TACOMA, Wash. — Two words appear to have moved to the center of the debate as a City of Tacoma committee looks to beef up tenant rights to avoid another Tiki Apartments eviction crisis.
Working out parameters for so-called “just cause” evictions has at the very least slowed talks to hammer out draft ordinance language for the Tacoma City Council to consider, at least judging from an update provided by a stakeholders’ group to Tacoma’s Community Vitality and Safety Committee last week.
“I don’t want to see ‘just cause’ hold up the work already done,” said City Councilman and committee chairman Keith Blocker. “I assume we’d move forward with tenant protections and continue dialogue on ‘just cause.’”
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“That’s why I did not suggest we do just cause right now,” ChiQuata Elder, the city’s landlord-tenant/crime-free housing coordinator, told the committee at its meeting Thursday “There was no way we’d be able to come up with a good ‘just cause’ or some kind of ordinance that’s comparable that addresses the termination of tenancies in housing by Sept. 30 deadline without having unintended consequences for both sides.”
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Just-cause language generally applies to month-to-month renters and those with verbal agreements.
Seattle's just cause eviction ordinance applies in a number of situations. Among them:
▪ Failure to pay rent after receiving a pay-or-vacate notice.
▪ Habitual failure to pay rent (receiving four or more pay-or-vacate notices within a 12-month period).
▪ Habitual failure to follow the terms of the rental agreement (receiving three or more notices for substantial failure to comply or vacate within a 12-month period).
▪ Allowing substantial deterioration of the property or maintaining a nuisance that substantially interferes with another person’s use of their property.
▪ Owner wishes to sell the property (must give 90-days advance written notice prior to the sale).
▪ Owner wishes to move into the property or have an immediate family member move into the property for use as their principal residence (must give 90-days advance written notice).
▪ Owner seeks to substantially rehabilitate, demolish, remove use restrictions, or change the use of the property, after completing the Tenant Relocation Assistance licensing process.
The topic is generating some heat as Tacoma wrestles with tenants rights legislation.
The Community Vitality and Safety Committee last week heard from more than 30 individuals, including landlords and tenants, on how the current situation is still a struggle to manage for both sides.
In a statement of support for just cause in Tacoma, the Tenants Union of Washington State, on its website, noted, "Unlike tenants in more than 25 other jurisdictions, residential tenants in the City of Tacoma currently do not benefit from the protection of a 'just cause' eviction ordinance. This leaves us open to unfair treatment or retaliation, unhealthy or unsafe living conditions, discrimination, and in some cases homelessness."
The union notes that such a provision “does not mean that a landlord cannot terminate rental agreement or evict a tenant. Remedies that are already currently available to landlords to evict tenants for failure to pay rent or failure to comply are not affected by a Just Cause Eviction Ordinance. It will create clarity for both landlords and tenants on what grounds can lead to an eviction.”
Some property owners expressed concern over restrictions that would limit their eviction abilities in regard to dangerous tenants.
One option discussed Thursday was to extend an emergency order to the end of year to give the committee time to study ‘just cause’ and its effects on the market, though doubt was expressed at the meeting that an end-of-year deadline for just cause was feasible.
It also was suggested that the new tenant rights plan currently under discussion could extend eviction notice time lines from 20 to 60 days.
Some tenants expressed frustration that any negotiating set-aside for “just cause” was unnecessary.
“I’m in support of ‘just cause,’” resident Carl Anderson told the committee. “Our shelters are full in Tacoma, and there’s no place for them to go. I’ve spoken on this issue to at least 10 people and they all said their first step to homelessness was a 20-day no cause eviction, so for that extend the notice but also support Just Cause.”
Amid the ongoing debate, Pierce County’s own real estate meter keeps ticking upward.
July's Northwest Multiple Listing Service report showed that outlying areas in the county are seeing some of the highest year-over-year home price increases at nearly 25 percent. Apartment rental rates show Seattle still in the top 10 for one-bedroom median rent prices at $1,960. Tacoma's median for one-bedroom apartments as of Aug. 4 was $1,263, up 4 percent over July.
The stakeholders group that is advising the Community Vitality and Safety Committee includes independent housing providers, housing provider associations, legal representatives for housing providers, independent tenants, tenants union, Housing Justice Project, Fair Housing Center of Washington and city staff.
In other committee business:
New figures were offered for relocation assistance for those below the 50-percent median income line, living on month-to-month leases and facing eviction for construction, demolition, substantial rehabilitation or change of use. At a previous session, the amount proposed was $2,000 for these qualifying candidates. The proposed amount at the latest meeting was revised upward to $3,899.69. Funding would be split evenly between the city and the rental property owners.
Earlier this year, the City Council approved assistance for Tiki Apartment residents after the building’s owner told the low-income renters they would have to move so new owners could start renovations.
Some former Tiki tenants were in attendance at Thursday’s meeting, including Sarah Howe, whose case helped draw regional media attention when the Tiki evictions were announced in April.
“I have a really good landlord now,” she told the committee. “For the first time in a long time I feel comfortable talking to the landlord asking for things to be done.”
Living for now in Lakewood, she plans eventually to move back to Tacoma. “I want to move back but I have dealt with discrimination issues and terrified for my life. Even if we don’t have Just Cause I am so grateful I feel at peace but I still worry.”
The next scheduled committee meeting is Aug 23.