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. […]

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 […]

Now let’s step up protests to resolve the issues of all his tenants! With the help of Councilmembers Kshama Sawant and Nick Licata, and the Tenants Union of WA, tenants living in the Charles Street Apartments at 6511 Rainier Avenue South organized and fought back against appalling living conditions and circumstances. Tenants have lived with rats, roaches, […]

Dear fellow activists, We are at the end of an incredible year of upheavals. A right-wing anti-worker bigot has been elected President. Donald Trump’s cabinet is a who’s who of multi-billionaires with long records of hostility towards workers, the labor movement, women’s rights, and the planet. But this was also the year in which millions […]

This month, I will be sharing highlights from the People’s Assembly that we hosted on February 27, 2016. Here are my introductory remarks. Thank you Adam, for your inspiring opening of the Assembly. I also wanted to thank Adam and all of our staff members—Rebekah, Ben, and Ted—for doing most of the organizing for this event, and, indeed, all […]

On October 14, 2015, Councilmembers Licata joined me, Attorney Knoll Lowney, Osman Osman and Sahro Farah from the 6511 Rainier Tenant Association, Hana Alici of the Tenants Union of Washington State, and Sharon Lee of the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) to introduce proposed legislation to ban rent hikes in buildings that are not up to code. […]

This week has marked a series of victories in the movement for high quality affordable housing for all, and against slumlords! In response to notorious slumlord Carl Haglund’s attempt at doubling the rent on the tenants of the Charles Street Apartments, a building wracked with infestations and 225 housing code violations, tenants reached out to my City Council […]