Tuesday evening, the Redmond City Council heard testimony from renters in crisis and members of the Stay Housed Stay Healthy coalition. They debated and finally voted 6-1 to pass these important protections:

• 120 days notice required for rent increases above 3%, 180 days for increases above 10%.
• Move in fees are capped at the equivalent of one month’s rent, payable in installments.
• Late fees are capped at 1.5% of monthly rent.
• Social security number cannot be required to apply for a rental home.
• Renters on a fixed income like social security can adjust their rent due date.

There’s much more we want them to do, but this is a really great start! Enormous rent increases and displacement are happening now all over King County, and these protections will help to mitigate the harm to Redmond families and communities.

What’s next for the Stay Housed Stay Healthy coalition? We are expecting the Kirkland City Council to vote on a similar set of protections on Wednesday, August 3rd. And we are expecting Kenmore (which already passed the above protections) to vote on a second ordinance next Monday, July 25th, including a local Just Cause Eviction law that applies to all lease types, closing some gaping loopholes in the statewide law.

TRU and the Stay Housed Stay Healthy coalition will continue working to pass strong permanent renter protections in cities all across King County!

Over the past three months, we’ve been hard at work gathering signatures to win a living wage for Tukwila workers. As you may have seen in The Seattle Times, last week we learned that we submitted more than enough signatures to qualify for the ballot!

Thank you so much to everyone who helped with this achievement: all the volunteers who knocked doors, entered data and made phone calls; our hard-working TRU organizers; allied groups that endorsed the campaign & gathered signatures; everyone who’s donated so far— and, of course, all the Tukwila residents who signed the petition and all the Tukwila workers who spoke up about why it’s time for higher wages. Together we will win on election day!!!

But… It’s going to be a fight. We expect to be far outspent by corporate interests that care way more about maximizing their profits than the well-being of their workers. They’ll try to scare Tukwila voters into rejecting a minimum wage increase— just like they tried to do when SeaTac and Seattle were fighting for the same thing. We need to run a super strong Get-Out-The-Vote campaign this fall to counter their misinformation, and for that we need to raise a lot more money than we have on hand right now. To help us off to a solid start, please consider making a donation of $10, $100 or $1000 now in honor of TRU’s 10th birthday!

Back in March, the University of Washington finally agreed to provide fully-subsidized, employer-paid transit passes to ALL its employees. This was the result of a multi-year pressure campaign that TRU was deeply involved in, bringing together UW workers, labor unions, community allies, and transit and environmental advocates. It took years of pressure, from the inside and the outside, to push the UW to fully adopt this common sense pro-climate, pro-worker policy. The new benefit goes into effect on July 1! Read about how we got here in The Stranger, and celebrate with us on June 30!

On Saturday, March 26, we launched a new campaign called Raise the Wage Tukwila! Tukwila is one of the largest job centers in the state, with thousands of low-wage retail and food service jobs at and around Southcenter Mall. The neighboring cities of SeaTac and Seattle have higher minimum wages of over $17, but in Tukwila many workers are still making the statewide minimum wage of $14.49. That’s just not enough.

We need to collect signatures of thousands of Tukwila voters before the end of June to qualify for the November ballot. Check out our campaign website and sign up to volunteer at RaiseTheWageTukwila.org, and read more in The Seattle Times and MyNorthwest. Together let’s Raise the Wage!

Rents aren’t just rising in Seattle, they’re going up fast all across King County. That’s a big problem. Where are low-income renters supposed to go?

TRU and our allies in the Stay Housed Stay Healthy coalition are rising to the challenge and organizing to pass stronger permanent renter protections in multiple King County cities. Earlier this month, the city of Kenmore took a huge step forward. Check out this great article in The Seattle Times that highlights our work.

On Valentine’s Day, council members heard testimony from Kenmore renters and members of Stay Housed Stay Healthy, and devoted hours to discussing a long list of possible protections. They agreed to move forward with a number of them, including requiring longer notice of significant rent increases and capping move-in fees and late fees. Others they decided to study further. We expect a first piece of legislation to be passed later this month, and hopefully a second later in the spring. The Seattle Times article features stories from Kenmore renters and also one of the champions of our legislation, Councilmember Corina Pfeil:

“Several years ago, homelessness knocked on Corina Pfeil’s door. When her landlord raised her rent $300, Pfeil couldn’t pay, nor could she quickly find a cheaper place in Kenmore, where she’d lived for three decades.

‘I thought I was going to end up in a shelter,’ possibly separated from her older son, who was 18 and who has autism, she recalled.

That didn’t happen, thanks to a last-minute negotiation. But the upsetting incident stayed with Pfeil, who now serves on the Kenmore City Council and is pushing to pass a batch of new tenant protections. She still rents, in a sprawling complex tucked behind pine trees.

‘We have to be willing to take a hard look at the inequities in our community,” she said. “We’re a community with haves and have-nots.‘”

TRU and Stay Housed Stay Healthy will be working over the next few months to pass strong legislation in Kenmore, which will help to propel forward our work in other cities later this year.

Organizing to Protect Renters

The COVID-19 pandemic left many thousands of King County households unable to pay rent and at risk of eviction. This year, TRU stepped up to build and lead a countywide coalition called Stay Housed Stay Healthy. We fought for emergency protections to keep renters in their homes, and for stronger permanent protections to shift the balance of power between renters and landlords for good. We organized with renters and successfully passed powerful legislation in jurisdictions around King County:

Emergency Renter Protections

• • Kenmore: Enacted a local eviction moratorium from July 1, 2021 through Jan. 15, 2022. Created a legal defense to prevent future evictions due to rental debt accrued during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Burien: Enacted a local eviction moratorium from July 1, 2021 through Jan. 15, 2022.
  • Kirkland: Enacted a local eviction moratorium from July 1 through Sept. 30, 2021.
  • Seattle: Extended a local eviction moratorium through Jan. 15, 2022. Created a legal defense to prevent future evictions due to rental debt accrued during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Permanent Renter Protections

Seattle: Closed the “lease loophole” in Seattle’s Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, ensuring that ALL renters are protected from arbitrary & unjust evictions. Supported legislation requiring six-months notice of rent increases and landlord-paid relocation assistance if a tenant has to move after a rent increase of 10% or more.

King County Council: Won a pathbreaking package of renter protections for unincorporated areas of the county like Skyway and White Center, including:

• ALL renters are protected from eviction or lease termination without a “just cause.”
• Move-in fees are capped at 1-month rent and renters can pay in installments.
• Late fees are capped at 1.5% of monthly rent.
• For rent increases greater than 3%, landlords must give 120 days notice.
• Renters on fixed incomes can change their rent due date.
• You don’t need a Social Security Number to apply for a rental home.

This legislation creates a high standard we’ll work to match in cities around King County in 2022.

Unmasking False Compassion 

TRU, together with the ACLU of Washington and the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, brought a successful lawsuit to knock the “Compassion Seattle” initiative off the ballot. In addition to being illegal and misleading, this measure was far from a good faith effort to address the homelessness crisis. Instead, it was a cynical unfunded mandate backed by big business interests that don’t want to pay their taxes. TRU also joined the House Our Neighbors coalition to put forward real solutions: housing, shelter & services at scale.

Taking on Big Tech

Amazon has accumulated enormous power over our economy and our lives. But what is a monopoly? What are its dangers and how are we impacted as residents, consumers and workers? And what can we do about it? TRU co-hosted a teach-in with Puget Sound Sage, with special guests from the Washington State Attorney General’s Office Antitrust Division, to dig into these timely questions.

State Legislative Wins

The remote legislative session allowed TRU’s members and supporters to participate as never before. We set up many virtual meetings with individual legislators, testified at hearings, signed in “PRO” or “CON” on bills, sent emails and made phone calls. Working with allies, TRU’s pressure helped to win big victories like renter protections, criminal-legal system reform, the HEAL Act, Working Families Tax Credit and a capital gains tax. 

Organizing for a Solidarity Budget

TRU is a core member of the Solidarity Budget coalition, fighting for a vision of an equitable city where all of us can thrive. Thanks to this powerful coalition work, Seattle is the only city in the U.S. to shrink its policing budget two years running. Our pressure helped to restore the JumpStart Seattle corporate tax revenue to its intended purposes, including major ongoing investments in new affordable housing and equitable development. With the MASS coalition, we expanded investments in safe streets for walking, biking and rolling. And more! 

Sustaining Our Unsheltered Neighbors 

The pandemic has been especially hard on homeless people, and homeless deaths are near a record high. This year, TRU’s camp outreach project turned over $50,000 into food, propane, batteries, water and other basic necessities for our neighbors sleeping outside. This project is powered by TRU members’ volunteer labor, cooking meals and visiting camps every weekend, and funded entirely by individual donations from TRU members and supporters.

ORCA Passes for Afghan Refugees 

When refugee families began arriving in the Seattle area from Afghanistan this fall, TRU stepped up. We raised over $2,500 from individual donations from our members and supporters, and used these funds to purchase loaded adult and youth ORCA passes for the Muslim Community Resource Center to give to refugees in need of transportation in their new home.

TRU is conducting a project in order to better understand the issues affecting Tukwila workers and residents. Do you live or work in Tukwila, or have friends or family who do? Invite them to take our 5-minute survey:

For Tukwila workers: bit.ly/tukwila-jobs

For Tukwila residents: bit.ly/tukwila-resident