Why I left Seattle - Rent Moratorium Extended - Jan 2022 & Beyond
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This is really sad, because it hurts vulnerable populations and increases homelessness. The mayor just sent a message to landlords that they should never rent to anyone who is high risk. This hurts low income people and people with mistakes in their past. It disproportionally affects minorities. Seattle apparently only wants landlords to rent to high paid Amazon professionals. The problem with eviction moratoriums is that threat of eviction is the only thing that will motivate some tenants to pay. If they can't be evicted, they don't see any need to get rent assistance. It also ignores the fact that some percentage of those 60,000 people are not eligible for assistance because they had no hardship.
It is interesting that the executive order applies to commercial real estate too.
A more common sense policy would allow evictions to proceed, but would direct the courts to delay evictions for tenants who could prove they qualified and applied for assistance. This protects landlords and helps people with legitimate hardship.
The other question here is what role government incompetence plays in this situation? My state was handing out assistance checks to tenants in the fall of 2020. A year later and her state still can't get money out?
Hopefully a landlord group will challenge this in court. Nobody gets evicted in the middle of winter, so we all know this will get extended.