Tag Archives: evictions

As Seattle prepares to lift pandemic eviction ban, mayor says ready to aid renters, small landlords — UPDATE

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Seattle has a plan — or, a date, at least — for ending its pandemic-long restriction on evictions. Mayor Bruce Harrell has announced a two-week extension before a full lifting of the restrictions at the end of February.

As part of the end of the two years of pandemic protections for residential renters and commercial tenants, the city’s Office of Housing will distribute over $25 million in “identified funding to support renters and small landlords, complementing funding being allocated by King County. ” The city will also launch a website “to connect tenants and small landlords to available financial resources, information on rights and protections, and other critical updates needed as the moratoria ends.”

Residential tenants will also have important protections passed by the council in 2020 that will extend eviction restrictions for “at least six months” to renters “who demonstrate enduring financial hardship preventing them from paying rent.”

CHS reported here on the Valentine’s Day deadline, the latest for the ongoing extension of the moratorium. Local governments have begun lifting the bans across the country as some $46 billion in federal emergency rental assistance has trickled into state and local programs to help renters behind on payments.

In Seattle, the estimate in mid 2021 was 60,000 currently behind on rent. More recent estimates put that number closer to 100,000. Continue reading →

With nearly 100,000 behind on rent, Harrell makes Valentine’s Day extension of Seattle’s ban on pandemic evictions

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Mayor Bruce Harrell will extend Seattle’s eviction protections another 30 days into February but the new administration says it wants to do more to inform people about the rules and measure its impact on leases and real estate in the city.

The latest extension protecting residential tenants, businesses, and organizations from eviction during the pandemic will keep the restrictions in place through February 14th.

Saying his administration wants to better understand “the algebra behind it,” Harrell said the next executive order includes the creation of “an advisory group for the mayor composed of tenant advocates and small landlords,” and an evaluation of “Seattle’s intergovernmental coordination in receiving and distributing financial assistance to tenants and small landlords.” Harrell also promised a new online “portal” to provide information to tenants and property owners. Continue reading →

With sixth extension of COVID-19 eviction moratorium, Seattle buying more time for federal aid, new programs to help tenants and landlords

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Items left outside after a past Capitol Hill eviction (Image: CHS)

Seattle is buying time for thousands of renters and landlords as Mayor Jenny Durkan has signed an executive order for the sixth extension of the city’s moratorium on residential and commercial evictions during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

The ban on evictions will now stretch into January 2022. By then, the city will have a new mayor and, perhaps, a plan and the relief funding necessary to emerge from the looming tenant and landlord crisis. Continue reading →

Sawant proposal would prohibit student family and teacher evictions during school year

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Flanked by the director of the Seattle school board, District 3 representative Kshama Sawant unveiled legislation Monday that she says would prohibit evictions of school children, their families, and educators during the school year.

““When landlords evict families with school-aged children, especially during the school year, the eviction has a devastating impact on the children’s academic achievement, health, and development. The vast majority of evicted schoolchildren have to change schools, abruptly leaving behind their friends, teachers they know and trust, and their social supports,” Sawant said. Continue reading →

‘To actually prevent winter evictions,’ Durkan proposes alternative to Seattle City Council’s ban

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Mayor Jenny Durkan won’t veto the bill but the she said Tuesday she also won’t sign Seattle’s new law banning evictions during winter months as she proposed a new plan for $200,000 in funding for an existing eviction prevention program.

The middle ground decision means the council’s legislation — including a loophole for “small landlords” who own four or fewer units — will now become law.

But Durkan says she is proposing a new solution be taken up by the council, saying the its winter eviction ban championed by District 3 representative Kshama Sawant created only “a legal defense during eviction proceedings” and “nearly half of households failed to contest an eviction or appear in court.” Continue reading →

Study of Seattle evictions shows disproportionate impacts to women, Black renters

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CHS found a woman’s possessions spread across a parking strip off 12th Ave after a 2017 eviction (Image: CHS)

A newly released report from the commission that has Mayor Jenny Durkan’s ear on women’s issues in the city digs into a year’s worth of data around evictions in Seattle and shows that women tenants make up more than 80% of cases in which a small amount of money costs a renter their home in Seattle. The study of 2017 eviction cases in the Seattle city limits also shows how unfair the process is to Black renters who are evicted at a rate 4.5 times what would be expected based on Seattle demographics. Meanwhile, more than 17% of the city’s 1,218 evictions came here in the neighborhoods of Seattle City Council District 3 — the third highest total in the study. By ZIP Code, one of the largest clusters of evictions in the city in 2017 came in the 98122 area covering the Central District.

“Eviction proceedings, also known as ‘unlawful detainers,’ are scheduled every day in the King County Superior Court, and while this eviction machine is unseen by the majority of the city, the results reverberate far outside the courthouse,” the report from the Seattle Women’s Commission and the Housing Justice Project begins. “While a month of unpaid rent might be an inconvenience for a landlord, an eviction can mean life or death for a tenant. National research shows eviction is one of the leading causes of homelessness.”

The groups held a press conference to announce the findings — and the study’s conclusions on what to do about the impact of evictions — Thursday morning at Seattle City Hall. The Housing Justice Project is a homelessness prevention program providing legal services for low-income tenants facing eviction while the Seattle Women’s Commission is an advisory body to the mayor, city council, and City Hall departments.

Gina Owens talked about life as a single mother renting in Seattle and what happened when she and her daughter were evicted. “One emergency, one missed paycheck” is the difference between a home and living in the streets in Seattle, she said.

A full copy of the report is below but here are some of the main findings: Continue reading →