Sawant
Kshama Sawant’s Sustainability and Renters’ Rights Committee of the Seattle City Council voted Friday to reject her proposed rent control “trigger law” bill.
The proposal would bind rent increases for most housing in the city to inflation and created a Rent Control Commission in the city — as soon as a statewide ban on the restrictions is lifted.
Sawant pledged Friday that she would still bring the vote before the full council in August despite the committee rejection but the vote was a blow to the chances of more moderate support on the council emerging.
In a session preceded by around two hours of public comment dominated by supporters of the legislation and “What do we want? Rent control. When do we want it? Now!” chants, Sawant’s committee broke with its chair and rejected the bill 3 to 2 with only South Seattle’s Tammy Morales joining Sawant in voting yes on her proposed legislation.
Sara Nelson, Andrew Lewis, and Debora Juarez voted no.
Juarez
Agreeing that the statewide restrictions on rent control are “unjust,” council president Juarez attempted to make the case that she could not support the bill because the proposal “isn’t a rent control” bill, only a “trigger.”
“I do agree. It is an unjust law,” Juarez said saying the city would be better served by pushing on state leaders to lift the ban.
Sawant countered that while the bill is a trigger law, it would “absolutely put pressure on state Democrats like there has never been.”
Like Sawant, Juarez is also leaving the council after this year.
Lewis, meanwhile, sided with Juarez, saying he did not agree the trigger law would pressure Olympia in an effective way and could not support the bill because of concerns it could damage statewide efforts. Lewis also is seeking reelection.
Nelson declined an opportunity to speak before her no vote.
Despite Sawant’s rallying cry demanding the bill’s passage “without loopholes or watering down,” that fight did not materialize Friday. There was only one amendment proposed with Morales bringing forward a proposal to explicitly exempt Seattle Social Housing Developer properties from the proposed capping in addition to the exemption in place for “units a governmental entity owns, operates, or manages.” Sawant’s office also brought forward an approved technical amendment to correct typos, and adjust some administration elements of the proposal. The social housing amendment was also approved, 3-2 with Nelson and Juarez voting no.
CHS reported here on Sawant’s final big push for rent control before she leaves office later this year after a decade on the council after succeeding in two other major legislative efforts that will mark her time leading the district: the $15 minimum wage and the so-called Amazon tax.
A statewide ban on rent control remains on the books in Washington. Sawant’s “trigger-law” legislation would put rent control into effect in Seattle only after that ban is lifted.
In the legislation rejected by the committee, Seattle would tie increases to the rate of inflation and put City Hall in the role of controlling rents in the city. Under the proposal, the city would publish an acceptable rent increase percentage yearly and establish a Rent Control Commission and District Rent Control Boards to authorize rent control exemptions. The Rent Control Commission would include 35 renters and seven landlords serving two-year terms. The district boards would require five renter members and one landlord member from each City Council district.
Underlying the call for rent control in Sawant’s final months in office is the ongoing affordability crisis in the region. Her office points to the U.S. Census Bureau report showing rent climbed nearly 92% in the Seattle area from 2010 to 2020. Sawant’s office says the price-fixing allegations against Seattle landlords using the YieldStar software from RealPage is proof that rent levels are already being centrally managed.
Sawant also points at the Democratic leaders who have failed to lift the statewide ban on rent control that has been in place for 42 years, “longer than many of you have actually been alive.”
CHS reported here on last week’s unusual committee session as Sawant brought the debate to her home District 3 with a hearing at Broadway’s All Pilgrims Church and challenged the “Democrat” members of her committee to approve the bill. “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 during the evening session, “Or is it going to be rent control in the interest of the survival of the majority of our working people?”
Unless votes shift in the meantime, the August vote of the full council seems likely to put the Seattle rent control debate on hold — or at least shift the discussion.
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 rallying toward the August 1st primary. 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, meanwhile, 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.”
Tammy Morales, running to keep her seat in D2, said Friday she will also continue the fight. “After voting yes on this bill I will continue to advocate at the state level,” Morales promised before the vote Friday. “I look forward to standing shoulder to shoulder with renters,” Morales said.
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I think the rest of the state has seen enough of what Seattle is doing and would rather avoid those same mistakes.
Don’t care about the BFE guys’ opinion. This city is bigger than big chunks of the state.
If that law passes I’m selling my rental property that’s renting at $1,000 below the market rate to my low income renters. I’m already l going into the negative each month renting below what it’s worth, but I wouldn’t be able to break even ever with sawants law. What a way to push out all affordable rental housing forcing landlords to sell.
My wife and I rent out two properties in Seattle, a small house and a four-unit apartment building that was built in the 1920s. We just completed our third bathroom remodel in the apartment building. If we can’t raise rents, we can’t do upgrades. Our rents are already below-market, and if this passes we will have to raise them ASAP to get ahead of a statewide law to enable capping rent increases.
What I don’t understand is this: if housing is too expensive, why aren’t socialists working to get housing prices capped? The price of a house in my neighborhood has increased way faster than I have raised rents.
Well, my landlord is turning my place into a short to mid term rental unit since it’s much more profitable. So much for rent control.
I didn’t know that Ry Armstrong is a Democratic Socialist. So, just a Sawant wannabe. Defeat him, please!
Can the author please add a citation showing that Sawant made the $15 minimum wage happen? I could be wrong but my understanding is that the initial bill and push were done by Ed Murray and Sawant doesn’t really show as a sponsor.
Also labor was the prime community organizer imo… SEIU etc.
She just added her name to the movement, she didn’t start it or make it happen.
I’m sick of Sawant and her B.S. rent control that she knows would never happen but keeps promising her base.
Big developers get all kinds of tax breaks and variations from building codes, but small landlords keep getting screwed over by the city council, between eviction regulations, excessive taxes on multi-family property owners and regressive code policies that keep many landlords from being able to afford to update their properties. If you want to do anything other than minor repairs, you have to get an architect and/or a structural engineer as part of the permitting process, which is expensive, lengthy and burdensome. We were asked to do that just to change out windows. Ridiculous.
Meanwhile, SDOT came by and told us that we had to fix the sidewalk and front edge of our driveway in front of our building because it’s become a hazard due to tree roots — at a cost of $40,000. Now we’re in a maze of trying to get hold of the city’s arborist — who never returns our calls, and trying to figure out if it’s actually caused by the city sewer which is next to it.
There’s a lot of costs to managing apartments that tenants don’t realize, and some of these costs are a direct result of city and county regulations, building codes and management.