Councilmembers Alex Pedersen (District 4, Northeast Seattle) and Tammy Morales (District 2, South Seattle and the Chinatown / International District) reacted to Mayor Bruce Harrell’s veto today of their proposal to collect data concerning rental rates in the City of Seattle.
“I am really disappointed our plan to collect housing data helpful for preventing displacement of economically vulnerable persons was not signed into law. Similar regulations to collect rental housing data are already in place throughout the nation, so the veto indicates Seattle is still behind the times,” said Councilmember Alex Pedersen.
“The revisions made to our legislation already addressed issues about timing, finance, and implementation. Rejecting this ordinance seems to be a triumph for landlords hesitant to disclose data and a defeat for people seeking facts to make educated decisions on preserving and developing affordable housing in our city.”
“Councilmember Pedersen and I worked together on this bill because we believe that the City needs strong data to assist us make wise policy decisions. The crux of the matter is that we have no trustworthy source of statistics on average rentals, rent hikes, vacancy rates, or year-over-year trends in these areas,” said Councilmember Tammy J. Morales.
“Vetoing this bill means relying on a private for-profit corporation like the now-shuttered Dupre + Scott. That option, which currently doesn’t even exist, would offer us partial, optional data that would cost money every time we request it.
This veto gives the message that we should make decisions in a vacuum, rather than make data-driven decisions, and honestly, I find it troubling.”
Mayor Harrell vetoed Council Bill 120325 adopted by the City Council on May 31, 2022. The Act adds reporting requirements related to rent and rental housing information, like prices and square footage, to the existing Rental Registration Inspection Ordinance. The information would be submitted to a research university for analysis.
If the Mayor had permitted the bill to become law, Seattle would have quickly remedied the historical vacuum in rental housing data needed for better-informed decisions about affordable housing.
Seattle’s Rental Housing Registration & Inspection Ordinance (RRIO) adopted several years ago already requires landlords to submit a list of their rental units and this bill would simply have property owners include that list along with rental rates and square footage of each unit to a research university to compile and analyze this important data.
There would be no personal information shared, executive departments would decide when to begin the procedure, and the mandate would expire in December 2025.
Our city government has lacked the level of detail needed to understand many details about Seattle’s housing inventory for the past four years, including the extent of affordable housing that is not subsidized but still has below market rents due to the age of the housing stock, which some refer to as “naturally occurring affordable housing.”
This bill implements Council’s Statement of Legislative Goal (OPCD-004-A-001), which was adopted in November 2020, as well as Resolution 31870’s intent to reduce displacement implications.
The Urban Displacement Project, University of California, prepared a report for the City’s Office of Planning and Community Development in July 2019 titled “Heightened Displacement Risk Indicators for the City of Seattle’s Equitable Development Monitoring Program,” which states that “a more granular and localized” data set is needed to “best meet the City’s racial equity goals.”
“Displacement can result from economic pressures (such as rising rents or loss of income), demolition of rental housing for redevelopment, eviction, foreclosure, or loss of community anchors that tie residents to a place,” according to the Seattle Market Rate Housing Needs and Supply Analysis prepared for the City in 2021.
When updating the City’s Comprehensive Plan and making significant land use policy and zoning adjustments in the future, timely rental rate and location data for Seattle’s existing supply of rental housing will be critical.
It is unclear how the executive departments will receive the detailed data required by policymakers without this legislation.
The City Council must decide within 30 days on whether to override or sustain the Mayor’s veto, according to Article IV, Section 12 of the Seattle City Charter. A six-vote majority is required for an override.