The purpose of Tenants' Bill of Rights is to prevent landlords from being able to evict tenants without cause. | Canva
The purpose of Tenants' Bill of Rights is to prevent landlords from being able to evict tenants without cause. | Canva
Seattle City Council member Tammy Morales has introduced the first part of a package of legislation intended to protect tenants in the city.
The first part of the Tenants’ Bill of Rights would prohibit tenants from being evicted without just cause.
“It is alongside these neighbors, advocates, organizers and organizational leaders that my office is developing a Tenants' Bill of Rights this year,” said Morales in a press conference. “Today I’m unveiling the first piece of this Tenants' Bill of Rights package: a simple fix to our city’s Just Cause Eviction Ordinance that will ensure all tenants, regardless where they are in their lease term, will be protected from the threat of a no-fault, no-cause removal from their homes.”
Tammy Morales
| Seattle.gov
Current law still allows landlords to refuse to renew a lease without having to provide a reason, Morales said.
“This is a situation that just doesn’t align with the values and with the mission of the Seattle City Council in making sure we are protecting renters,” she said.
New legislation introduced by Morales would require landlords to offer either lease renewal or month-to-month rental contracts at the end of the lease term.
“Finally, after 40 years, Seattle renters would be fully protected from a no-cause lease termination,” she said. “We’re just trying to close that gap once and for all.”
However, the legislation is not intended to make life harder for landlords, the councilwoman said.
“It’s about trying to make life easier and more stable for people in Seattle who rent their homes. We’ve seen during COVID that renters' lives are precarious. Many don’t benefit from generational wealth. In fact, only 26% of black families and only 27% of Latinos in Seattle are homeowners,” Morales said.
Those statistics can be tied directly to “historic racist covenants, redlining and other discriminatory housing practices,” she said. When tenants pay rent, it “contributes to somebody else’s wealth, not to their own.”
Other bills in the tenants' protection package will be introduced later this month, according to Morales. The bill could be considered and voted on at the May 25 City Council meeting.
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