Eviction Ban: Not Compassionate, Not Needed, Not Legal

On Monday, December 9 at 2PM, legislation to ban evictions in “winter months” will be introduced. We have a chance to stop this misguided proposal before it moves any further.

There is no vote or hearing scheduled — yet. But in order to redirect the Council’s energies toward something useful, we need you to contact them. The text below is suggestion. You can amend it or you can just put your name and email in and push the “Send Now” button. And don’t worry about the date of December 9; they need to hear from you the whole month of December before they formally consider this, probably in January.

If you want to read more background on the proposal, go to the post about our letter that we sent to the City Council or email Roger at roger@seattleforgrowth.org.

Eviction Ban: Not Compassionate, not needed, not legal

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Dear Councilmember,

As a real estate professional I am dedicated to my customers and especially to people who need housing. There are thousands of us in Seattle that work to plan, finance, build, and manage most of the housing in this city. None of us wants to evict anyone, ever, period. Eviction is a last resort, expensive, and painful for anyone involved. However, the proposal before you is not going to help anyone and will expose the City and people who provide housing with increased risk. Furthermore, it is unfair to customers who work hard to pay their rent; what message does it send to those hard working people that their neighbors who don't pay rent get to keep living in their apartment? Worse, many evictions are not about rent at all; should we allow a person who has a drug lab in their apartment to stay through the "winter months." And if an amendment passes allowing this, where will these people with serious mental health and substance issues go? What plans does the Council have to help them? The fact is that there are few evictions in the city and many of them are done by non-profits and the housing authority. Because of the small numbers, the resources exist to identify people during the winter who might end up without anywhere to go and to offer them options. Support that effort to actually help people in need. Finally, this move isn't legal. You can't commandeer private property without compensation. Doing this would be a huge mistake. Thank you for considering this view.

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