Spokane residents show up to testify against ‘tenant rights’ bill

(The Center Square) – “It’s been a while since we’ve had a long one,” Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs after this week’s meeting. He thanked city employees and members of the community for their time.

The meeting ended nearly 45 minutes after its scheduled 9:30 pm adjournment Monday, accounting for the nearly 43 scheduled individuals who signed up for public comment after the council voted to extend to allow for extra debate and to finish the session.

Most people were there to testify against what has been dubbed the tenant rights bill.

The bill, which had been split into two sections by city legal since its last reading, now consists of two ordinances, C36330 and C36366.

Beggs told the Council that it was the same bill, with minor changes, just split into two sections for easier digestibility. Some who testified disagreed with that assessment.

The first ordinance, C36330, passed 7-0 with a vote. The second, C36366, passed 5-2 with council members Michael Cathcart and Jonathan Bingle as the “nay” votes.

“I don’t believe this ordinance will be beneficial for rental housing in the City of Spokane,” said Cathcart in a statement. He added, “I am absolutely committed to enforcing our existing laws while improving affordability and this should be our primary objective, but the supplemental ordinance C36336 distracts us from these efforts.”

Property owner Steve Wareham was also critical of the ordinance.

“Getting a city attorney to sue landlords, and he’s going to make his money to fund his budget for next year by suing landlords? That’s making a hostile environment for landlords,” he said.

Section 10.57.100 of C36366 states, “The city investment would provide seed money for first year of salary and benefits for an attorney and reasonable litigation costs, including mediation fees. Legal fees from successful representation would be used to sustain the attorney(s) and associated costs for the long term.”

Wareham warned that small landlords “might not make it between what the state is imposing on us, and what the city is imposing on us,” and argued that would have bad effects on the city’s poorest residents because “we’re the ones that provide most of the low income housing.”

Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward acknowledged both good and bad in the Council’s votes.

“My request of the City Council for a narrowed, simplified approach was about finding the right balance of protections that maintains rental units and encourages new ones while protecting tenants from bad landlords. Adding a registry, licensing, and inspections largely accomplished that goal,” she told The Center Square via email.

She warned, “Adding background checks and encouraging City-backed private legal action by tenants establishes a regulatory environment that limits our ability to maintain and grow a robust housing supply” and added that “the risk is still very real that the new regulations imposed on landlords will harm the very tenants it is intended to help.”

Daniel Klemme, president of the Landlords Association of the Inland Northwest, also testified.

“I’d like to say that we were able as an association to support this ordinance,” he said, “However, since it changed at the last second, I wasn’t able to get a board vote in order to do that.”

He asked them to pass ordinance C36330 but not C36366.

Former homeless person Bree Gordon said early on in the public comment phase of the meeting, “We have turned homelessness into a profitable industry. We are giving people millions of dollars a year not to solve the problem.”

Spencer Pauley contributed to this report.