On Friday September 21st the Seattle Women’s Commission presented their report, Losing Home: The Human Cost of Eviction in Seattle, to my committee, the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development and Arts Committee. The Seattle Women’s Commission, in partnership with the Housing Justice Project (HJP), conducted research on the ways by which current policies and the practices of courts, landlords, attorneys and other private actors impact the mass eviction of low-income tenants in Seattle. The research looked at factors such as:
- as unpaid rent that triggers evictions
- how much additional debt in the ways of late fees, court costs, and attorneys’ fees, tenants accumulate as a result of eviction rulings
- how evictions affect tenant and family health
- where people go after being evicted.
The researchers did a manual review of all 1,218 residential eviction actions filed in Seattle in 2017 and gathered support data through surveys and interviews of tenants conducted in 2018. They also conducted interviews with homeless prevention providers, cross-referenced evictions with Medical Examiner’s records and examined the Department of Construction and Inspection records regarding code violations.
The researchers stress that the 1,218 evictions they reviewed do not comprise all of the evictions that occurred in Seattle in 2017, because many tenants leave before an eviction is filed.
A number of important findings came out of this research including:
- The most common reason a tenant faced eviction was for nonpayment of rent; of all nonpayment of rent cases, 86.5% of evictions filings were for nonpayment of rent and of these more than half (52.3%) were for one month or less in rent
- Women in single tenant households were more likely to be evicted over small amounts of money. Of the cases were a tenant owed $100 or less were 81% women.
- In general, people of color were more likely to be evicted for smaller amounts of money. Black tenants faced the greatest disproportionality; they represent 31.2% of tenant with evictions filed against them, 4 times their demographic proportion of the population.
- When tenants fall behind on rent due to an emergency they face very tight timelines to catch up before the eviction process begins. The majority of people (51.1%) received notices on or before the 9th day of the month, with only 3 days to pay after receiving a notice.
- 5% of evicted respondents became homeless; with 37.5% ending up unsheltered, 25% living in a shelter or transitional housing, and 25% staying with friends or family.
- When interviewed, tenants reported falling behind on rent because of loss of income (51.4%), a medical emergency (8.6%) and a death in the family (2.9%); 3% of respondents said that they could pay some, or all, of the rent owed.
The report also includes a number of recommendations. These recommendations are divided into 3 categories; make it possible to pay rent, improve the Landlord-Tenant Relationship and Rebalance the Scales of Justice. The recommendations include but are not limited to:
- Require Landlords to Offer Payment Plans
- Increase Time Period to Cure Nonpayment of Rent
- Expand Cohabiting Rights to Help Address Affordability
- Curb Abuses of Mutual Termination Agreements
- Increase Coordinated Funds for Legal Defense and Tenant Outreach Funds
- Provide Funding for an Eligible Guardian Ad Litem or Appointment of Counsel
You can read the sobering report in its entirety here. You can watch the Women’s Commission presentation at the 9.21 CRUEDA meeting here and find additional presentation materials here.
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