Seattle Renters Crash Affordable Housing Gala To Call Out Plot To Rollback Tenant Protections

Renters killing the vibe at the landlord fundraiser

Seattle renters are bracing for a long-haul brawl to defend their rights from a City Council that seems hellbent reversing wins for working people with all the subtlety of a wrecking ball—and about as much concern for who gets crushed. 

At the Housing Development Consortium’s (HDC) annual fundraiser, renters crashed the party—not for the finger food, but to hand out flyers exposing HDC’s months-long campaign to gut renter protections. 

“We are all here because we support creating more affordable housing,” the flyer read. “Affordable housing is intended to ensure stability. That requires protecting the people living in it. Many of us are confused by HDC’s role in efforts to erode the renter protections in Seattle that help people stay housed, recover from setbacks and avoid being pushed further into crisis.” 

The flyer pulled no punches, calling on so-called housing advocates—yes, including HDC—to publicly oppose the latest anti-tenant policies sneaking through City Hall. The flyer linked to this website where gala attendees could sign up for action alerts related to the war on tenants. 

First on the non-exhaustive list of potential rollbacks: The Roommate Ordinance. This 2019 policy lets tenants legally add roommates or family members to the lease, so long as it doesn't exceed occupancy limits. Wild concept—people saving money by living together in an overpriced housing market. Naturally, the City Council seems to be mulling a repeal. According to the flyer, that move would be “especially egregious” during a time when transgender and undocumented people are under federal siege and seeking any semblance of housing stability.

Next up, late fees. The Council’s considering bumping the newly-capped $10 fee on late rental payments up to $50. Data from the Urban Institute shows a higher fee won’t actually encourage more timely payments. But hey, why let evidence get in the way of a good shakedown?

Lastly, the City Council may nix the winter and school-year eviction moratoriums. These protections don’t even get used much—tenants’ attorneys at the Housing Justice Project rarely lean on them—but even the idea that a kid might finish the semester without being evicted apparently keeps someone at HDC up at night.

And here's the kicker: none of these rollbacks actually fix landlords' favorite complaint—that it takes too long to evict tenants. It takes a long time because tenants unfortunately have the right to due process and the County does not have enough judges to make the line move faster. Landlords could however trim time off the process by simply filling out the paperwork correctly. Most of the time HJP can delay an eviction because the landlord just fucked up procedurally.

Without hearing a compelling argument for how this will speed up evictions (and if we even should speed them up), so far it appears the cruelty of these repeals is the point.