Posts for 'Tenant Rights'

My letter to Cornell & Associates Property Management supporting tenants organizing during COVID 19

April 25th, 2020

Over the last month, tenants at the Ben Lomond Apartments on Capitol Hill have been organizing to ask their landlord, Cornell and Associates, to suspend or reduce rent for tenants in their building who have lost their job or more than 50% of their work hours due to the #Coronavirus crisis. Cornell and Associates manages […]

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Chateau tenants: We can fight back and win affordable housing – as long as we organize and take action.

October 1st, 2019

It’s been amazing working with the Chateau Apartment tenants and their community allies in the fight to stop their displacement from Seattle’s Central District. Working together, we’ve won some important, path-breaking victories against their developer-landlord. And, we continue to organize and fight for full justice for every Chateau tenant. In their own words: We are […]

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Rent Control FAQ

April 22nd, 2019

April, 2019 The cost of renting a home is a crucial determinant of living standards for working people. With homeownership increasingly less affordable for working people, especially young people, half of Seattle is renting. Seattle is not alone, with every metropolitan region in the nation seeing a dramatic increase in the proportion of renting households. […]

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Chateau Apartments tenant Renee Gordon: Time to put people before profits!

March 4th, 2019

  I am honored to stand with the Chateau Apartment tenants, who are facing eviction from their Central District neighborhood by Cadence Real Estate, a big for-profit developer. Last Thursday, I held a press conference with the Chateau tenants, clergy, and other community supporters. Renee Gordon, one of the tenants, spoke up – her statement […]

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WA State Should Urgently Repeal the Ban on Residential Rent Control!

January 23rd, 2017

On January 17, 2017, I sent a letter to Washington State House Speaker Frank Chopp and the House Local Government Committee, calling on them to reject HB 1082, an unjust bill that would have prohibited multiplicities from enacting commercial rent control. Cities like Seattle, where small businesses and working families face skyrocketing rents, need to […]

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Tenants Win Limits on Move-In Fees – Legislation Passes 8-0!

December 12th, 2016

On December 12, after nearly a 1/2 year of struggle by Washington CAN and tenants’ rights advocates, the Seattle City Council passed our move-in fees legislation, 8-0! My remarks motivating the council bill below. I am excited to introduce again this ordinance that would limit the exorbitant move-in fees that tenants are expected to pay in […]

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Urgent Action Needed on Tenants’ Rights Vote (Monday, 10/17, 2 PM, City Hall)

October 14th, 2016

Councilmembers May Try to Kill our Tenants’ Rights Bill by Sending it Back to Committee Come tell Council: “Tenants Can’t Wait!” We Need to Limit Move-In Fees Now! On September 27, our legislation limiting move-in fees unanimously passed through committee with a 5-0 vote! This legislation limits security deposits and non-refundable fees, and requires landlords to give tenants […]

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VICTORY! Carl Haglund Law against Slumlords Passes!

June 6th, 2016

After more than a half-year of organizing, tenant activists and housing justice organizers have won a major victory with the unanimous passage of the Carl Haglund Law. This bill will ban rent hikes in buildings with code violations, a horrendous practice that has been legal and all-too-common. I want to thank everyone who fought in this struggle. […]

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Support Tenant Organizing and the Carl Haglund Ordinance

November 1st, 2015

Last month, my office was contacted by a group of tenants in South Seattle whose landlord, the notorious slumlord Carl Haglund, was doubling their rents, despite truly appalling living conditions. This was a brazen attempt by Haglund to conduct building-wide economic evictions. After meeting with tenants to see the apartment building, my office joined with […]

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Commercial Rent Control – Is it Legal?

October 29th, 2015

Small businesses face overwhelming obstacles just surviving in the modern economy. Big businesses capture not only the lion’s share of profit, they also utilize their capital to exert a disproportionate influence on politics – influence which is used to further corporate interests at the expense of workers and small businesses alike. It is the disproportionate economic power wielded by […]

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