“We have been waiting for 9 months now and we don’t even know if our tenants are approved or denied yet.”
Seattle Housing Provider
On January 15th the City of Seattle’s ban on eviction due to inability to pay rent because of Covid-19 impacts was set to expire. The new Mayor of Seattle, Bruce Harrell, extended the ban for 30 days. In his message, the Mayor implied he would form a committee to address concerns about the ongoing ban and to determine whether such bans are “effective.”
The Center for Housing Economics (The Center) a non-profit housing research and advocacy organization, has completed a small sample survey (N = 30) on the effectiveness of the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars in rental assistance. The Center would argue that there isn’t any question that bans are effective: when bans are in place, nobody gets evicted. The problem is that local government has created the problem, issuing directives that cut off people’s income without replacing that income. The result is unpaid rent which harms both residents and businesses that provide housing.
Following the extension of the ban, the Center urges the Mayor to focus on determining why rental assistance is still lagging and fix that problem. We conducted a very small survey of housing providers to ask them about their experience with rental assistance.
Overall, most of the providers have not received full payment for rent and have found the process confusing and unhelpful. While the sample size is too small to draw any sweeping conclusions, the answers make common sense. Housing providers didn’t do anything wrong nor did their residents. Housing providers don’t want to evict anyone, and residents would be best served by getting the help they need right now. Banning eviction makes no sense whatsoever, when there are hundreds of millions available to state and local government. There is,
- $577 million in federal funds allocated from the Emergency Rental Assistance measure;
- $116 million in state funds allocated by the legislature in 2021; and
- 3500 low-barrier emergency housing vouchers issues by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), only a dozen have been used by King County.
Based on these results and comments from people across the country over the last year and a half, we’d recommend the following to Mayor Harrell:
- Create a simple online process to request assistance;
- Make the programs like the Paycheck Protection Program, allowing lenders to fund the unpaid rent first and settle details later;
- Allow housing providers to apply for assistance without the resident;
- Remove conditions on funds or if there are conditions, expedite the funding; and
- Make changes to the City’s program, contact banks and lenders, and urge the County and State to make changes to their programs to speed up payment.
Survey Results
Question 1. Have you applied for assistance for unpaid rent due to Covid-19?
56.67% of the respondents applied for rental assistance
Question 2. What government or agency did you apply to (you can select multiple)?
| Washington State | 36.36% |
| King County | 72.73% |
| City of Seattle | 31.82% |
| United Way | 13.64% |
| Other agency or government | 13.64% |
| I don’t know | 13.64% |
Question 3. Did you receive any payments?
| Yes | 33.33% |
| No | 50% |
| I didn’t apply | 16.67% |
Question 4. If you received payment, what percentage of unpaid rent did you get?
| 100 percent* | 5% |
| 80 to 90 percent | 10% |
| 50 to 80 percent | 5% |
| 25 to 50 percent | 20% |
| less than 25 percent | 10% |
| I haven’t received anything yet | 50% |
| * Only one respondent received all the unpaid rent. |
Question 5. What were the challenges in applying or getting paid? (Includes verbatim responses)
| Process was confusing | 72.73% | |
| Did not receive a response | 63.64% | |
| Tenant wouldn’t cooperate | 59.09% | |
| There were strings attached (i.e., no evictions for 6 months etc.) | 59.09% | |
| I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to apply | 22.73% | |
| The tenant had to initiate the application and didn’t | 63.64% | |
| Other | 18.18% |
“The TRAP program designed for landlords continues to delay processing applications. We have been waiting for 9 months now and we don’t even know if our tenants are approved or denied yet.”
“The enormous delay between the announcement of the federal relief program and the arrival of the funds encouraged a lot of folks to stop paying their rent in expectation that generous relief was on the way. And it didn’t cover uncooperative tenants.”
“City agency approved my application in August but we’re still waiting for funds. City agency is slow and unresponsive to emails and voicemails.”
Question 6. Which of the following do you think most important to improve the flow of rent relief to people who need it? (Includes verbatim responses to “Please share ideas in the “other” section)
| The program should be like the PPP; get payment first and work out the details later | 37.04% |
| Housing providers should be able to apply without the resident | 81.48% |
| Create a simple online process and direct deposit of payments | 55.56% |
| Allow full payment when “strings” are attached and partial payment for no “strings” | 37.04% |
| Other | 7.41% |
“Why are there restrictions on property owner compensation, like accepting less than the total rent due. The portal for property owners is closed yet for tenants it’s still open; why?”
“The Residents should be the drivers of this and if they cannot or do not get it, they should be subject to eviction. The burden should be on residents, not housing providers.”
Question 7. I am a,
| Housing provider (“landlord”) | 53.33% |
| Property manager | 20% |
| Developer | 0% |
| A housing provider who develops and manages property | 20% |
| Other | 6.67% |
Question 8. Please share any and all your thoughts and experiences you think City Hall needs to know as we begin 2022 (all responses, edits for typos only).
| I have two friends that needed to apply for assistance. One received from one program, but her landlord would not accept from that program and said I’ll only work with x and x program. And she is still waiting. Other friend…. still waiting. These are tenants. There is a major problem on all sides of the assistance program. |
| Had a tenant not pay rent for 15 months & skip out owing $30,000 after destroying my unit. We consulted our attorney, followed the app process exactly and were eventually approved. King County then then told us we could expect a payment in 12 months for 1/2 the amount this tenant owed us. No explanation why this takes so long. Gov’t in this area has no understanding or interest in how difficult it is for smaller RE players to survive. PPP is handed like candy; we’re treated like the enemy |
| I had to write off 1.5 years of rent and I don’t know how to evict when this is all over. They aren’t ever going to pay and don’t respond to any contact |
| The tenant should need to show NEED for rental assistance. I have an office tenant that stopped paying rent in March 2020 and hasn’t paid since. He ignores all my efforts to resolve the issue, yes uses his office. He’s simply gaming the system. |
| Use the Section 8 Housing voucher program. Landlord gets paid, tenants need must be verified. Current situation is economic terrorism for landlords. First say landlords have a moral flaw and then blame them of problems they did not create. |
| See note above and what are we teaching these residents? I don’t have to pay rent and the housing provider will figure out to have it paid. |
| Over regulation of rental market is causing small landlords to leave market and/or decrease supply of rentals. Regulations are so complex that it is difficult for small landlord to comply with all of the regulations. There is no need for mandatory inspections of high-end rentals because the tenants of expensive rentals (say $2100/month or higher) can handle issues directly with landlord. |
| SCC needs to stop grouping small landlords into all this crazy legislation. They often claim small landlords hide behind LLC’s. In that case, simply write small landlord exemptions apply to individual owners of less than four rental units. They’ll likely still crutch on some excuse like “small landlords will LLC the units beyond the four so to pose as a small landlord.” Does not play here as far as I’m concerned. Tired of being vilified by SCC without any cause or reason. |
| The EPRAP program is obviously and severely under staffed. Throughout the process there only appeared to be two contacts serving hundreds of applicants. Those two contacts were also often changed which added confusion or lead to no responses. towards the end of the year, it took six attempts over the course of 5 weeks prior to getting a response. |
| Funds are stuck under a lasagna of bureaucratic layers. |
| There will always be some unethical landlords that will engage in problematic behavior. The vast majority of housing operators are just trying to run a business and provide their residents with decent homes. Policies aimed at constraining bad actors doesn’t have much effect on those folks – they aren’t rule followers to begin with! But it does have the effect of driving decent operators OUT of the business. If only crooks and cheats are able to succeed, then that’s what you are incentivizing. |
| I only have two units. I had a tenant who clearly chose not to pay rent as he knew he could not be evicted. After seven months of no rent, he caused a lot of noise and smoke problems for neighbors so I was able to evict for cause. I am just out the money for the rent. I do not make much on these units. I lost a lot of money during the pandemic because I still had costs to pay. This was very difficult for small property owners like me. This reduces low-income housing options. |
| Some non-payers respond but can’t be bothered to apply, some dont even respond to us. Both result in no payments. |
| The process needs to be streamlined with payment guaranteed to the Landlord within 10 business days. State of Washington responded you have been approved and may get paid in 12 months??? King County has too many strings attached that are restricting Landlords from applying, e.g., can’t refuse to renew tenant’s lease or evict 6 months after payment. The current systems with King County and State of Washington are confusing, many times there is no response at all. ERPP there is no response. |
| There should be NO PROTECTION for bad behavior. Helping people with Covid financial hardship is one thing, but a blanket protection for any and all form of bad behavior is simply a terrible policy. It’s dangerous. The eviction moratorium has not prevented the homeless population from growing. The most important steps now are to END the moratorium and GET RENT RELIEF MONEY into the hands of the people who need it, landlords and tenants alike. |
| I was fortunate to have tenants paying. The continual eviction moratorium is frustrating. The risk to me as a small landlord forced me to change my units into short term rentals. As long as the city increases taxes on property owners and decreases our choice who lives in our units and how much we can charge for rent, it will make it difficult to justify being a landlord in Seattle. |
| I am a tenant in a mom-and-pop landlord unit. I am a low-income senior and my landlord could get a lot more rent for my unit. I am concerned that my rent will go up if mom and pop landlords cannot continue to provide affordable rent if they cannot collect all the rent they are contracted to receive. Extended eviction bans will hurt the supply of affordable units and mom and pops will divest of their units. |