On Tuesday evening, residents, advocates, and rental housing groups packed into the physical and virtual chambers of Newcastle City Hall. Amid some minor code amendments and complaints about a recent street repaving project, councilmembers heard comments and criticisms of an ordinance meant to introduce several protections for tenants in the city. In addition to capping fees and increasing notice requirements for rent increases, the ordinance would have enabled flexible payment dates for renters on a fixed income and prevented landlords from using a lack of a social security number as a reason to deny a rental application. Had the ordinance passed, it would have introduced the widest sweeping set of tenant protections of nearly any city on the Eastside.
However, the ordinance failed on a narrow 4-3 vote — Mayor Linda Newing sided with Councilmembers Robert Clark, Tom Griffin, and Pratima Lakhotia to deny the protections from taking effect. In their explanations, several councilmembers expressed concerns about regulating landlords in additional ways beyond already-existing state protections, with Councilmember Clark pointedly noting that “it’s a contract between a tenant and a landlord. No tenant and no landlord is forced by gun to sign a contract…”
