King County received $145 million in rent assistance from the Federal government to distribute to tenants in what could be a godsend for many. The catch is that King County has been lagging behind other counties in disbursing those funds. In a press release today, King County Executive Dow Constantine said $63 million has been distributed to keep tenants housed and declared the County’s Eviction Protection and Rent Assistance Program (EPRAP) “fully operational” as required by the State.
Governor Jay Inslee’s eviction moratorium bridge order is set to expire on October 31st, and the Governor confirmed Thursday he is not issuing another extension, as the Spokesman-Review reported.
“We’ve done about all we can do,” Inslee said. “It’s up to them to get it distributed.”.
The County’s proclamation appears a signal to Governor Inslee that it’s OK to let the moratorium lapse. Some jurisdictions like Seattle, Kenmore, and Burien have extended local eviction moratoriums through year’s end, but many living in other jurisdictions who are behind on rent will find themselves at risk of eviction come November.
Tram Tran-Larson, Community Engagement Manager at Housing Justice Project (HJP) of the King County Bar Association, is worried about what this means for tenants. HJP is the main provider of legal aid to low-income tenants in King County and also tracks evictions with a heat map visualization. King County’s tally for 2021 is currently at 674.
“Since they waited until a few days before the eviction moratorium expires to certify as fully operational, they’re sending a clear message to the Governor that they’re not supporting an extension, and it’s a clear message to tenants as well, despite the tens of thousands of applications still to be processed,” Tran-Larson said. “It’s very premature of them, because we are still have issues with their database.”
With the Governor’s bridge order in effect, Washington state landlords have been barred from evicting tenants for nonpayment of rent, but have been able to use other grounds, most commonly lease term violations or the owner wishing to occupy the unit or sell. Fully lifting the moratorium and allowing evictions for nonpayment of rent is expected to unleash a larger wave of evictions that have built up over the course of a year and a half eviction moratorium that also included a statewide rent freeze until the Governor’s less restrictive bridge order in late June.
Advocates continue to press for moratorium extension
Inslee has continued to string along the moratorium in small one to three month increments, with the last extension announced on September 24th. The Stay Housed Stay Healthy coalition (of which The Urbanist and HJP are members) is urging the Governor to extend the moratorium through the year’s end. The Washington Low Income Housing Alliance (WLIHA) Action Fund (a coalition member) also has launched a letter-writing campaign to the Governor with 1,800 letters and counting sent.
The WLIHA stresses that that eviction moratorium is working: “Protections under the bridge proclamation and your previous eviction moratorium have played a massive role in preventing homelessness. They have protected vulnerable households and have prevented racial inequities from getting even worse. What has been abundantly proven over this last year and a half is that these eviction protections are working.”
Housing advocates also point to weekly housing surveys which shows tenants continue to struggle to make rent.
“Please don’t walk away now,” the letter continues. “Tens of thousands still haven’t been helped yet: The most recent Census Bureau Pulse Survey data (week 39) finds that there are 128,126 tenants still behind in rent. Over 44,000 have children under 18 in the household. And almost 169,000 renters express no confidence in their ability to pay next month’s rent. Meanwhile 368,600 tenants who are current on rent report that they have had to rely on money from savings or selling assets or possessions (including withdrawals from retirement accounts) to meet their basic needs over the last seven days. National reports echo these grim numbers.”
Evictions fall hardest on those on the margins of society: “Undoubtedly, those most impacted by prematurely lifting the eviction bridge will be those historically most marginalized. BIPOC communities, people with disabilities, households with children, LGBTQIA+ communities, immigrants,” the WLIHA letter adds.
Paula Sardinas, president of the Washington Build Back Black Coalition, which backs city and state renter protections, agreed.
“There’s a housing crisis we were trying to solve before Covid. It’s now becoming exacerbated,” Sardinas said. “60,000 Seattle area renters are behind on rent, and the WBBA has been working with the Dow [Constantine], and we are thankful to see the progress that’s being made. His commitment to the communities of color, and keeping families housed is critical to our WA Build-Back Black 5-year strategy. We are committed to working with the County Executive, ensuring the community both landlords and tenants understand the program and the availability of funding.”
King County’s struggles in distributing rent assistance
King County’s initial holdup, as we reported in early September, was that it opted to set up a new database and payment automating system to distribute rent assistance in an effort to help shield nonprofit partners from liability and reporting headaches that federal contracts entail. The County then contracted out with a third party vendor, Grantcare to create the database, and Grantcare was late in delivering the project.
The program finally got up and running this month, but King County had a lot of money to distribute as the most populous county in the state, which means it is still lagging behind. Neighboring counties like Snohomish and Pierce County implemented their programs manually and were quicker to get money out the door. Pierce County was already at 59% distributed in August, but King County’s $63 million amounts to 43% of its total. The additional $16 million reserved for second-half payments of landlord advances would push that percentage to 54%.
The EPRAP program still has quite a bit of funding trickling out to tenants and their landlords. Based on the pace established earlier this month, The Urbanist had calculated King County wouldn’t be finish distributing its federal assistance by year’s end, but it appears the County is picking up the pace a bit — distributing a new high of $8 million in rent assistance last week — and turbo-charging distribution by contracting with nonprofit and community-based organization partners.
