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Seattle Council Candidates Push To Lift Ban On Rent Control

Jennifer Wing
/
KPLU
City Council candidates who support lifiting the state ban on rent control.

 

Affordable housing is one of the top campaign issues in Seattle’s City Council race.Eight candidates have come together to endorse what they call a “progressive housing plan.”

 

 

One action point is to persuade Washington State lawmakers to lift its ban on regulating rent.

It’s an idea that has been explored before.

 

“A number of apartments and homes are out of the price range of the average of the average wage earner, especially those with a family or on a fixed income. One possible answer to the problem is rent control,” reported LeBaron Taylor for KIRO 7 TV in 1978.

 

In 1980, Seattle voters said a resounding “no” to a rent control initiative.Then in 1981 the state legislature passeda bill that banned laws regulating rent in any way.

 

Today, this is what Jon Grant and several other city council candidates want lawmakers to repeal. Grant, is the former executive director of  the Seattle Tenant’s union. He’s running in District 8. He says the state’s current law goes beyond preventing rent control. He says If the ban were lifted, laws could be created to protect specific populations. For example, freezing rent for the elderly.

 

“You could have a policy that says ‘Seniors, if you are 90 years old, you would be rent stabilized until you pass,” says Grant.

 

Grant also says Seattle could look at passing laws that would allow rent to be withheld from landlords who let their buildings go into disrepair.

 

According to the US Department of Housing, 52% of Seattle households are rentals. Washington is one of 35 states that has some sort of ban in place against regulating rent.

 

Jennifer Wing is a former KNKX reporter and producer who worked on the show Sound Effect and Transmission podcast.