on their strengths and not on a decision or an unfortunate circumstance that they found themselves in years ago. So, Murph, I want to sort of give you a shout out, because you remember years ago when I looked at embracing this, I didn't know if our city was ready for this, you know, ready for this kind of policy. And so we looked at the employment piece first. And again, I have such a great team here sitting on the dias, said, I'm sure this would be an eight no worst case scenario, I guess maybe Sharma may come in here and ask at the last minute. But in all seriousness, we have a council that understands that it's going to be through policy corrections that we address these evils that have occurred in our society. So thank you, Councilmember Herbold, and everyone else that amended and participated. And it's certainly my pleasure to co-sponsor this legislation. So having said that, thank you. Are we ready to vote? Councilmember Hobo, did you want any closing? Are we good and closed? Well, Usha Venkataraman, because we sort of slotted her name there. I just. I'm glad someone else did because I always had to write it out here. So she is. She's really been our whole center staff is pretty awesome. But this is a particular piece of legislation we would be very proud of. Okay, let's vote. Please call the role on the passage of the amended Bill O'Brien.
Speaker 1: I.
Speaker 3: Bagshaw I.
Speaker 1: Burgess I.
Speaker 6: Gonzalez i.
Speaker 2: Johnson whereas I.
Speaker 3: Herbold I.
Speaker 2: President Harrell high eight in favor and unopposed.
Speaker 0: The bill passes and the chair will stand. Thank you again, Councilmember Herbold. Please called and please read the next gen item.
Speaker 6: Into the agenda item for council bill 1190 36 authorizes the CEO, general manager of Seattle Public Utilities to execute a contract with Cedar Grove composting incorporation for organic waste processing services and ratifying confirming certain prior acts. The committee recommends the bill passed.
AN ORDINANCE relating to housing regulations; adding a new Chapter 14.09 (Fair Chance Housing) to the Seattle Municipal Code to regulate the use of criminal history in rental housing; authorizing the Seattle Office for Civil Rights to enforce the regulations set out in this new chapter; and amending Section 3.14.931 of the Seattle Municipal Code to expand the Seattle Human Rights Commission’s duties.