Information
Seattle Grassroots Landlords compiled this 3-page overview of municipal rental housing policy, 2014-2023. The decade has been an intensely unpredictable regulatory and political whirlwind, with many unintended consequences, and difficult for anyone to keep up with — including small housing providers, tenants, legislators, city staff, courts and attorneys, media, housing advocates, and the general public. As Seattle welcomes a new slate of council members to office in January 2024, we offer this resource for much-needed context and as a jumping off point to explore the many impacts and intricacies that need addressing in a holistic way.
Other Key Resources
Understanding Seattle's Housing Market Shift from Small to Large Rental Properties: A Rental Registration and Inspection Ordinance Program Audit, December 21, 2023, Seattle City Auditor
Seattle's City Auditor released this detailed assessment of the RRIO program at the end of 2023. The main report is 44 pages; with appendices it is 81 pages total.
The #1 recommendation is:
If the City of Seattle wants to preserve single-family and small multi-family property rental housing, it should consider enacting policies that support the continued presence of this type of property in Seattle’s rental market. When considering such policies, the City should involve stakeholders most impacted by rental housing policies.
The report confirms that small landlords (single-family rental homes and small multi-family properties) are leaving the Seattle market and that the environment is more favorable for larger-scale landlords. The trend mirrors a national shift towards larger multi-family rental buildings and conversion of single-family rentals to owner occupancy, which reduces the variety of housing options available to renters, in opposition to Seattle’s goal of achieving a mix of housing types for different household types, sizes and incomes.
Pages 23-32 detail “Challenges Faced by Property Owners and Why Some of Them Have Stopped Renting Properties,” including results of a survey of RRIO registrants who have inactive registrations or recently sold properties:
67% surveyed say it’s “difficult to comply with the City of Seattle’s rental rules and regulations”
74% say “the rules are too burdensome to follow or too difficult to implement”
Small Housing Provider Roundtable at Seattle City Council Economic Development Committee Meeting, March 22, 2023
Roundtable video — Hosted by Councilmember Sara Nelson, this is the first time we are aware of that city council has ever invited small landlords to participate in a city council meeting, despite passing dozens of impactful regulatory changes in recent years. The 5-person panel described current issues and representative anecdotes. Public comment begins at 5:00, then at 17:22 roundtable opening comments, 23:05 panelist introductions (MariLyn Yim, Jim Yearby, Ayda Cader, Rizwan Samad & Christopher Cutting), 23:54 presentation by MariLyn Yim begins, 35:03 panelist comments, and 58:54 council Q&A.
Roundtable presentation slides — This 11-screen slideshow provides an excellent overview of what is unique about small landlords, the fast pace of change in Seattle landlord-tenant law over just 6 years (vs stability of law in prior 43 years), concise data chart depicting significant loss of Seattle RRIO rental registrations from 2018-2022 (14% net loss of rental properties with 1-20 units), and a detailed summary of obstacles & deterrents contributing to the noted decline of small rental providers.
In the second half of 2023, city council did not discuss or move forward with issues and solutions brought forth by small landlords at the Economic Development roundtable in March 2023 or the Fall 2022 SDCI stakeholder group. All legislation continued to move through city council's Sustainability & Renters' Rights Committee, which consistently excluded housing provider input.
With a new city council taking office in January 2024, we hope for a collaborative, healthier era for municipal rental housing policy and the broader (county/state/regional/national) policymaking influenced by Seattle.
This 21-page document is the result of a staff and stakeholder group process of six online-only meetings that convened in summer/fall 2022 to advise the City on regulatory and rental market challenges for small landlords and their tenants. The group was asked to:
Propose a definition of "small landlord"
Estimate the population of small landlords with units in Seattle
Make findings about how current regulations and market trends impact small landlords and their tenants and identify whether those impacts are disparate
SDCI's final report is a starting point in reflecting issues raised, but doesn't come close to capturing the scope and urgency expressed.
This 15-page document was submitted to Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections at the outset of the Small Landlord Stakeholder Group, a series of 6 meetings that took place between late August and early November 2022, as requested by Seattle City Council in their Fall 2021 budget. In the document, we provide an overview of the mission, goals and concerns of Seattle Grassroots Landlords; detailed legislative and administrative suggestions for how City of Seattle can improve conditions for local independent rental housing; and numerous background research links featuring local and national sources.
Noted Safety Flaws & Suggested Amendments for Seattle's "Just Cause" Eviction Law, May 2021
Seattle small housing provider Charlotte Thistle (who rents rooms to tenants in her shared Columbia City home) worked with attorney Ryan Weatherstone to convey serious flaws in Seattle's Just Cause law re: inability to protect from harrassment and other safety issues, compounded by city council hastily passing a new mandatory lease renewal law.
Excerpts from meeting with District 2 City Councilmember Tammy Morales: In this 6-minute recap, Attorney Weatherstone explains why it can take more than a year and over $20K to evict someone for harrassing other tenants, neighbors or management in City of Seattle. Includes testimony from Brett Frank-Looney, Central District apartment landlord. Full-length video of the 35-minute Zoom meeting with CM Morales is worth watching.
Supplementary Diagram & Information Overview — Process flow chart and FAQ (by Charlotte Thistle)
City council declined to ever follow up on this topic and it continues to negatively impact landlords and tenants throughout Seattle.
In 2017, Seattle’s Office of City Auditor conducted a Seattle Rental Housing Study (SRHS) to understand the experiences of renters and landlords in the Seattle market and to gather baseline data that could be used for future evaluations. The study was a requirement of a suite of new landlord policies enacted by Seattle City Council in 2016, hurriedly passed without sufficient time to conduct impact evaluations. This document summarizes key findings from the study and links to relevant source material.
Seattle Small Landlords & the Legislative Tsunami: A Five-Year Recap, May 2021, By Seattle Grassroots Landlords
From 2017 to 2021, Seattle landlords experienced a tidal wave of complex new laws, with numerous pending ordinances continuing to unfold. This constantly changing regulatory landscape has rapidly increased the burden on small mom-n-pop landlords, who have traditionally provided some of the most affordable and flexible local rental housing. This document recaps the five-year onslaught of legislation that is dramatically decreasing rental housing availability, affordability and stability of small-scale, community-owned rental housing in Seattle. (Note: this recap was published in 2021 and quickly became out of date, as Seattle City Council continued to pass numerous additional regulatory changes, with no housing provider input. Want to volunteer to help update the "tsunami" recap? Contact us at seattlegrassrootslandlords@gmail.com.)