Support the State’s Rent Relief Program — But With Improvements

The good news is that the Washington State Commerce Department is planning a $100 million rent relief program to help offset unpaid rent resulting from COVID-19 interventions (including the impacts of eviction bans). The bad news is that the program has too many limits, including on income, and is not easy to access. You can read about the program and it’s details here and here. In the email below, we recommend improvements to the program. Take a look and please send your thoughts TODAY. The due date for your thoughts is end of business Monday, July 13th.

Rent Relief Should Be Efficient And Easy To Access

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Dear Jeff,

As a housing provider in Washington, I appreciate the opportunity to comment on the Commerce Department’s proposed rental assistance program that will use funds from the CARES Act. This program is exactly the right approach to preventing housing instability created by COVID-19 response at the state and local level. From the very beginning, COVID-19 housing impacts were and continue to be on household income, not eviction. IF THIS RENT RELIEF PROGRAM WORKS, WE DON'T NEED AN EVICTION BAN. Please let the current ban expire. Comments on the Proposed Program Efficiency is compassionate – In general, we think the money should skip any third parties and go directly to distressed households and housing providers. Set No Income limits – Unpaid rent whether from households at 80 or 30 percent of AMI still impacts the ability of housing providers to manage and operate their properties. Every dollar of unpaid rent should be considered equally harmful to the overall economy. Organizational grants – Allow direct application by residents to Commerce for relief, and please allow housing providers to seek this relief on behalf of their residents. Full payment – The program should pay all unpaid rent across the entire housing economy to reduce the risk of future investment in housing creation and do this without strings attached. Pay rent for future and ongoing COVID-19 impacts – Providing for future COVID-19 impacts on income means less stress and impact on residents worried about next months rent and will reduce risk and allow housing providers to remain financially sound. If the Commerce Department resolves to keep the general structure of this program, we would request that you create a $20 million set aside to parallel this program. This parallel program would, o Allow direct application for relief by residents and providers or would allow joint applications; o Eliminate any income requirements and distribute relief based on demonstrated COVID-19 impacts and unpaid rent; o Pay all rent owed minus late fees or penalties with no collection action taken on paid amounts; o Make full payments within 7 days of approval of assistance; and o Include rigorous evaluation to compare the efficiency of both programs and their impact on reducing unpaid rent.

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2020: We Still Have A Long Way To Go

This is the text from our latest newsletter. Please consider making a contribution today so we can keep up our advocacy efforts. Thank you!

This year may go down as the longest one in our lifetimes. .

We’re only about half way through: What’s next?
My biggest concern on the horizon is rent “forgiveness,” the idea that people who have not paid rent shouldn’t ever have to pay it back. Let’s look at what we’ve done so far this year to push back on bad interventions and policy:

• Opposed eviction bans before they were imposed 
• Filed an ethics complaint against Councilmember Sawant for encouraging rent strikes;
• Pushed against extensions of existing eviction bans; 
• Worked to let bans expire and advocated for evictions for Elective Non-Payers;
• Worked for property tax relief;
• Convened and participated on numerous online meetings and calls with housing providers and officials;
• Conducted a survey of unpaid rent in the Puget Sound area (it’s a growing problem);
• Proposed federal legislation for rent relief in ongoing stimulus funding packages; and
• Continued our effort to expose the facts about the non-existant “eviction crisis.”

WE NEED A SINGLE MINDED FOCUS ON UNPAID RENT AND HOW WE RECOVER IT.

While it might feel satisfying, a legal challenge is not the right path for us to take. In short, legal challenges are expensive, don’t usually yield quick results, and often even successful challenges don’t yield wide spread relief. And often the results, not known for months or even years, can be ambiguous or even bad. 

Most importantly, the public perception will be that housing providers are NOT experiencing pain: they have enough money to sue to evict people! 
Win or lose, a legal challenge without a larger, comprehensive strategy only reenforces the narrative that led to such thoughtless imposition of eviction bans in the first place. 

Please support our efforts with a contribution today!
It took many years for us to wind up in a world where people who build, manage, and operate housing are the bad guys. Undoing that isn’t going to happen overnight or just with legal challenges.

We’re looking at what happens to rental housing in the future; will private rental housing survive? Without your help, we can’t continue a thoughtful and strategic approach, one that has a chance of long term and sustainable success!

If you have given, THANK YOU!

If you haven’t, or it has been awhile, please click the button below and give online. Or, if you need to mail a check, send it to Laura Parducci at NWCREI, 117 E. Louisa PMB 185, Seattle, WA 98102

Thank you for your work and efforts to create and provide housing for people during one of the most difficult years in our lifetimes!

Is Property Tax Relief on the Way? That’s Up to You.

Well, it is up to you to support property tax relief. But only the Washington State Legislature can make it a reality. King County Assessor John Wilson has a proposal that would allow easier and fair reductions in property value to reflect the impact of COVID-19 response. You can read the whole explanation right here, below.

Lowered property values and the resulting benefits of lower taxes might eventually make their way to hard hit housing providers. But here’s the key part of Wilson’s proposal,

State law allows assessors to adjust taxable values if the property is damaged by a natural disaster, but not because of a pandemic. Wilson wants to expand the law to cover impacts as a result of governmental restrictions enacted during a public health pandemic.

From the press release, emphasis mine

Wilson’s proposal would allow more relief and sooner to take account of the impacts of COVID-19. But legislative leaders need to hear from you now. Please send them a message using the form below.

Support Assessor Wilson's Property Tax Relief Proposal

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First Name

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Dear Legislative Leadership

I am writing to you as a housing provider concerned about the long lasting impacts of COVID-19 response to my efforts to continue providing housing for people in Washington state. Hard hit families and individuals have experienced lags in unemployment and other benefits. Along with this, eviction bans imposed by the state and local government have resulted in increases in delinquent rent. Rent is how I pay for maintenance and operations, amenities, health and safety measures, and, ultimately, property taxes. Please support efforts by King County Assessor John Wilson to offer property tax relief for housing providers like me and my residents. We have come together in this difficult time to work with residents as some of them have struggled with lost income and uncertainty. This has come at a real cost and Assessor Wilson's proposal to allow revaluation of property and reduction in tax obligations to reflect the gravity of the impacts on the housing economy. As the Assessor said in his announcement, “If we’d been hit by a massive earthquake, flood or tsunami, state law would give us tools to reset fair values, but the law doesn’t cover a pandemic like COVID-19,” said Wilson. “It’s just not fair to smack some of these hard-hit businesses and [housing providers] with values set well before COVID-19 raced through the community." Some of us spend as much as 25 percent of our operating budget on taxes including property taxes. To keep paying this share along with facing difficulty and state and local mandates for payment plans on delinquent rents isn't realistic, especially if there is a future outbreak that causes more impacts. During any special session we'd ask that the Assessor's proposal be passed quickly and without any amendment or ornamentation that would slow or condition the tax relief to our hard hit communities. Thank you for listening,

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Inslee Extends Eviction Ban for 60 Days

Earlier today, in spite of several conversations with his staff and over 500 emails sent by housing providers from across the state, Governor Jay Inslee extended the eviction ban with no provision to allow for action of people who aren’t paying but have income. We continue to gather data on how many Elective Non-Payers (ENPs) there are and how much rent is still owed due to the COVID-19 epidemic and the eviction bans imposed at the state and local level.

While the ban does allow eviction in cases when a person wants to move into their own property or to sell a unit, the new moratorium is silent on any requirements to substantiate impact from COVID-19 — in fact the new document seems to increase the danger of even talking with a resident who is not paying. This language was probably written by the Attorney General who has been aggressive about “threats” to raise rent or evict. What is a threat? Who wants to get sued by Bob Ferguson find out?

We will continue to learn as much as we can about the ENP problem and push to resist efforts to “forgive” unpaid rent, something that is sure to become the next issue we face. You can read the full document extending the ban below.

Governor Inslee, Mayor Durkan: Let Bans Expire or Make Changes

It’s time to write more emails. The statewide and Seattle ban on evictions are set to expire on June 4th. They should just do that, expire. If the the Governor and Mayor decide to extend them they need to reduce the uncertainty created by rational people who are spending their income on other needs and not paying rent. The delinquency time bomb is ticking, and as commercial tenants and residents who can pay hold back cash, we’re setting up the housing sector for a disaster. Here’s our press release we sent out along with the message we sent to the Governor and Mayor.

So here is your chance, again, to communicate to the people making these decisions. Go to the link below and send our message or write your own.

Let Bans Expire or Allow Evictions for Non-Payers