‘Abused by a small percentage’: Spike frustrated as Tacoma reconsiders renters’ bill of rights
Dec 7, 2025, 5:01 AM
Tacoma is considering rolling back a renters’ bill of rights, which was aimed at protecting tenants from excessive or unannounced rent increases, and capping late fees.
Jake Skorheim, co-host of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, believed the tenants’ reaction to the bill of rights was an attempt to take advantage of it. Co-host Spike O’Neill initially agreed with the policy, but also agreed with Jake that a few bad actors could ruin it for everybody.
“I mean, if people are taking this as an opportunity to not pay rent because the penalty for not paying rent is just a 10-spot,” Jake said.
“Well, you move on, and you leave a year’s worth of back rent sitting there with no way for the [Tacoma Housing Authority] to collect it. They then have to cover those losses,” Spike responded. “They don’t have enough consequence or skin in the game for people who are abusing this system.”
Jake noted that there was speculation about the renters’ bill of rights before it was passed, highlighting concerns over tenants skipping their rent altogether if a late fee cap was introduced.
“What’s interesting though, is this exact outcome was one of the predicted outcomes, or warnings from people who said, ‘You’re actually stepping over a line here, and you’re going to do more harm than good, and if you put this in place, what’s to stop people from just skipping their rent,’ which is exactly now what they’re saying they’re doing,” Jake said.
Spike approved of the idea, finding that it did a good job of safeguarding tenants from overbearing landlords, although he does believe it may be rolled back due to some of the tenants taking advantage of the new policy.
“I think it’s a good policy, late fees were becoming just ridiculously onerous for tenants, who found themselves in financial straits, and next thing you know, there’s $100 late penalty on a family whose income is stretched as far as it is,” Spike said. “It’s humane not to want to evict people in the dead of winter. They’re the best of intentions, but they were abused by a small percentage, which made it untenable.”
Watch the full discussion in the video above.
Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
