Kent City Council adopts law to protect low-income tenants

Landlords won’t be able to discriminate against people who use government subsidies to pay rent under a new law passed by the Kent City Council.

The council approved the measure on Tuesday night as part of its consent agenda, which means it didn’t discuss the issue any further. The council had a lengthy discussion about the proposed ordinance at a November workshop. The council’s Economic and Community Development Committee on Jan. 9 voted 3-0 to recommend the full seven-member council adopt the new law.

”This is a good first step for the city, we will monitor it if it needs to be tweaked,” Council President Bill Boyce said at the committee meeting where members Dana Ralph and Tina Budell also voted for the measure. “We are not in the landlord business but we want to make sure the tenant is treated fairly.”

Kent city officials began to look at the issue in early fall and considered taking steps even sooner after a dispute in November in Renton between renters who receive Section 8 vouchers and landlords who wanted to evict those tenants. That debate led the Renton City Council to adopt an emergency ordinance that prohibits landlords from discriminating against tenants or potential tenants based on their participation in the Section 8 housing program.

Under the Kent law, which becomes effective 30 days after the council passed it, tenants who receive any kind of government subsidy are protected.

“Property owners, property managers, landlords and their agents who rent or lease dwelling units may not refuse to rent or lease a dwelling unit to any tenant or prospective tenant or otherwise discriminate or retaliate against that person solely on the basis that the person proposes to pay a portion of the rent from a source of (government subsidy) income,” according to city documents.

The sources of income include Section 8 vouchers (run by the the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development), Social Security income, veteran housing subsidies as well as housing assistance for people with disabilities.

“We heard from tenants about managers who would not accept Section 8 vouchers,” said Merina Hanson, city housing and human services manager, to the committee. “The decisions were arbitrary, it was not that they weren’t good tenants. The danger is folks not being treated equally.”

City staff looked at other cities, including Vancouver and Renton, with bans against unfair housing practices to come up with an ordinance.

“It’s not a form of rent control,” Hanson said. “It helps ensure equal access.”

Landlords who violate the policy could face a civil fine of $500 by the city. The landlord can appeal the fine to the city’s economic and community development director and then to the city hearing examiner.

In addition to the source of income discrimination law, a group of Kent tenants continues to push the council to adopt what’s known as a just cause ordinance to evict renters. That proposal would requires landlords to give a reason or justification for tenants to leave but still make it easy to evict if someone breaks rules of the agreement.

So far, the council hasn’t taken any action to adopt a just cause ordinance, which aims to stop evictions at are retaliatory, involve discrimination, a large family or someone who made lots of repair requests, according to the Tenants Union of Washington State. Seattle is the only city in the state with a just cause measure. Landlords in Kent can give a 20-day notice to a tenant on a month-to-month lease to move out with no reason needed to end the tenancy.