Evictions — Crises Converge
**Update: On September 9, 2020 the Washington State Supreme Court issued an order authorizing the establishment of eviction resolution programs in all state superior courts. On November 9 the court announced an Eviction Resolution Pilot Program to be implemented when the state eviction moratorium ended. The state legislature followed up with legislation authorizing county resolution programs. Find information for your county here and read our Evictions — Help for Washington Tenants post here.**
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The Coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the struggles facing both people of color and women, especially those who are living in poverty. One critical area of concern is housing — both for people who are at risk of losing their housing and for society at large due to the spread of the virus in community shelters and unhoused populations. Because of this heightened risk, both Governor Jay Inslee and President Donald Trump have declared moratoriums on the eviction of renters.
On July 24, 2020, Governor Inslee extended a statewide eviction moratorium to October 15th. On August 8, 2020, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to evaluate whether there should be a national temporary halt to residential evictions for failure to pay rent. On September 2, 2020, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield signed a declaration determining that the evictions of tenants could be detrimental to public health during the pandemic and ordered a moratorium on evictions through the end of 2020. The federal moratorium does not override state or local moratoriums that provide stronger relief.
Many tenants are facing multiple months of unpaid rent and will be fighting eviction once the moratoriums are lifted. The Northwest Justice Project provides legal assistance to low income citizens of Washington and has information about eviction on their WashingtonLawHelp website, including a video about the eviction moratoriums and a summary of 2020 legislative changes to Washington’s landlord-tenant laws.
Discrimination compounds the problem of eviction with communities of color facing significantly greater eviction threats in Washington. In a statewide study of evictions in Washington, a team from the University of Washington and the University of California, Berkeley examined racial and gender disparity in evictions across the state. Tim Thomas, the lead UW researcher, who is now a postdoctoral scholar in sociology and a Research Director at the Urban Displacement Project at the University of California, Berkeley, summarizes:
The most concerning finding is the severe over-representation of black adults in the Western Washington eviction filing process. In Pierce County, one in six black adults were named in a filing between 2013 and 2017, and one in 11 in King County during that same time. For whites, it’s one in 55 and one in 100, respectively. This severe racial disparity makes evictions a civil rights issue, requiring new laws to intervene.”
In 2019, Dr. Thomas successfully lobbied with other housing advocates to have the Washington State law amended to increase the “pay or vacate” period for tenants from three to fourteen days in Senate Bill 5600.
This study amplifies the findings of a 2018 report by the Seattle Women’s Commission and the King County Bar Association, Losing Home: The Human Cost of Eviction in Seattle. The report examined over a thousand unlawful detainer eviction cases in Seattle from 2017 and found that 51.7 percent of the evicted tenants were people of color, with 31.2 percent being Black. This rate is 4.5 times what would be expected based on the demographics of Seattle. The study also found that women were more likely to be evicted over small amounts of money — women made up 81 percent of single-tenant household evictions due to the tenant owing $100.00 or less. The report sets out many policy recommendations to address the eviction crisis, such as requiring landlords to offer payment plans and allow roommates, creating a practical path for tenants to enforce their rights, and providing courts more flexibility to determine if an eviction is warranted.
Discriminatory evictions violate federal and state law including the Fair Housing Act and the Washington Law Against Discrimination. Complaints can be filed online with the Washington State Human Rights Commission for discrimination in lease and other types of cases. Tenants may also seek assistance from the Fair Housing Center of Washington and the Northwest Justice Project. (RM)
Eviction Resources
Washington LawHelp eviction resources
Solid Ground eviction resources
Tenants Union of Washington eviction resources
National Low Income Housing Coalition Federal Eviction Moratoriums — CARES Act coverage tool and federal eviction moratorium FAQ
Additional Research and Data
Cities & Counties for Fine and Fee Justice’s Evictions and Housing Policy during COVID 19 webinar
The Evictions Study interactive map
Young Adult Eviction Prevention Project
Forced Out: Race, Market, and Neighborhood Dynamics of Evictions
Princeton University’s Eviction Lab
STOUT interactive eviction tool
Regional Housing Legal Services eviction moratorium maps
The Sturm und Drang of the CDC’s Home Eviction Moratorium, 2021 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y Per Curiam 18
