In The News - 4/23/2024
The Spokesman-Review
120- TO 180-DAY NOTICES FOR RENT INCREASES PROPOSED FOR LANDLORDS
Local rental costs have increased faster than statewide in the past decade, jumping 74% from 2013 to 2023
Landlords in Spokane will have to warn tenants 120 or 180 days in advance before raising rents if an ordinance proposed Monday is passed on April 29 by the City Council.
Washington doesn’t have rent control, but state law has required a minimum of 60- day notices for rent increases since 2019. If the ordinance is approved, Spokane landlords would have to issue 120-day notices before raising rent on a unit by 3% or less, or 180-day notices if increasing rent by more than 3%.
Subsidized rentals that base rent prices on the income of the tenant or household are only required to provide notice of rent increases 30 days in advance, in alignment with state law.
Rents have increased in Spokane County faster than in the state as a whole in the last decade, jumping 74% from 2013 to 2023 compared to 66% statewide, according to data from the University of Washington. Quick rent increases also predate the COVID-19 pandemic – Spokane’s average rent increased more than 3% annually for six of the last 10 years, with increases topping 13% in 2016, over 15% in 2021 and more than 23% in 2022.
Rent in Spokane has increased more than twice as fast since 2016 as other forms of inflation hitting consumers, said Grant Forsyth, chief economist for Avista.
“We have been underbuilding single-family homes, on top of a lot of people moving into the area starting in 2014, 2015,” Forsyth said. “For a lot of people, the best option has been renting.”
Tenants in Spokane facing those steep rent increases need more than 60 days to be able to prepare to pay or move somewhere more affordable, argue ordinance sponsors council members Paul Dillon, Zack Zappone and Lili Navarette, as well as tenant advocacy groups.
“Sixty days is not enough time when tenants receive huge rent increases,” said Terri Anderson, interim executive director of the Tenants Union of Washington State and director of that organization’s Spokane office.
RangeMedia
Four steps forward, two steps back
Spokane City’s housing division continues to be a revolving door with more employee turnover under the Brown administration
Spokane city’s housing officials continue the trend of employee turnover that has plagued the city since at least 2021, with two more resignations in the Community, Housing and Human Services (CHHS) department.
Last December, RANGE wrote about the abrupt resignation of Kim McCollim, the former director of the Neighborhood, Housing, and Human Services (NHHS) Division, which houses the CHHS department. She was the third NHHS director to resign in as many years, following John Hall’s resignation (and subsequent 27-page memo of recommendations for how to fix the department) in September 2022 and Cupid Alexander’s resignation (and allegations of racism by the city) in June 2021.
Dawn Kinder, who replaced McCollim as NHHS director earlier this year, said that since Mayor Lisa Brown took office, four existing vacancies in the CHHS have been filled. Those positions include the director of the department and the manager of the regional Community Management Information System, two positions that have been vacant since Jenn Cerecedes and Daniel Ramos left in September — and they are in the interview process with candidates for three other positions.
Now, two more officials have followed McCollim — Christy Jeffers and Richard Culton, who both retired this year. Jeffers was the Housing & Community Development Program Manager. Culton, who was hired in November 2022, is finishing out a few weeks as the CHHS Operations Manager before he officially leaves.
The Wall St. Journal
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Supreme Court Signals Sympathy for Cities Plagued by Homeless Camps
Lower courts blocked anticamping ordinances as unconstitutional
The Oregon city of Grants Pass outlaws sleeping in cars parked on the street or in public parks with a blanket, but has no shelter able to accommodate the hundreds of homeless people who live within its limits. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction covers much of the Western U.S., found such measures effectively criminalized homelessness, violating Eighth Amendment precedent that forbids punishing people for their status rather than actions. Under that view, courts in the Ninth Circuit have issued injunctions that limit cities’ enforcement of such ordinances.
But on Monday, members of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority suggested that the Ninth Circuit’s approach, which cities argue has hamstrung their efforts to address homelessness, intruded on the discretion local officials need to govern their communities.
Helping homeless people is difficult and costly, said Chief Justice John Roberts, and “municipalities have competing priorities.” For instance, he said, “Do you build a homeless shelter or take care of the lead pipes” contaminating the water supply? “What if there’s not enough fire protection? Which one do you prioritize?”
Liberal justices said, however, that Grants Pass had singled out homeless people when enforcing its antisleeping or camping laws.
Police officers had testified that “if a stargazer wants to take a blanket or sleeping bag out at night to watch the stars and falls asleep, you don’t arrest them,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “You don’t arrest babies who have blankets over their heads. You don’t arrest people who are sleeping on the beach—as I tend to do if I’ve been there a while,” she said. “You only arrest people who don’t have a home,” she told the lawyer for Grants Pass, Theane Evangelis.
Evangelis said the laws apply to everyone, but Sotomayor said there was no record of anyone other than a homeless person facing enforcement before the court injunction.