The
Seattle Times editorial board
Seattle’s
Office of Housing last month released an unprecedented $14 million
to stabilize the balance sheets of affordable housing providers in
financial trouble.
Turned
over to The Times editorial board after a public disclosure request,
the 24 applications for emergency funding read like a collective cry
for help.
Landlords
report that some tenants are not paying rent, a trend that worsened
during the pandemic. At the same time, housing operators are having
to repair damaged units while insurance costs spiral ever higher.
The
bottom line: Revenues are falling while expenses are rising.
There
are no quick remedies. But the Seattle City Council should implement
some simple reforms before spending more public money just to keep
the system afloat.
In
its application for city funds, the Low Income Housing Institute
noted that it “faces serious issues regarding rent collection.”
Tenants
who pay their rent typically pay on time. “However, the vast
majority of those who don’t pay rent have sufficient income to pay
but choose not to. Although we offer payment plans, those who accept
them do not follow through with them,” wrote LIHI, which develops,
owns and operates housing for low-income, homeless and formerly
homeless people.
It
received $750,000 of city aid.
Eviction
is often an empty threat, noted LIHI’s application. “Even if
served with an eviction notice they know that the courts are
horribly backed up and the chance of their eviction moving forward
is remote.”
On
July 24, King County Superior Court, which handles eviction cases,
announced that it was focusing more resources to get through cases
faster.
The
backlog has been staggering. There was a monthly average of 2,163
pending tenant-landlord cases in King County Superior Court this
year as of May, up from 481 pre-COVID-19 in 2019.
Presiding
Judge Ketu Shah says the court currently hears about 20-25 cases per
day. Court officials hope to increase that to 50 by streamlining the
process and tasking more judges to help. But it will take time.
“Delays
have led to a lot of frustration. I’m sympathetic to that,” said
Shah.
Tenants’
behavioral health challenges can result in costly property
destruction.
“We
are dealing with increasing costs of cleaning up after drug
contamination from smoking methamphetamine and fentanyl in units,”
wrote the Archdiocesan Housing Authority. “The Labor and
Industries Dept. requires action including decontamination, when
staff may be exposed to contamination above the state threshold.
Professional unit cleaning is $5,000 — $12,000 depending on size.”
Wrote
Chief Seattle Club: “ … Mr. X has been homeless for decades
and stole battery packs from Lime scooters and electric bikes.
While soddering (sic) them together in his unit, he started a
fire from the lithium battery packs. The fire sprinklers were
triggered and flooded his unit, 4 units below him, and damaged
the elevator’s electrical system. The repair costs were
$220,000; not including the expense to relocate the 5 tenants to
motels while their units were being repaired.”
These
are not uncommon stories and it’s taken a toll. The
Capitol Hill Seattle Blog recently reported that Community
Roots Housing, an affordable housing developer, is in the process of
selling six apartment complexes. The reason: “extraordinary and
persistent operational challenges chiefly resulting from the ongoing
impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
So
what can be done?
Sharon
Lee, LIHI’s executive director, wants the Seattle City Council to
tweak tenant protection laws passed in recent years. The moratorium
on evictions during the winter should be amended so that only
tenants who face job losses or other hardships are protected. Same
with the eviction moratorium during the school year for households
with students, educators or school employees.
Also,
the city law that limits late rent fees to $10 ought to be
revisited.
“The
tenant advocates, their whole thing is that no one should ever be
evicted, right? If that’s the case, how are we supposed to pay for
utilities, pay for staffing? It doesn’t make sense,” said Lee.
“There are other parts of the country where nonprofits are facing
similar nonpayment issues. But we’re hit particularly hard here.”
The
city’s own policies contributed to the current financial crisis in
the affordable housing system. These must be fixed to help reset the
landlord-tenant relationship and end the dysfunction.
The
Seattle Times editorial board members are editorial page
editor Kate Riley, Frank A. Blethen, Melissa Davis, Josh Farley,
Alex Fryer, Claudia Rowe, Carlton Winfrey and William K. Blethen
(emeritus).
some comments.......
Please
change Seattle’s Rental Housing Policies in 2024
If
the City of Seattle wants to preserve single-family and small
multi-family property affordable rental housing, it should consider
enacting policies that support the continued presence of this type
of property in Seattle’s rental market. When considering such
policies, the City should involve stakeholders most impacted by the
rental housing policies. There needs to be an equilibrium between
tenant and housing provider balance with the departure of
anti-rental housing providers Kashama Sawant and Lisa Herbold. While
we wish them well in the future endeavors.
Some
of the poorly written rental regulations that need to be revised and
changed include the following:
-
Eliminate
No Criminal Background Checks. City of Seattle is one of only two
cities in the US that doesn’t allow Criminal Background checks.
-
Eliminate
the $10 late fee cap on rent. Normal late fees for late rent need
to be revised to $50 or $60 late fee cap.
-
Eliminate
the winter eviction ban.
-
Eliminate
the school year eviction ban.
-
Eliminate
the crazy First In Time policy of having to accept the first
tenantwho qualifies – very unusual and not seen anywhere other
than Seattle.
-
Eliminate
the "roommate" ordinance that basically allows tenant to
move in ANYBODY by having a cup of coffee with them and calling it
a "date" then moving them in as "family" with
no recourse for the housing provider. A fair version of the
roommate ordinance could be designed that protected the housing
provider as well as giving flexibility to the tenant to bring in
legitimate and responsible roommates.
The
eviction protections that Sawant pushed forward when on the council
are insane. The protections which I would assume were made with a
compassionate eye toward venerable renters backfired and brought out
the worst behavior from many tenants and have caused smaller
landlords to pull their properties from the market . They should
pull these protections off the books or vastly rewrite as these have
failed us all.
Respect37Reply
other comments....
In
reply to NP
Warrior
Add:
Eliminate publicly funded lawyers whose sole mission is to tie up
valid evictions with obfuscation and delay.
