Federal Way City Council: Respond to the demands of your constituents, pass Renter Protections to prevent mass evictions
Dear Federal Way City Council and King County Members,
There is a pandemic going on that is sweeping our state, impacting us in ways no one could have imagined, specifically impacting our Black and Brown communities. There are mass protests going on against the injustices and state-sanctioned violence that our Black community has endured for far too long. Black people being killed by police officers and experiencing evictions at a rate 4.5 times higher are not by coincidence or separate. This is because the systems we operate in, are built to uphold white supremacy, valuing property over lives.
Council members, in this moment, the decisions you make, are going to define your time in office. If you say Black Lives Matter, but continue to sit idly by and wait for something to be done and not pass policies that will protect the community, you do not care about Black lives.
We got Good Cause Eviction Protections passed last year that’ll protect people in the community from unfair evictions, NOW, we need you to pass an ordinance that will make rent Non-Possessory.
(Right to Left) Jenny Ferguson, Federal Way member, Ashley (Federal Way Organizer), and Shajuanda (Tacoma Organizer)
In order to prevent an eviction crisis and push people into homelessness, it is necessary for Council to put into place policies that make debt accrued during this time not a reason to evict at any point in the future, and protect tenants from landlords who will try to go around this by enacting a no-cause notice. The median rent for King County is $1,624, many households have struggled with rent-burden even before the pandemic. Now, renters are facing threatening notices from their landlords; and being forced to choose between groceries, medical bills, and rent. We need you to take action to prevent sweeping evictions for our families due to the inability to pay rent as a result of an uncontrollable and unforeseen global pandemic.
Before this pandemic shut cities down, and sent unemployment skyrocketing, renters already had few protections against abusive practices, and were overburdened with rent. Housing was the most important issue to voters before the pandemic, and additional polling found it remained top of mind for voters even as the virus spread. Now in the midst of this pandemic, the rental housing crisis has become more urgent for more households than ever before. We know that one third of renters were unable to make their April rent nationwide, so it is undeniably clear renters need you to take action.
While rental assistance would be the easiest and most straightforward way to keep people housed, there is not enough money to meet the need. If renters are behind on two-months rent, this is roughly $3,000 for each household – just to assist the undocumented King County residents below the federal poverty line would cost roughly $117,000,000 – and this does not take into account the on-going rental assistance need or the need among other residents. It is likely far more people will not be able to pay rent on time, and King County does not have the resources to meet the need.
Even after COVID is no longer a threat, many will be coping with a housing crisis even more dire than anything our region has seen before, specifically Black and people of color. In 2019, the majority of individuals experiencing homelessness in Seattle/King County identified as people of color. When compared to the racial demographics of the county’s general population, the largest disparities were observed among those identifying as Black or African American (32% in the Point-in-Time Count compared to 6% in the general King County population), Hispanic or Latino (15% compared to 10%), American Indian/Alaskan Native (10% compared to <1%). Evictions have devastating and long lasting effects on families and society and are a leading cause of homelessness. Prior to this pandemic, over 11,000 people in King County were experiencing homelessness, with almost half of them unsheltered in 2019. Our country does not have enough resources to handle the massive influx of folks that will inevitably enter the homelessness system if these protections are not put in place. Already programs like Homes Base in King County have received over 7,000 applications for rental assistance with the ability to only serve roughly 2,000 of those applications. Requests for rental assistance increased by 71% in March; in Skagit County this is a 400% increase than they are used to seeing. The attorney general's office reported complaints of 787 with the capacity to respond to about one third of those complaints. Civil legal aid offices such as NWJP have seen an influx of 50 percent of tenants seeking information on their legal rights.
Good-cause eviction protections simply require landlords to have a reason under the law to evict a tenant (such as a lease violation, damage, illegal activity, a landlord wanting to move into the rental, demolition, etc). Currently, Federal Way is the only city with a strong good-cause eviction protection. Federal Way has set a huge precedent for tenant protections because without good-cause eviction protections, landlords can exploit the 20 day no-cause notice or ability to refuse a lease renewal as a way to get around any requirements, and people will still end up without housing.
In addition, without protection from eviction for nonpayment of rent during the pandemic, payment plans will neither help those who have fallen so far behind that they cannot catch up nor help those who still do not have any means to pay rent.
We got Good Cause Eviction Protections passed last year that’ll protect people in the community from unfair evictions, NOW, we need you to pass an ordinance that will make rent Non-Possessory.
With August 1st, the ending of Governor Inslee’s moratorium, approaching, many no longer wonder what the impact will be; rather, how can we overcome them? Without you taking action, the burden will fall not only on renters, but their landlords too; not only on civil legal aid, but on our justice system too. To ensure these efforts are successful and have the strongest impact on renters in your community, it is your job to enact policies that will ensure that the debt forcefully accrued upon renters, during COVID-19 is not a basis for eviction and protect tenants from landlords who disregard the financial hardships caused by an unforeseen pandemic.
The decisions and policies you make from this point forward will have a great impact on Black lives, and the economic recovery of our communities. Pass an ordinance that will make rent Non-Possessory.
I urge you to pass a Non-Possessory Ordinance immediately to protect Federal Way renters during this crisis! (Please see ordinance for details)
List of community organizations that support this letter:
Washington Community Action Network
Federal Way Education Association
Federal Way Black Collective
Ambition Is Priceless Consulting
It Take A Village
Build The Bridge Coalition
Federal Way members who have fought for and won Good Cause Eviction Protections for their neighbors are now calling on their city to enact policies that will prevent mass evictions.