It’s a pretty simple story. A new owner buys a building that has run down from an owner who used the deferred maintenance as a subsidy for lower rents. Often the buildings are so run down they don’t meet City standards for heal the and safety. So the new owner has to make repairs and the only way to pay for those is a rent increase. The headline here should be, “New Owner Buys Old, Run Down Building and Will Fix it Up.” But this is Seattle and it’s an election year.

Instead of offering help to tenants the new owner of 6511 Rainier Councilmembers O’Brien and Sawnant will protest in front of the new owners offices this morning in a totally pointless gesture to score some political points. The truth is that the owner, Columbia City Condos,” is doing the right thing. But you wouldn’t know that if you listened the noise coming out of City Hall.

Sadly, no help has been offered to help tenants and nothing has been offers to help make the repairs. They’ll be done by the owners and the residents will get a month’s free rent. That’s what’s really happening. But in the fantasy world at City Hall, the problems of tenants are being caused by the new owner trying to make improvements.

What Councilmember’s Sawant and O’Brien and Sawant should be proposing in the upcoming budget discussions is a fund to help the new owners make the repairs and pass the savings on to the tenants. Otherwise the new owner has no choice but to increase the rents to help cover necessary costs.

Deferred maintenance often creates more affordable units, but new owners who have to raise rents to make improvements are doing it out of necessity to make the buildings habitable. The City, if it wants to help keep rents low in buildings sold with deferred maintenance needs a program to help with needed repairs.

Here’s the statement sent out of the press ahead of the protest:

Statement from Carl Haglund of Columbia City Condos on his desire to fix up the old building he recently purchased at 6511 Rainier Ave.
“We sincerely apologize for the condition of the building that our company recently purchased. The company’s intent, ever since buying the building two months ago, is to make this a desirable place to live.

But some of the units are in a worse state of repair than we understood. Even though Columbia City Condos didn’t let the building deteriorate, we take full responsibility moving forward as the new owners.

We have decided to give the current tenants free rent during the month of October. This should give them some time and money, should they understandably decide to relocate.

A slumlord would continue to rent these really cheap apartments in their current condition, whether or not they need repairs. I want to make it clear this is not who I am, nor is this how Columbia City Condos operates. We are in the business of providing safe housing at market rents.

I recently purchased the building and was told prior to doing so that the building had passed the city’s own Rental Registration and Inspection Ordinance. But clearly that process is broken because I found when I took possession that multiple families were living in each of the units in conditions not suitable for Columbia City Condos. This is surprising now that I have seen the condition of the units. I was as shocked as anyone at the condition of the building after taking over.

Columbia City Condos is not kicking anyone out. We have to charge market rents, and our repairs will include exterior repairs as well.

We intend to keep this as workforce housing.

Most of these renters are very hard working people who are working night and day to send money back home. Many are larger families in the apartments.

We are going to do repairs to keep it clean comfortable workforce housing, and will try to accommodate larger groups so that it remains affordable when split among different adults.

Our intention is to take responsibility, and turn this around.”

Facts about 6511 Rainer

• The conditions were present when Columbia City Condos bought the property at the end of July of 2015. The new owner has only had possession of the property since then.
• Haglund was on out of the country during August, and is learning some details about this situation along with everyone else
• The prior owners rented out apartments for as little as $550 per month. This is not sustainable, and is obvious given the flagging condition of the units.
• Rents were raised with the required 60-day notice to 1,175 for 2-bedroom units and 900 for 1-bedroom units.
• Of 13 units that received 60 days notice – 10 tenants are choosing to stay since we allow very large groups of tenants to occupy the units and this works for those families
• As a part of the purchase agreement, the building was to pass the inspection that certified the building met the City’s housing standards.
• We were just as shocked as everyone else when we saw the condition of the building; the purchase of the property was finalized while we were out of the country for 5 weeks.
• Only 2 requests for work orders received from the time of the purchase until 10/1/15.
• We deeply apologize for the conditions at the building that we did not create; our team is working full time to resolve the conditions at the building.
• We will not implement the rent increases until the work to meet inspection is finished.
• Although the building repairs don’t meet the threshold for relocation assistance, we hope the free rent for a month gives the tenants some time.
• When new owners take over a building in this kind of disrepair it takes time to get it into better shape. The assertions being made by Councilmember Sawant are false and leave the impression that the conditions of the building have gone on under the current owner. That’s not true.
• It’s unfortunate the Councilmember Sawant is scoring political points instead of working to improve the conditions in rental units all over the city by advocating for resources to make improvements to meet the new standards without having to raise rents. She has made real attempt at seeking a solution with Columbia City Condos, and has instead decided to use it as political fodder for her grandstanding