Despite its rejection last Friday by the renters’ rights committee she runs, Kshama Sawant’s rent control “trigger law” will come in front of the full Seattle City Council next week.
It is unlikely the outcome will be better for rent control supporters at Tuesday’s session of the full council. Under council rules for legislation rejected at the committee level, the bill will come forward with a “do not pass” recommendation.
CHS reported here on the Friday session and “no” vote as Sawant and supporters made their case for Seattle rent control tied to inflation that would be put into effect only if the state ban on the restriction is lifted. “The question is whom will they allow to control rents? Is it going to be rent setting, price setting, or price fixing in interest of the insatiable greed of these millionaires and billionaires,” Sawant said earlier this month during a press conference on the proposal, “Or is it going to be rent control in the interest of the survival of the majority of our working people?”
In last Friday’s vote, only South Seattle’s Tammy Morales joining Sawant in voting yes on her proposed legislation. The other committee members Sara Nelson, Andrew Lewis, and Debora Juarez voted no.
Sawant has harshly criticized the more centrist Lewis over his vote. “As many of you know, self-described “progressive” and ‘labor Democrat’ Councilmember Lewis outrageously voted against our rent control legislation at Friday’s Renters’ Rights Committee, thereby revealing what his priority is: not struggling working-class renters, the poor, or communities of color. Nope. Lewis’s committee vote was in support of the wealthy landlord lobby, the multimillionaires and billionaires who are gouging the renters in Lewis’s District 7 in Queen Anne and Belltown, and other neighborhoods throughout our city,” Sawant’s office wrote in a message to supporters.
The Socialist Alternative councilmember who is leaving office later this year after a decade at City Hall also is calling out citywide councilmember Teresa Mosqueda who will not be present at Tuesday’s full council vote.
The field of remaining councilmembers Lisa Herbold, Alex Pedersen, and Dan Strauss seems unlikely to produce the vote’s Sawant’s bill will need to overcome the committee vote.
Still, Sawant is hoping to rally support at Tuesday’s afternoon session, telling supporters “the only power renters and working people have to hold politicians accountable is to get organized and fight back.”
Meanwhile, efforts in Olympia continue with leaders like State Rep. Nicole Macri representing the 43rd District and Capitol Hill who has sponsored proposals to lift the ban continuing the push.
With Sawant set to step aside and leave office at the end of the year, the candidates to replace her are also taking positions on the proposal. Most including mayor’s office-endorsed candidate Joy Hollingsworth said they did not support the legislation with only Democratic Socialists of America candidate Ry Armstrong embracing the bill and speaking in favor of it during Friday’s public comment. Unlike Hollingsworth, challenger Alex Hudson says she would support “rent stabilization policies” that ” fight against corporate landlords who extort renters, exacerbate the housing and homelessness crisis, and accelerate displacement.”
The by-mail primary election deadline is August 1st.
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So Sawant thinks the State Legislature will simply abandon its obligation to regulate housing allowing Seattle’s law to come off the shelf and into effect? And she doesn’t trust voters enough to elect future City Councils to enact what she wants? Or is she just trying to trigger supporters on a last hurrah? Hoping she finds a new town to haunt after January.
She could join Nikita Oliver in Detroit!
What will you freaks do once Sawant is gone? It is so sad that she has so much control over your ideas about the city. Especially considering the flood of corporate and (gasp! Not in seattle!) conservative cash that has been flowing into the races in the last few years.
Bye bye Sawant. Conga line down Broadway!
IMO name-calling right out of the gate like this tells me you know little or nothing about which you speak, so name-calling is all you are capable of doing. I’d be more inclined to have a conversation with you about our differences and what we have in common if you knew enough to do so.
Yes – conservative money does flow in to Seattle for the races, as does liberal money. For example, if I remember correctly the majority of the money in Sawant’s recall defense campaign came from outside of the district she represents and the reverse was true for the recall campaign.