Tacoma renters are fed up — for good reason. This initiative wants to change that | Opinion
The horror stories have become commonplace, not the stuff of local legend, but of cruel economic reality.
The massive rent hikes. The absurd going rate for a tiny apartment. The thousands and thousands of dollars required at move-in, between deposits and other exorbitant, exploitative fees.
Then there’s the universally terrifying sentiment even among the lucky: One bad break, one circumstance changed, and it could be me with nowhere to go.
You don’t need a newspaper columnist to tell you that being a renter in Tacoma is precarious — if not downright terrifying. Going back only to the start of the pandemic, average rents have skyrocketed, increasing by roughly 20% across the city, according to most estimates. At the same time, the market rate for an apartment — which, as of late last year, was roughly $1,200 a month for a one-bedroom — feels like a bad joke. If it’s not enough to scare the bejesus out of you, and confirm in your mind how perverse and twisted the current housing market is, you should probably count your blessings.
So, it was no surprise when, in February, a group of local activists associated with Tacoma’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Tacoma for All campaign filed Initiative 2023-01 — otherwise known as the Tenant Bill of Rights.
If it’s eventually approved by Tacoma voters, the hard-hitting civic maneuver would essentially bypass the City Council, seeking to establish a host of strong, new tenant protections — including restrictions on rent hikes and limits on cold-weather evictions — that proponents say would go a long way toward evening a badly tilted playing field.
The initiative — which comes as Tacoma begins considering changes to its rental housing code — needs roughly 4,000 valid signatures, according to city officials. If it collects enough, the City Council could vote in July to adopt the ordinance as is, or more likely, forward it to the November ballot.
If that happens, Tacoma voters will face a weighty decision:
Is the sweeping Tenant Bill of Rights — and the additional regulations it would create for area landlords — a justified response, given the realities of the current housing crisis?
Or, is it a heavy-handed approach that targets the wrong people, with the potential to do more harm than good?
According to campaign manager Ty Moore, Tacoma’s Tenant Bill of Rights initiative effort has been successfully fundraising and has earned the strong backing of local unions.
It lays the groundwork for a formidable movement, even with the pushback the initiative is sure to receive from local landlords and their lobbyists, Moore said.
“All across the country, and especially in our region, home prices are just spiraling out of control … and incomes certainly have not kept up with,” said Moore, a 45-year-old Stadium District homeowner who serves as campaign manager for the initiative effort. “By no means do we think of it as a fix-all solution, but it will put in place some important protections that will help give tenants a little bit more leverage and a little bit more power in a housing economy that right now puts most of the cards in the hands of landlords.”
Moore’s not joking. Modeled after tenant protections considered in a number of neighboring cities, including Seattle, the Tenant Bill of Rights initiative would require landlords to provide six month’s notice of all rent hikes, pay relocation assistance if someone is displaced by a rent increase of more than 5% and put in place strict limits on move-in fees — and that’s just the start.
Among other things, it would also prevent the eviction of students and their families during the school year, and anyone between November and April, when it’s cold outside.
“This initiative would bring Tacoma up to the highest standards in the state, and would allow tenants here to enjoy the same protections that thousands of tenants across our region already enjoy,” Moore said. “I don’t think any of it is overly or unreasonably onerous, and I think landlords that are generally doing right by their tenants will be able to meet these standards without a lot of trouble.”
That may be true, but the chances of the Tenants Bill of Rights initiative succeeding without a serious fight seem slim to none.
Even if you don’t feel bad for landlords — and many don’t, for plenty of legitimate reasons — there’s little question that this initiative would greatly affect the local rental business, quite possibly making it untenable for some.
“I understand there’s concern. We’re in the middle of a housing crisis. But our housing crisis is supply-side driven. It’s all supply,” said Ryan Makinster, director of government affairs for the Washington Multi-Family Housing Associations, which advocates on behalf of state landlords. “We truly believe as an industry that the harder you make it to operate as a housing provider, the less likely it is for more housing to be developed.”
On Tuesday, Makinster described the regulations Tacoma’s initiative effort would impose on local landlords as rash, shortsighted and potentially destructive.
If enacted, Makinster predicted that the initiative would inadvertently force some smaller landlords out of the game — resulting in fewer rental units, or, ultimately, higher rents if a property is sold to a new rental owner.
While big, corporate landlords have often been villainized — and are increasingly prevalent across the country — Washington landlords haven’t had any easy go of it lately, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the restrictions and penalties the initiative would create would add to that burden, Makinster suggested.
“The fact is, we have a supply issue that’s been driven by land use choices at the state and local level for decades,” Makinster said. “Right now, people are looking for a short-term solution that I believe is not the correct solution, and I do not believe will fix the problem. Until we get supply to even out with demand, there’s nothing we can do. We have to address that first, and then work backwards from there.”
Still, Nathe Lawver, the Secretary-Treasurer of the Pierce County Central Labor Council — which represents a number of local unions, including UFCW Local 367 and its thousands of area grocery workers — said the labor organization recently voted unanimously to endorse the initiative.
In what Lawver described as a struggle for survival for many union members and lower-wage workers, he believes it’s time for the balance of power to be shifted, one way or another.
“It’s simple math. As our affiliates bargain with employers for better wages and working conditions, we see those games fought back by increases in rent, which sometimes are amazingly large,” Lawver said. “The hard-working citizens of Tacoma deserve to live a life of dignity and respect working 40 hours a week, and I think this helps to achieve some of those goals.”
Of course, the big question — Will the effort succeed? — remains unanswerable, at least at this juncture.
After launching a signature-gathering effort on March 4, Moore told The News Tribune that volunteers have already collected roughly 2,000, and he’s confident they’ll have enough to make the ballot by the June 16 deadline.
Whatever happens, here’s what’s certain, more than two months before a single signature is counted:
It’s bad out there — unsustainably bad — and until something changes, the tension and fear that inspired Tacoma’s Tenant Bill of Rights campaign are unlikely to dissipate.
“People are realizing that the housing crisis is swinging into our city with a vengeance, and they’re worried,” Moore said.
“They don’t want Tacoma to become Seattle, in terms of housing costs, and they want to see something done about it.”
