A Tenant’s Guide to the Bellingham 2019 Local Election
Vote like your rent depends on it, because it does.
Tenants of Bellingham: We’re sick of paying too much rent. We’re tired of not getting our security deposits back. We’re exhausted having to compete with each other for barely liveable housing options. Some of us have been priced out of the city. Some of us are already living on the streets or crashing at our friends’ couches.
We’re fed up with housing discrimination that continues to happen against people with disabilities, people of color, people on low or fixed incomes, and other people with marginalized identities. We’ve seen despicable changes in the last year, exemplified by the owners of the Leopold evicting elderly tenants so they can charge $1,600 for a 615 sq ft. apartment.
Ya basta! Enough is enough.
Bellingham should be a city for everyone. We live in a city that is 54% renter and yet we don’t have a single renter on City Council. The average income of a renter in Bellingham is $31,411, yet our rents keep going up and up. Over one-third of us pay at least 35% of our wages in rent every year. Many of us pay more than half our wages to rent.
Renters need representation on City Council. Renters need a voice. We need to use our power.
This year, when you get your ballot in the mail, join us in voting for tenant champions and give a big middle finger to the corporate landlords profiting at your expense. Then, once you’re done, join our union and organize with us (come to our Tenant Assembly on Oct 17th) and our homeowner allies for a housing system that works for everyone.
Your ballot for the November 5th General Election will get mailed to you on October 16th. Vote. Share our cheat sheet of endorsements. Remind everyone you know. Join the movement for housing justice.
(Curious about our endorsement process? Scroll to the bottom.)
(Moved recently and need to update your voter registration info? Update it here.)
Bellingham Mayor — April Barker
Supports Rent Control? Yes.
Endorsed by the Whatcom County Association of Realtors (Landlords)? No.
Read April’s questionnaire here. Read Seth’s questionnaire here.
As a City Councilmember, April isn’t afraid to speak about systemic racism. She played a leadership role in passing the 2018 ordinances increasing tenant protections, such as banning Source of Income Discrimination. She recently helped pass a moratorium on development in manufactured home parks to protect vulnerable residents. She wants to create a “State of the Renters” workgroup to advise City Council. April is open to community involvement in shaping policy and has worked to be inclusive of community-based organizations like the Hearing, Speech and Deaf Center.
One of April’s big housing efforts is the Housing Equity Assessment to set data-based targets on how many permanently affordable homes we need in every neighborhood to meet the needs of residents. April has the courage to stand up to people who “don’t want renters in their neighborhood” or “those people”.
We’re not wild that April is a small landlord. But she supports rent control and has a record of supporting tenant protections. And most critically, we think she understands the urgency demanded by the situation.
Vote Barker.
City Council Ward 1 — Beth Hartsoch
Supports Rent Control? Yes.
Endorsed by the Whatcom County Association of Realtors (Landlords)? No.
Read Beth’s questionnaire here. Read Hannah’s questionnaire here.
Beth had specific ideas and plans on housing justice that align with our platform. Beth committed to sponsoring a resolution for rent control — asking our state leaders to repeal the ban on rent regulation — in the first three months of her term. She supports more Missing Middle housing across the city as well as safe camping sites and city-wide basic services for people experiencing homelessness.
Beth also had excellent ideas about how to make government more inclusive and accessible, such as designating spots on Boards and Commissions for people who are renters or homeless, providing stipends, and not disqualifying a ward-based City Councilmember if they have to move due to housing insecurity. We’re impressed.
Vote Hartsoch.
City Council Ward 3 — Ashanti Monts-Treviska
Supports Rent Control? Yes.
Endorsed by the Whatcom County Association of Realtors (Landlords)? No.
Read Ashanti’s questionnaire here. Read Dan’s questionnaire here.
Ashanti is all about transformation. As far as we know, Ashanti is the only candidate to recognize displacement and land use as indigenous issues, recommending reparations, and working with indigenous communities here.
Ashanti supports rent control, inclusionary zoning, and community-led housing: all key pillars of a progressive pro-tenant housing platform.
She is a tenant and brings valuable local experience working for equity for communities of color and deaf communities, which would be welcome on City Council. We are excited for her leadership.
Vote Monts-Treviska.
City Council Ward 5 — Chanan Suarez
Supports Rent Control? Yes.
Endorsed by the Whatcom County Association of Realtors (Landlords)? No.
Read Chanan’s questionnaire here. Read Lisa’s questionnaire here.
If you were only to fill out one race on your ballot, it should be this one! It’s not every day you have a candidate like Chanan Suarez run for office in Bellingham. Chanan is a working-class renter and BTU member with a bold vision (more on that in a second) to solve the housing crisis.
Chanan would also bring perspective to City Council that is currently missing: he’s a 1st generation Latino immigrant, openly gay, Jewish, and an Iraq War combat veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart and later became an anti-war veteran activist.
But representation isn’t what has us most excited about Chanan — it’s his bold plan to build 3,500 high quality, publicly owned, tenant-managed social housing units. He’s a candidate proposing solutions on the scale of the challenges we face — we need a ton of affordable housing. Chanan has proposed a variety of creative ways to fund this much-needed investment in housing, including bonding off existing revenue sources and using REET II funds.
Chanan is also committed to expanding tenant protections and using his position on City Council, if elected, to pressure Olympia to repeal the ban on rent control.
Vote Suarez. No contest.
City Council At-Large — No Endorsement
Read Dana’s questionnaire here. Read Hollie’s questionnaire here.
Our membership was split between the two At-Large candidates, Dana Brigs and Hollie Huthman. Both are strong in specific ways, but neither candidate surpassed 60% of the votes, resulting in a ‘No Endorsement’.
Dana is experiencing homelessness and wants to bring his experience and voice to create just housing policies. He is a BTU member, HomesNow organizer, and actively testifies to legislators about the need for housing equity. He supports repealing the ban on rent control and a vacant home tax. However, some of Dana’s ideas for a way forward relied heavily on guidance/advice from existing structures that already don’t include marginalized voices. Many of his answers were extremely brief and did not provide concrete ideas for change.
Hollie supports a variety of alternatives to expand affordable housing, including co-ops, co-housing, inclusionary zoning, and community land trusts / long term leases. She believes that the cost of operating a rental should cover the cost of the city’s need to enforce violations of tenant protections. Hollie does not support rent control, stating that the long-term consequences outweigh the short-term gains (although she is open to changing her opinion if given new research). She gave no suggestions for requiring tenant representation in government. Hollie also didn’t commit support to legal aid for tenants experiencing eviction.
Your call on this one!
40th District State Senate — Liz Lovelett
Supports Rent Control? “Soft yes.”
Endorsed by the Whatcom County Association of Realtors (Landlords)? No.
Read Liz’s questionnaire here. (Old form due to technical issues.)
Liz is from Anacortes and believes in the need to “invest in housing as a foundation of public health and community well-being”. Liz has been a part of housing justice reform for some time now. She voted in favor of the recent state-wide increase in tenant rights protections and has a solid track record on other housing-related issues (property tax breaks for seniors, increase types and funding for affordable housing, etc).
We also like her support for new progressive revenue to fund affordable homes, such as a capital gains, AirBnB and excessive compensation tax. As someone who has jumped through the hoops for food stamps, she’s aware of the indignities piled on poor people. We think she’ll be our champion at the intersections of housing, racial, and disability justice in her legislative work.
Vote Lovelett.
Let’s get these housing champions elected! Please send in your ballots by November 5th. Remind your friends and make sure they vote too—your rent depends on it.
Want to join the Bellingham Tenants Union? Click here.
Appendix: Our Endorsement Process
To begin our endorsement process, we held an event where our members brainstormed an in-depth questionnaire. We then sent it to Bellingham City Council, Mayoral, and 40th District State Senate candidates. Candidates were given a week and a half to work on answers. (We’re proud of our questionnaire. In our interview with State Senator Liz Lovelett, she said, “You guys really took the cake with that. That’s the most in-depth questionnaire I’ve had to fill out so far for sure!”)
We hosted an Endorsement Social at the Roosevelt Community Center for our members to meet the candidates in-person, and for candidates who couldn’t make it, we interviewed them. And lastly, BTU members had twenty days to vote. We endorsed candidates that received >60% of the vote.
Thirty-two BTU members voted. We endorsed five candidates and had a ‘no endorsement’ for one race.