Tacoma tenants compete with City Council for renters bill of rights

For those who live in the city of Tacoma, come November, you’ll see two competing measures on a ballot that could give more protection to renters.

One group, Tacoma for All is behind the initiative for a Tenant Bill of Rights. The measure they’ve spearheaded will be on the ballot in November and would put in place several protections for renters. Some of those protections include requiring landlords to pay for relocation assistance if they raise rent by more than 5%.

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“So we say no evictions during the school year and no evictions in winter when it’s particularly deadly to push people onto the streets,” The campaign manager for Tacoma for All, Ty Moore, said.

After hours of debate and public comment, the council voted in favor of putting their own version right alongside Tacoma for All’s.

“It is sad and disappointing for voters and for tenants and for the many, many, many people that put countless hours into this campaign,” Devin Rydell Kelly, of Tacoma for All, said.

Renters at the meeting told us they think having two measures right alongside each other will be too confusing for voters.

“To have two very similar ballot initiatives competing against each other and enacting their own when one has been put onto the ballot already seems very anti-democratic,” Keely Freudenstein, a renter, said.

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