Image
housing action
The Week in Housing Advocacy - Week 4

Share:

Michele Thomas, Director of Policy and Advocacy

Last Wednesday was Quite a Day!

The big event last week was Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee, which heard all three of the Housing Alliance’s priority tenant policy bills. Over 20 people showed up in Olympia before 8:00am to testify and to ask lawmakers to support the bills.

Fair Tenant Screening Act

The hearing started with the Fair Tenant Screening Act, HB 1257. Prime sponsor Representative Brady Walkinshaw (43rd LD-Seattle) opened up the hearing making several key points about the bill. He talked about how portable tenant screening reports are good for consumers. He also mentioned that even though industry always initially resists change, they end up adjusting. This is why the bill allows 18 months for the market to adjust to the change before the law goes into effect.

Many advocates testified to the importance of the bill including Ashley Albert, Kimberly Mays, and Thomas Green. These three testified at the committee hearing of the Senate version of the bill back in Week 2. At this hearing, Emerging Advocates Program grad and Real Change Vendor of the Year Susan Russell joined to share her personal story of experiencing housing barriers because of the repeated and high cost of tenant screening fees. Representative Steve Kirby (29th LD-Tacoma) expressed strong feelings of frustration with the tenant screening industry’s lack of movement on the issue over the years. It was an important moment in the hearing that you can watch below. Many of us who have been working for years to find a compromise solution that still adequately solves the problem share the representative’s frustration. Please click here send Rep. Kirby a quick note to thank him.

 

Truth in Evictions Reporting

Next up in the committee schedule was the Truth in Evictions Reporting Act or HB 1460, sponsored by Representative June Robinson (38th LD-Everett). This bill will regulate how evictions are reported. Rep. Robinson started by pointing out that she knew “of no other circumstance where you can go to court and then be treated for the rest of your life as if you were guilty.”

Right now, all evictions are reported as equal, no matter the outcome. Tenants can be wrongfully sued, prevail in court, be evicted by a bank because their landlord foreclosed, or reach a settlement with the landlord. But all these are reported as if the tenant actually lost. Susan Watchie Olden came to the committee to share how this issue has impacted her life. Years ago, a landlord wrongfully sued her, and she prevailed in court. The landlord had to pay her a settlement. She was able to continue renting the home until her son graduated from high school later that year. But the eviction on her record has closed door after door. Most landlords will categorically deny any tenant associated with an eviction lawsuit, and Susan is living this reality years after the eviction was filed.

Innocent tenants are marked for life because the court’s database keeps the records available to the public, even after the seven years in which a tenant screening company is not supposed to report on them. “Innocent until proven guilty” one of our country’s most foundational legal principles, is often denied to tenants. Merely being named marks you with a “scarlet letter” and closes many doors indefinitely. As Susan so succinctly pointed out, “I found at there is no such thing as exoneration when it comes to eviction court.” You can watch her entire testimony below.

 

Protections from Source of Income Discrimination

Finally, HB 1565 by Representative Timm Ormsby (3rd LD-Spokane) was up. This bill will outlaw discrimination based on a tenant’s use of rental assistance to pay a portion of their rent. Representative Ormsby perfectly outlined the need for the bill by pointing out that the legislation isn’t a form of rent control. Tenants will have to pay the rent, and meet all the other requirements. He also pointed out that last year, as a condition of the reauthorization of the homeless housing surcharge on real estate related documents that, 45% of the state’s portion of the revenue was mandated to be for private rental market vouchers. He said that “the state is a good faith participant in that rapid rehousing program that directs millions of dollars to private landlords and all we are asking for those landlords to be a good faith participant as well. All we are asking is that you can’t refuse to rent to someone or evict someone just because they are relying on government assistance such as disability or SSI. This promotes the mobility that we all wish we could have.”

The bill had a diverse group of supporters lined up to educate lawmakers on who is impacted by this discrimination, how it disparately impacts households at high risk of discrimination and, in the case of one landlord, why participating in the federal Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program is good for both tenants and landlords alike.

Tamra Gray, a veteran from Longview, shared her remarkable story of experiencing homelessness with her children and the many doors that were closed to her once she obtained tenant-based rental assistance from Longview Housing Authority. After she finally secured housing, she was able to recover and stabilize her life, moving on to secure a job with Longview Housing Authority where she assists other vets who are experiencing the housing struggles she so recently experienced herself. You can watch her testimony below.

 

East King County tenant Nina Caso submitted written testimony to the committee members with her story:

“Every place I called, I was immediately told that they do not take Section 8. I called about 30-40 places and even with my monthly income of $1500, a clean criminal record with no evictions and good rental history, I was still denied every time. Eventually I was going to give up, but decided to try and drive around to look at places around Bellevue. The first place I went to was called Castle Creek. They were happy to accept me and I am still living here now and loving it.

My experience was extremely challenging and frustrating at first and I was going to give up because everywhere I turned I was told no for no reason whatsoever – at least none that I could control. I wanted to move on with my life, but I was prevented from doing so for an extra 3 months. Please pass HB 1565 so that I won’t hear “We don’t take Section 8” next time I have to move, and make it easier for other renters like me to find a place to live too.”

 

Highlights for This Week

Next week will be the fifth week of the session, which means we are already over 1/4 of the way through! February 20, the first cutoff date of the long session, is just around the corner. The first cutoff requires that all bills must be voted out of their policy committee in their house of origin, or be “dead” for the session. For example, SB 5123 (Frockt), the Fair Tenant Screening Act, must be voted out of the Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee by the 20th in order to continue its path to becoming law.

The Senate version of the Truth in Evictions Reporting Act, SB 5376 is up for a hearing on Wednesday the 11th at 1:30 in the Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee. At a press conference on the first week of session, the prime sponsor, Senator Cyrus Habib (48th LD-Medina) had this to say about the bill, “Many of us do believe that you ought to be given second chances in life...a fresh start...But that's not what's happening in reality. For me, this is a due process issue...and problem. It's kind of like a zombie eviction. It just keeps coming back to life even though it's been slayed in court.”

Show your support for this and the other important tenant bills by clicking here to quickly send an email to your lawmakers today.
And please take an extra second to personalize it, which makes your email even more effective!

Lastly, if you haven’t yet registered for Housing and Homelessness Advocacy Day, make sure you do so today! You won’t want to miss this valuable and energizing advocacy experience. You will join 600 other advocates to both learn more about the issues and to educate lawmakers on the importance of this year’s affordable housing and homelessness agenda. Learn more and register here.

Image

 


 

Share:

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
CAPTCHA