Olympia City Council passes emergency renter protections
The Olympia City Council passed an emergency ordinance Tuesday evening that provides more protections for renters who’ve fallen behind on payments because of the economic impact of COVID-19.
In addition to preventing most eviction filings, it also bans late fees and sets terms for landlords to offer “reasonable” repayment plans for back rent owed through July 2021.
Council members introduced the ordinance last week, before Gov. Jay Inslee announced the extension of his statewide eviction moratorium through the end of 2020. Olympia’s new protections are likely set to outlast the Governor’s – they stay in place as long as there continues to be a state of emergency declared in Washington, but no longer than one full year.
The unpredictability of Gov. Inslee’s “piecemeal” executive orders — he’s now extended the eviction moratorium four times — partially motivated the city to take its own action, council member Jessica Bateman said at last week’s session.
“I do think it’s important for us to take this step because it’s one added layer of consistency that we can provide for people and assurance that they know [they won’t be evicted],” Bateman said.
Other council members agreed that with the economy unlikely to recover in the near future, Olympia’s renters — who make up 54% of the city’s households — will remain at continual risk of eviction.
“None of us know how many households will struggle financially in the coming months, or how long this will go on, or whether we’ll see additional federal assistance,” said council member Clark Gilman, who added that the ordinance is intended to spur landlords to seek alternatives to eviction. “All of us know that shelter is a basic human need, and all of us know that evictions are expensive, disruptive, and take a toll, both on the resident and the property owner.”
Unpaid rent is not ‘enforceable debt’
Olympia’s new protections are modeled on a King County ordinance that passed in June. Rather than a blanket moratorium like Gov. Inslee’s order, Olympia’s ordinance contains a set of directives that broadly prevent landlords from treating unpaid rent as an “enforceable debt obligation.”
It aims to do this in two ways. First, it prevents landlords from filing for eviction for nonpayment of rent during the Washington state of emergency, if the tenant’s inability to pay is in some way related to the pandemic and associated economic recession.
It also prohibits landlords from taking punitive actions to collect unpaid rent, such as withholding a security deposit, reporting to credit bureaus, or “attempts to collect, or threats to collect through a collection agency.”
The second part is less clear. If a landlord does file for eviction, the ordinance states that inability to pay rent due to the economic impact of COVID-19 should be a valid legal defense against eviction, provided the connection can be proven “by a preponderance of the evidence.” However, it’s unclear if the city has the jurisdiction to direct Thurston County Superior Court, which adjudicates eviction cases, to comply with that directive.
As it stands, the Governor’s order prohibits landlords from issuing pay or vacate notices or filing for eviction based solely on unpaid rent. The court is hearing other eviction cases, however — the governor’s order provides exceptions if a tenant poses a health and safety threat or if the landlord plans to sell or occupy the unit and has issued a 60-day notice. There were 10 cases of this type filed in September, Thurston County Superior Court records show.
Finally, the council’s ordinance sets parameters for what a “reasonable repayment plan” should look like — a phrase the governor’s order included but did not define — and prohibits late fees from being assessed, unless the renter defaults on their repayment plan for any reason other than the economic impact of COVID-19.
Repayment plans must allow tenants to pay owed rent accrued from March 2020 through July 2021 in installments, with monthly payments of no more than one-third of the total owed rent. Tenants must be given until October 2021 to pay the total owed rent.
The ordinance was first presented to council last week, then sent back to the Land Use Committee to make changes to the language regarding late fees. In the new version of the bill, late fees will still be prohibited during the state of emergency, but can be assessed if a tenant defaults on their payment plan, which will begin in July 2021.
At last week’s council session, five members of the public spoke in support of the ordinance. Two people spoke against it, and one person wanted the time period to be shortened.
“We’re all sort of following those guidelines anyway, but it’s hard to know when COVID will end,” said Todd Monohon, owner of Olympic Rental and Landlord Services, a local property management company. “It makes it tough to work with people who are recalcitrant or just simply will not pay.”
Monohon said 99% of tenants have been trying to pay as best they can, but a very small minority he believes have been “taking advantage” of the current moratorium.
C Davis, a Republican candidate for Thurston County Commissioner, called the ordinance “theft of property.”
The ordinance’s supporters included Ty Brown, a tenant organizer with Washington Community Action Network and a member of Black Leaders in Action and Solidarity (BLAST), which included a “non-possessory rent ordinance” in a list of demands to local elected officials they presented at a press conference in July.
“In the course of five years, I know of many friends who have been evicted into homelessness or depending on friends and family due to the barriers and high living costs in Olympia,” Brown said.
Brown pointed to the racial disparities in rental debt across the state as further reason to take action, framing the protections as a racial equity imperative.
“Protecting renters from eviction is a way to undo historical anti-black racist policies and other policies that have harmed BIPOC communities,” Brown said.
U.S. Census Bureau data show that Black and Latino renters in Washington are falling behind at rates of 3-5 times that of white renters.
Meanwhile, in Spokane, the city council has indefinitely deferred a vote on similar emergency renter protections.
This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
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