Seattle bans some evictions during winter months

Seattle’s City Council on Monday voted to ban some residential evictions during winter months in a 7-0 vote after narrowing the scope of the originally proposed measure.

The final, passed version of the bill cut the months covered by the measure from five to three months and limited it to low- and moderate-income tenants, as well as an exemption for landlords with four or fewer housing units, the Seattle Times reported.

“This is huge and I think we should be proud of our movement,” said Council member Kshama Sawant (D), who sponsored the legislation, although she expressed disappointment with the amendments. The final version of the bill will apply to the period between Dec. 1 and March 1. Sawant’s original language included the period from Nov. 1 to April 1.

Sawant said she thought that winter evictions were “cruel,” and that they disproportionately affect people of color and women, according to the Seattle news source. 

Mayor Jenny Durkan (D) has warned against enacting the law, and if she vetoes it, the council can override her veto with six votes. Her office has said she has reservations about the potential cost of likely legal challenges to the bill.

“City Council and the mayor share the same goal: helping people facing evictions and keeping them in their homes, especially during the winter months,” Durkan spokesman Ernesto Apreza said in an earlier statement, according to the newspaper. “But the mayor has been advised a legal fight is almost certain and could be costly to taxpayers.”

Durkan’s office said after the Monday vote that her office is assessing the bill but is “disappointed that Council did not want to engage in a robust discussion on programs that will legally and actually prevent evictions.”

The city would be the first in the United States to enact a months-long ban, although others have restrictions based on inclement weather. It does not apply to tenants engaging in criminal and nuisance activity, or those engaging in behavior that makes neighbors unsafe.

Durkan’s office has said the city should focus on “directing tenants to proven … programs that already provide millions of dollars to individuals and families to keep them in their homes,” saying such initiatives averted hundreds of evictions last year.

As of January 2018, Seattle was estimated to have more than 6,300 people experiencing homelessness.