Being evicted for nonpayment of rent won’t really be a thing for Seattle tenants in 2020–at least if tenants assert the rights they won at city council today.
Council President M. Lorena González introduced the emergency ordinance extending the eviction moratorium, which Governor Jay Inslee enacted and Mayor Jenny Durkan affirmed, a further six months past its June 4th expiration date. As an emergency ordinance, it needed seven votes, and it passed unanimously with nine.
Councilmember Alex Pedersen attempted to add a series of amendments, most notably a small landlord exemption, but was decisively repelled by his colleagues in a 8-1 vote. Pedersen introduced a similar amendment that likewise exempted landlords with four or fewer rental units back in February when the Seattle City Council passed a landmark three-month-long winter eviction moratorium in effect annually from December through February starting this year. Pedersen’s carve-out prevailed in February, but not this time.
Councilmember Andrew Lewis articulated the case why he supported the small landlord exemption then but not now, saying a temporary emergency ordinance tailored to the present public health emergency and economic crisis was a different animal. In such a precarious environment, he weighed protecting tenants from eviction and homelessness as more essential than protecting landlord cashflows. Councilmember Dan Strauss, who made a similar flip, echoed the sentiment.
Councilmember Kshama Sawant disputed the difference, saying they shouldn’t have included the exemption in either bill as it places too great of a burden on tenants to gather information on their landlord and then defend their legal rights. Councilmember Lisa Herbold noted she got it wrong in February claiming the City could easily determine which landlords have more than four units. The City doesn’t keep such data on landlords, and LLCs may conceal ownership.
Since the winter eviction moratorium goes into effect in December, tenants will not face eviction for not paying rent until March 2021–although the winter ban’s small landlord exemption may rob some of that protection a few months earlier. Since Seattle’s emergency eviction moratorium went into effect in mid-March, this means tenants will be protected nearly a full calendar year.
