Tag Archives: renters

Audit shows Seattle’s house and small building rental market is dwindling, down 19% in five years

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A report on Seattle’s rental housing shows the city is experiencing consolidation of ownership with larger property owners and a quickly-shaping decline in small rental properties ranging from fourplexes to single family-style homes.

The report from the Department of Construction and Inspections utilizing data from the Rental Registration and Inspection Ordinance Program was presented (PDF) to the Seattle City Council’s Housing & Human Services Committee Wednesday as part of an audit to improve the program.

The registration program has struggled with technical limitations and resources and the audit found oversight of the program requiring landlords to register properties and undergo inspections has weakened, City Auditor David Jones said.

Landlords with smaller holdings including many single-property owners have said it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue renting in the city as regulation requirements have increased making it more likely that the properties would be sold to a smaller and smaller market of larger real estate and development companies. The city has convened a Small Landlord Stakeholder Group to try to stem the tide.

According to the report presented to the council committee Wednesday, early efforts may have slowed the transition but the number of low-unit properties including houses and building with up to four units has plunged 19% in only five years. Meanwhile, even the number of large properties registered under the program has dropped as ownership is consolidated and fewer, larger landlords emerge. Continue reading →

Council notes: Committees take up Sawant’s late fee limits for renters, new protections for Seattle’s trees

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A flowering plum (Image: CHS)

Seattle City Council committees will have a busy Friday before the coming “spring break” week marked by many of the area’s schools and families with Kshama Sawant’s proposed legislation to limit late rent fees and new protections for the city’s trees on the agenda.

  • Sustainability and Renters’ Rights Committee will take up Sawant’s proposed legislation to limit the amount of fees charged for late payment of rent and for notices issued to tenants. CHS reported on the proposal here. The rules would cap late rent fees at $10 per month. The amount matches a limit put in place for tenants in unincorporated King County in 2021. A council staff report on the legislative proposal concludes the change won’t cost the city but “potential costs of outreach and enforcement” by the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections were not reflected in the analysis. Sawant’s office, meanwhile, says, some Seattle renters “have leases that charge an additional $40 or $50 every day the rent is late” and some landlords hit late paying tenants with additional late fee notice delivery fees. The proposed legislation would also ban those delivery fees. The Stay Housed Stay Healthy coalition of 30 community organizations including Real Change support the proposal. ”All large late fees accomplish is punishing the most vulnerable members of our community even when they’ve gotten caught up on rent,” the coalition wrote in support of the legislation. The committee could vote on the proposal Friday and send it on for a vote at the full council.
  • The councils’ Land Use Committee will debate a raft of proposals to extend new tree protections to the city’s urban canopy as a group of experts has come out against the legislation. The newly formed Seattle Arborist Association representing 200 professional arborists says the proposals will hurt the city’s canopy, not help it:
    The draft ordinance “not only disincentivizes tree ownership,” the letter writes, it “burdens qualified tree professionals” who care for and manage Seattle’s urban forest. Besides calling out “technical errors and lack of industry standards” in the code, SAA also calls out the code for missing its intended impact. Throughout the letter, SAA argues that the City’s tree service restrictions could have an adverse impact on the goal of increasing canopy coverage by 2037.
    Urbanists, meanwhile, say the new regulations could slow much needed housing development. CHS reported here on the proposals that backers say would create incentives and code flexibility to better protect trees, include more trees in the regulations, plant or replace more trees, and establish a payment in-lieu program to provide flexibility for tree replacement and address racial inequities and environmental justice disparities, amongst other changes. The new protections would also create regulations protecting designated “heritage trees” that can’t be removed unless deemed hazardous or in an emergency.
 

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Not done yet, Sawant committee to discuss capping late fees for Seattle renters

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In her Thursday announcement that she will not seek a fourth term representing District 3 on the Seattle City Council, a resolute Kshama Sawant warned “the corporate establishment in Seattle” not to “rush to mix their martinis just yet” —  “We are not done here,” she said.

Friday, her first day as a lame duck council member begins with the Sustainability and Renters’ Rights Committee she leads discussing legislation that would cap late fees for overdue rents. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill ZIP code is one of the most renter-rich in Seattle — but this Central District ZIP is gaining on it

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Africatown Plaza — a ‘cultural anchor’ against ‘the tide of displacement in the Central District’ — is taking shape at 23rd and Spring in 98122

Tenants in the Capitol Hill and Central District neighborhoods are at the top of major shifts in how people live in Seattle with areas that rank among the fastest growing areas for renters in the nation and some of the most renter-represented streets in Seattle, according to a new industry report.

For some, they are part of areas with a long history of renter representation. Others are part of streets where the balance has shifted only recently to renter majority neighborhoods.

“We have to ask ourselves, what is the population moving in and what is the population moving out,” John Rodriguez, formerly part of the Capitol Hill Renters Initiative and founder and executive director of the Dominican Association of Washington State said. “Is it equitable? Is it fair?”

According to the report from nationwide apartment listing service RentCafe, the Central District’s 98122 is ranked 66th as one of the fastest growing renter ZIP codes in the nation with an 44.4% increase of renters from 2011 to 2020. 65.1% of the people living in this neighborhood are renters. It is now the sixth-most renter dominated area in the city.

Meanwhile, Capitol Hill’s 98102’s longer history as a place for small apartment buildings and rentals means the area’s renter majority isn’t as new as the Central District’s — the area has produced a 22.7% increase in renters from 2011 to 2020. Its renter population now sits at 68.3%, making it the fifth most renter-represented ZIP in Seattle.

Continue reading →

Seattle City Council to reconsider rent data bill vetoed by mayor — UPDATE

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The Seattle City Council is set to vote again Tuesday afternoon on legislation vetoed by Mayor Bruce Harrell that would require the city’s landlords to report valuable metrics including how much rent they are charging to help City Hall better plan housing and development needs in Seattle.

Harrell vetoed the legislation after it narrowly passed 5-4 in June citing concerns from property owners that the reporting would be a burden, too costly for the city to track, and not useful because of industry reluctance to provide accurate values. Continue reading →

Sawant amendment to Seattle’s ‘six-month defense’ passes as City Council continues tweaks to pandemic protections for renters

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Amid ongoing legal challenges, the Seattle City Council continues to adjust legislation hoped to help protect renters during the pandemic.

Tuesday, the council unanimously passed a bill sponsored by Kshama Sawant to amend Seattle’s “six-month defense” ordinance.

The. previously passed ordinance provides tenants with a defense against evictions for six-months after the end of the eviction moratorium which officially ended in February. Continue reading →

Fire doors and ‘food on the stove’ — Fire safety tips you may not have known for Capitol Hill apartment dwellers

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A 2021 fire at the Quinalt Apartments

More than half of Capitol Hill residents live in apartments but many of the lessons we’ve learned about fire safety have been focused on single family style homes.

To address apartment fire safety tips for Seattle’s growing population of apartment dwellers, the Seattle Fire Department is sharing lessons and learnings for the multifamily population.

SFD has seen steady numbers of multifamily building fires in the past two years — around 350 to 400 multi-residential fires a year.

William Mace, an education and outreach advisor at SFD, says the top four biggest causes of Seattle apartment building fires are unattended cooking, heaters, electrical appliances, and candles.

Mace wants to make sure the message is clear to Seattle apartment residents that fire doors must stay closed regardless of hot weather. He attributes the “chimney effect” as one of the major causes of disaster during the New York Bronx apartment fire on Jan. 9, killing 19 people, including nine children.

“When there is a big event somewhere in the country, a major fire, where a lot of people die, people start asking questions and they want to know for obvious reasons what they should do in that situation,” he said. Continue reading →

First in the nation Renters’ Commission trying to pick up the pieces from pandemic including Seattle’s inspection backlog

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(Image: CHS)

By Elizabeth Turnbull

Five years after Seattle became the first city in the nation to create a Renters’ Commission, the group of appointees and volunteers is focused on sifting through a pandemic world and addressing needs like securing funding to address a backlog of inspections in Seattle

“Renters have faced [many challenges] with losing jobs and being backed up on rent, and then having the moratorium, you know sweating that every time, not knowing if it was going to be extended or not,” Mac Scotty McGregor, a co-chair of the commission, said. “I know some people want to act like it’s over with, but it’s not.”

Since 2020, and the beginning of the global health crisis, McGregor and others on the commission saw apartment inspections put on hold while residents were also forced to spend more time at home. Continue reading →

Seattle weighs options after court strikes down ‘Eviction Defense for Renters’

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A key component of Seattle’s efforts to protect renters from eviction as the city emerges from years of COVID-19 restrictions has been struck down by the Washington State Court of Appeals.

CHS reported here in May 2020 on Seattle’s “Eviction Defense for Renters,” a policy that was designed to provide renters with a six-month cushion after the lifting of COVID-19 eviction restrictions. The Seattle City Council legislation from then council president M. Lorena González was intended to create “a defense a tenant may use for six months should a landlord take their tenant to eviction court” and establish that renters can use “non-payment of rent for any reason as a defense to eviction, as long as they submit a declaration of financial hardship to the court. Continue reading →

‘Has your landlord violated your rights?’ — Sawant office preparing legislation to strengthen penalties for landlord violations

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Kshama Sawant’s office says the District 3 representative on the Seattle City Council is preparing legislation “to strengthen the City’s enforcement procedures when tenant rights are violated” and is calling for tenants across Capitol Hill and the Central District to share their stories.

Has your landlord violated your rights?

  • Ignored necessary repairs, such as for heating and hot water, addressing infestation, or fixing broken appliances?
  • Unjustly withheld security deposits? Threatened retaliation for tenants speaking out?
  • Attempted to unjustly evict? Increased rent without the legally-required notice? Charged extra fees?
  • Other abuses?
    Tell us your story! Fill out the form here.

“My office has heard from renters who have gone months without heat, without hot water, with mold or roach infestations, with holes in the ceilings, windows, and walls, and many other unacceptable housing conditions,” Sawant said in the announcement sent by her City Hall office last week. “We have seen a landlord attempt to intimidate renters into signing away their right to relocation assistance after their building was gutted by fire. We have seen landlords retaliating against renters who contact building management to request basic repairs, and many other abuses of renter rights. Continue reading →