The Kent City Council will consider adopting laws to help low-income residents find and stay in rental housing.
It’s only discussion so far, but the council has directed city staff to find ways to reduce the barriers low-income residents face to find adequate housing to rent in a climate of low vacancy rates and higher costs.
“One of our biggest challenges is we have so many low-income apartments in our community,” Councilman Jim Berrios said at the council’s Economic and Community Development Committee meeting on Sept. 12. “I think it’s important we look at something we can do to help as opposed to doing nothing because there is so much out there that’s an issue, and the sooner the better.”
City staff presented the committee of Berrios, Bill Boyce and Tina Budell with three potential options:
• Adopt laws prohibiting housing discrimination based on source of income
These protections, similar to laws adopted by the cities of Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond and Seattle, ensure families who pay rent with a housing subsidy or other legal sources of supplemental income can more easily secure a safe and healthy home.
City staff noted that many individuals and families face outright or unintentional discrimination by landlords unwilling to rent to people who depend on government subsidies such as Housing Choice (Section 8) vouchers; seniors relying on Social Security income; veterans utilizing housing subsidies; and people with disabilities who receive government income.
• Expand tenant protections
Similar to the city of Seattle, tenants would receive 60 days written notice for a rent increase of 10 percent or more in a 12-month period.
Because rent control is illegal in the state, landlords can raise the rent as much as they see fit as long as they comply with the appropriate notice period. In month-to-month leases, landlords only need to provide 30 days written notice to increase rent. State law, however, allows a landlord to evict a tenant without cause with a 20-day written notice.
• Enact a proactive rental inspection program
Cities such as Tukwila, Pasco, Seattle, Lakewood and Bellingham have programs in place. Kent city staff noted Tukwila adopted such a program in 2011 and that city officials report fewer tenant-landlords complaints.
The inspection programs are designed to protect tenants by encouraging proper maintenance of rental housing. The city inspections identify and require correction of substandard housing conditions, and to prevent deterioration and blight that could impact the quality of life for residents.
“There are options that other cities have chosen to enact,” said Merina Hanson, city interim co-director of Parks, Recreation and Community Services. “Ideally, this would be addressed at the county or state level rather than city by city, but these are problems residents are facing now.”
City staff has heard from residents about landlords who won’t rent to someone because they have a housing voucher or force people to relocate who have housing vouchers, Hanson said.
“There are no protections now in our city,” Hanson said about such incidents.
“The (state) landlord-tenant act is very complicated,” Hanson said to the committee. “The city falls under state law because we do not have our own regulations like the city of Seattle does.”
Budell wants the city to take steps to help tenants.
“I like the idea of an annual rental inspection that will give the renters a little bit of piece of mind,” Budell said. “If a tenant is treating it like their home, they should have some protection.”
City Attorney Tom Brubaker told the committee that the three options could be something the city could do to make some impact.
“But I don’t want to raise your hopes there’s any quick remedy out there,” he said.
The committee didn’t set any timeline for coming up with answers, but directed staff to further look into what steps the city could take to help tenants.
“We will come back with more dialogue and go from there,” Boyce said. “We understand we have a lot of good landlords who provide good service, with one bad apple it’s not like they all are bad. But if there is something we can do a little bit and enforce it, we need to do the research and come back together.”
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