Information
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 vast pace of change in Seattle landlord-tenant law in the past 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 & deterrants contributing to the noted decline of small rental providers.
As of summer 2023, city council has not discussed or moved forward with any 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 continues to move through city council's Sustainability & Renters' Rights Committee, which consistently excludes any housing provider input.
This 21-page document is the result of a staff and stakeholder group process 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
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 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.
Important Findings from 2018 Rental Housing Study, May 2021 By: Seattle Grassroots Landlords (A. Gerrald)
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 (A. Gerrald)
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 has 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.)