Tacoma Tenant Organizing Committee - http://www.tacomatenants.org/ - Donna Seay, Tacoma Tenant Organizing Committee - tacoma@tenantsunion.org
- Started with homelessness since I was 8 – I was a product of the foster care system
- I was the first client that Sound Outreach helped in 2017 – I was housed – and had back surgery – and ended up in the Tiki Apartments (cue music foreshadowing impending doom. We really need a DJ providing a soundtrack for our meetings. –ed)
- I thought I was forgotten about and had lost hope in life (every social worker in the room’s pulse quickened and I’m sure the “but you weren’t forgotten and that is why I do what I do” thought was crossing their mind. –ed)
- When the eviction happened, we got a lot of media coverages. I’d been disabled since 2014 – Amy came and Molly showed up, and I didn’t even know my neighbors, and everything was going on, and the biggest thing was the the media came –people from the community that had no hand in it anything showed up.
- When I learned that there was something we could do, a leaned in with my loud voice
- I’d never been to the City Council, and we came in like a storm and got some resources (anyone that was there know that is the absolute truth. –ed)
- It stopped being about me – it was a team. We phone-banked, talked to people on the streets – and we found out this is huge. We told our stories and the City Council heard us, and a City Councilmember shed tears, and things started happening for us. I’m blessed to be here and hopeful for change.
- Molly Nichols - molly@futurewise.org
- Most of you know of recent protections we were able to get enacted:
- 120-day notice for displacement
- 60-day notice for other reasons
- No retaliation
- Used energy from this campaign for State-wide protections
- Amy – saw some of you at homelessness and housing advocacy day – we did some amazing advocacy work to get eviction reforms – which go into effect July 28th:
- Change from 3-day pay or vacate to 14-day pay or vacate (am I the only one that wants to call this a “fortnight pay or vacate”? I know, I’m a bad person – but it has a certain elegance that triad pay or vacate clearly lacks. And don’t even suggest threesome pay or vacate – because that doesn’t work, the 3 thing is gone anyway, and that is totally not appropriate for a family publication such as this. Pretend you didn’t read that, Timmy. –ed). Emergency rental assistance take more than 3 days, so time for the next paycheck to come or finding assistance will help
- More judicial discretion – if you have a medical emergency the judge can take that into account, for instance
- More laws allowing people to reinstate their tenancy (one thing about writing these notes – I now know how to spell tenancy without thinking. –ed). In the 14 day window (ahem – fortnight window –ed.) if folks can their rent paid off they can prevent homelessness.
- State-wide 60-day notice of rent increase (we could do threescore, but that does bring to mind Revelations 13 and the number of the best – Six hundred threescore and six. If you’re not reading revelations in the King James Version, you’re doing it wrong. –ed)
- 120-day notice of renovation or demolition (cxx-day notice? – OK, I don’t really have anything for 120. –ed).
- Did 8 workshops about rental rights – in Tacoma and statewide
- July 25th at peace community center – 2106 Cushman – we are very excited
- Also trained service provides on tenant rights – will send that out on the list – or come and talk to me – the more we all know the law, the better we help ourselves and give power to our clients
- Outreach to 5,000 tenants through door knocking, phone banking, social media, etc. Teaching about the tenant organizing and the code.
- Only the law can be enforced if the tenant knows the law and makes complaints – we worked hard to get protections, and now we need to make sure that folks know their rights. We realized in our first workshop, people had all sorts of questions about deposits and repairs and such.
- The focus of the City contract is outreach and education. The tenant organizing committee is also about changing the law.
- Advocacy efforts
- Just Cause – landlords needs a reason to terminate a lease. If the reason is just, go through a process to prove it. Otherwise, it seems like a way for discrimination
- We got close to this in Tacoma, it was added and removed from the final changes
- Landlords are doing a 20-day notice instead of the 14-day pay or vacate (venti-day notice – no that sounds too much like a coffee. –ed).
- We got really close in Olympia – Laurie Jinkins and Steve Kirby – thought it could make it through at the state level – it got out of the committee but didn’t make it to the floor, where it probably would have passed. There is a good push for this year.
- Retaliation and discrimination are illegal – but what do you do if you get a 60-day notice – and think the eviction was related to discrimination. If you file a fair housing complaint with the City, they will let the landlord know, and the City will ask for a hold on the lease termination. If the landlord doesn’t do that, then the tenant is on the street and have lost their home. (I’m sure this made sense when they said it, but my notes on this item seem rather confusing – sorry folks. –ed)
- Federal Way is running an initiative around Just Cause. King County Council is working on that as well. It is a growing effort. The Spokane office is working on it. It is a barrier, as landlords like that protection and will work against it.
- Rent controls
- Push in Seattle for this
- Want to repeal the Statewide ban and institute it across the State.
- Rent control can work statewide –
- All the work around addressing the crisis – the idea that we can just keep people in their homes is a top priority.
- (rent control is a very controversial topic – it often allows renters to stay in a unit much longer at a lower cost, but can cause an overall reduction in rental-unit supply, driving up rents for those looking to rent. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-01-18/yup-rent-control-does-more-harm-than-good shows this effect. However, rental rates are complex, and some dispute simple supply and demand conclusions drawn by economists, as in https://shelterforce.org/2018/03/28/rent-control-works/ . There are real pros and cons – it is a question of whether the benefits outweigh the costs. -ed).
- Just Cause and Rent Control together are compelling.
- We next meet August 12th, but usually is the first Monday of every month at First United Methodist Church – 621 Tacoma Ave – 5:30pm.
- Contact us by:
- Futurewise didn’t get funding to continue – so no longer a paid position to do tenant organizing.
- Marybeth - Thoughts on the new rent control law in Oregon – are there concerns it is too late? Molly - it is capped at 7% per year. That is a lot for folks on fixed income. Having it statewide is beneficial.
- Northwest rental assembly in the fall – have Oregon and Idaho and California folks come and talk about rent control.
- Statewide is a pretty big deal.
- Nate – when someone enters into a rental agreement, there is a requirement to get a packet of tenant rights. there is no requirements that it is understandable to a tenant. Molly – yes, it a set of rules about following the code.
- Jeremy – the recent laws just passed at the state level – I just received notice from a good friend in federal way – they are a big landlord company that just put out a big set of eviction notices before the new law goes into effect. Who is working in Federal Way? Joy – or in Kitsap? Molly – I think you are referring to FPI management, we are familiar with them and fight them a lot across the state – they are a California based company. Tenants union is state-wide – we have a small staff but will do rights workshops or if we have capacity we’ll do organizing campaigns - State hotline - 206-723-0500. Washington CAN in federal way does lots of renter rights work. Just got 10,000 signatures on their Just Cause initiative. In Kitsap, we’ve done some Know Your Rights workshops in Bremerton. We can also come out if you contact us, and do a workshop and see if there is potential for organizing. Working on a mobile tenant clinic.
- Theresa – Molly, when did you come to Tacoma? Molly – 2 years ago. Theresa – Molly has really challenged the City council – she has had a powerful impact and built relationships. The Council is honoring her this Tuesday.
- Questions – income requirements? Amy – we should talk about that. Even if they could afford it but didn’t have income of 3x rent. Income discrimination, on the state level and the municipalities, landlords must take 3rd party rental . The 3x can only count for the portion the tenant is responsible for. A landlord can say rent needs to be 3x or 4x or 5x someone’s income – they have the ability to set the rules.
- Joy – would the tenant organizing committee – working with a client – not quite sure how to help, but who helps landlords when they have a tenant with no other options that is no longer a safe tenant because of behavior. Molly – come check with both of us. ChiQuata Elder would be a good resource. APS is a good option as well (I’m assuming Adult Protective Services, not Antiphospholipid Syndrome).
- Tristia – is there an effort by your organization for a right to council? That is a critical piece for tenant rights movement. Molly – Laurie Jinkins was pushing for that – California or New York just got right to council . It makes perfect sense, but that doesn’t mean it will happen. Tristia – lawyers for tenants help balance the power. Amy – Tacoma Pro Bono – does work (Tacoma Pro Bono came and talked to us last year – minutes at https://www.pchomeless.org/MeetingMinutes/Details?id=65 –ed)
- Carolyn – do you work with landlords so they don’t operate out of fear? Molly – we had a stakeholder group working with the City on the protections. It can be challenging, though. For the landlords in the room it is a business space. For the tenants, it is a survival space. It can be challenging to bridge that, when it is such a difference. (love that comparison of business vs survival – central to so many of the conflicts we see. –ed) So many landlords are not slumlords and are following the law, but just because they are following the law doesn’t mean that everyone follows the law. We need to have the law protect tenants from the bad landlords.
- For the Just Cause campaign, if you get tenants that get no cause notices, have them make connect with our group. We need to have more people help us to make the case for eliminating no cause – just give them our information.
|
|