Democratic Socialists in Washington State Demand the Gov. #CancelRent
We are in the midst of a crisis.
We all require housing. The COVID-19 crisis is making an already bad statewide housing crisis worse. While the impending recession threatens to hurt landlords’ and developers’ bottom lines, it is costing working people and small businesses their lives and livelihoods. If we allow profits of the 1% to shape policy, we do that at the cost of the working class.
We have seen that Washington’s State government has had to lead during the COVID-19 crisis because the federal government is completely inept. In this leadership vacuum, Inslee has taken some good steps. In the face of growing public pressure, from many community organizations, including Democratic Socialists, Inslee has taken better steps relating to housing. Freezing rent, banning late fees, and extending the eviction moratorium are important, but this is woefully not enough.
What will protect people from racking up rent debt? How will working class people — with more and more becoming unemployed each day — be able to dig out of that hole? How will the state government stop the wave of projected evictions once the moratorium lifts come June?
Safe and secure housing is a human right. With a pandemic and economic crisis before us, we must move to guarantee Washington’s residents housing security by passing legislation to allow for statewide rent control and Just Cause eviction tenant protections. We must have an accountable system for taking vacant housing into public ownership to house people experiencing homelessness and government-financed tenant purchases of properties.
We call on Governor Inslee and the Washington State Legislature to take these unprecedented actions to protect the housing stability for all working class people across the state:
1. Suspend all rents and mortgages until pandemic declared over. This means residents are not responsible for paying for housing during this time, until at least September 1st, and retroactive to the beginning of the State of Emergency, March 16th. This means that residents are never on the hook for these payments: a pandemic is a disgusting time to increase the debt load of the American people (who owe an historic amount of personal debt).
2. Extend the eviction moratorium by 6 months. Extending and expanding the eviction moratorium until June is a good step, but this detrimental impact will last longer than that. We need the moratorium extended to 6 months to combat the projected wave of evictions, displacement, and rise in homelessness.
3.Take vacant housing into public ownership to house people experiencing homelessness. In many of our state’s cities, hotels and luxury homes sit vacant while thousands sleep out on the streets. Governor Inslee must work with mayors and city councils to develop safe emergency housing for the houseless using these vacant properties.
4. Support long-term tenant stability by lifting the state rent control ban and enacting Just Cause eviction tenant protections. Our government must protect the long-term stability of working people across the state by enacting Just Cause eviction protections and lifting the ban on rent control and instituting it statewide, like Oregon and California did recently. Our state legislature and elected officials need to stop continually prioritizing the profits of landlords over the necessity of renters to have life-saving shelter and stability.
As Democratic Socialists of America, we believe that housing, healthcare, and education are all things that are worth fighting for. As Democratic Socialists, we offer a radically different vision for housing and other issues that have been exacerbated by this current crisis: We want to appropriately treat the emergencies in the short term, but also build for a humane future beyond this moment.
We will continue to fight for #CancelRent, #CancelMortgages, and #RentControl to be a reality across Washington State!
Join into this work with us! Sign up for this week’s phone zap or get involved with DSA.. Together, we can make a better world possible.
