Housing advocates team up to help renters understand their recently expanded rights

As Wash­ing­ton State moves clos­er to its planned June 30th ces­sa­tion of COVID-19 relat­ed restric­tions, hous­ing advo­cates are doing all they can to ensure that renters are pro­tect­ed from being kicked out of their homes, espe­cial­ly in the event that the evic­tion mora­to­ri­um cur­rent­ly in place is allowed to expire.

On May 28th, the Wash­ing­ton Low Income Hous­ing Alliance offered a webi­nar to explain the new statewide ten­ant pro­tec­tions that pro­gres­sive orga­ni­za­tions worked hard to get enact­ed into law. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Ten­ants Union of Wash­ing­ton State, the King Coun­ty Hous­ing Jus­tice Project, and the North­west Jus­tice Project all spoke as part of the pro­gram. The webi­nar was record­ed, and can be watched on demand at any time by click­ing the play but­ton below.

If you don’t have time to watch the webi­nar, here’s a read­out of the event.

Ter­ri Ander­son from Ten­ants Union of Wash­ing­ton State began the webi­nar with some back­ground on issues sur­round­ing ten­an­cy in Washington.

Ander­son not­ed that due to the pan­dem­ic, renters have expe­ri­enced sub­stan­dard liv­ing con­di­tions and increased risk of evic­tion. Addi­tion­al­ly, Black and Brown fam­i­lies are at greater risk of becom­ing home­less because of eviction.

Vallen Solomon of the King Coun­ty Hous­ing Jus­tice Project then sum­ma­rized the ben­e­fits of House Bill 1236, which Gov­er­nor Inslee signed the bill into law on May 10th, 2021. Cham­pi­oned and prime spon­sored by State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Nicole Macri, this bill requires land­lords to state a rea­son before evict­ing someone.

HB 1236 aims to pro­tect res­i­den­tial ten­ants from the begin­ning to end of their ten­an­cies by penal­iz­ing the inclu­sion of unlaw­ful lease pro­vi­sions and lim­it­ing the rea­sons for evic­tion, refusal to con­tin­ue, and termination.

Next, Mered­ith Bruch from North­west Jus­tice Project gave an overview of right to attor­ney leg­is­la­tion for evict­ed indi­vid­u­als. She began by stat­ing that there is no absolute right to coun­sel, it is depen­dent on the avail­abil­i­ty of funding.

Right to coun­sel also does not apply to the medi­a­tion stage.

Cur­rent­ly, OCLA (the Office of Civ­il Legal Aid) is dis­pers­ing more fund­ing to legal aid providers and vol­un­teer lawyer programs.

They plan to cre­ate a new evic­tion defense screen­ing line with one pri­ma­ry point of intake to smooth out bureau­crat­ic issues.

To be eli­gi­ble for these ser­vices, you must be “an indi­gent ten­ant in an unlaw­ful detain­er pro­ceed­ing”. OCLA has already approved the hir­ing of attor­neys in sev­er­al areas of the state, but ramp­ing up this process will take time.

Tam­my Artzen of North­west Jus­tice Project out­lined the repay­ment plans under the cur­rent evic­tion mora­to­ri­um (20–19.6).

These repay­ment plans apply to “rent and oth­er charges” as a result of COVID-19 and dur­ing a state of emer­gency until the mora­to­ri­um ends.

There are a few vari­a­tions of this type of plan, how­ev­er, all of them have a com­mon con­tin­gency of ‘rea­son­able­ness’.

Repay­ment plans must be rea­son­able for the ten­ant, although rea­son­able is nev­er clear­ly defined, leav­ing a loop­hole in legal jargon.

Artzen advised that ten­ants on a repay­ment plan make a bud­get, be clear about their cir­cum­stances, apply for assis­tance, and com­mu­ni­cate in writing.

Next, Mered­ith Bruch intro­duced the Evic­tion Res­o­lu­tion Pro­gram (ERP).

ERP began in King, Clark, Pierce, Thurston, Sno­homish, and Spokane coun­ties and may expand to oth­ers depend­ing on fund­ing from the Office of the Admin­is­tra­tor of the Courts (OAC) and buy-ins from local supe­ri­or courts via local order.

How­ev­er, ERP adop­tion is not mandatory.

Once the evic­tion mora­to­ri­um is lift­ed, all land­lords in the above coun­ties are required to par­tic­i­pate before they can file rent-relat­ed evictions.

Ten­ant par­tic­i­pa­tion, how­ev­er, is voluntary.

Local state Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion Cen­ters (DRC) will han­dle the case process.

Bruch then out­lined some ten­ant cautions.

Ten­ants must respond with­in four­teen days of their first notice from the DRC.

Addi­tion­al­ly, ten­ants should only agree to a pay­ment plan that they know they can keep. Arntzen briefly named three pro­tec­tions against hous­ing denial. They are: no late fees, report­ing under­paid rent, and med­ical his­to­ry inquiry.

Last­ly, Vallen Solomon con­clud­ed the brief­ing by explain­ing what the evic­tion process will look like after the mora­to­ri­um is lift­ed. Solomon said peo­ple can be evict­ed once the mora­to­ri­um expires if they are being evict­ed for rental debt pri­or to March 1st (2020), if they are being evict­ed for non-rent, or if they have default­ed or refused a pay­ment plan that meets SB 5160’s requirements.

In cas­es with debt pri­or to March 1st, 2020, land­lords do not need to offer an addi­tion­al repay­ment plan nor do they need to go through mediation.

Addi­tion­al­ly, in the event of a non-rent relat­ed evic­tion, land­lords do not need to show proof of a pay­ment plan as set out in SB 5160.

With respect to non-pay­ment evic­tions after the mora­to­ri­um ends, SB 5160 requires land­lords offer the ten­ant a repay­ment plan and medi­a­tion. Solomon says it is unclear how long the evic­tion process will take at this point. There are many com­pli­cat­ing fac­tors that can impact the entire process, like set cal­en­dar caps, DRC lim­its on case­load, right to coun­sel, and oth­er unknowns.

As men­tioned, Gov­er­nor Inslee has yet to extend the evic­tion mora­to­ri­um past June 30th, though NPI and oth­er orga­ni­za­tions have request­ed that he do so.

With ten­ants who are deal­ing with non-rent and non-pay­ment fac­ing an uncer­tain future, it is essen­tial that pro­gres­sive orga­ni­za­tions work togeth­er to help renters under­stand their new­ly expand­ed rights and legal options.