‘Where’s the emergency for the landlord?’: Curley questions Spokane’s new rent ordinance after fire

KIRO host John Curley had a warning for Seattle listeners after the Spokane City Council passed a new tenant protection ordinance.

“Look out,” Curley said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “This will spread to Seattle.”

The Spokane City Council voted 5-2 on Sept. 9 to pass an emergency ordinance shielding renters from eviction during declared emergencies if they experience a loss of more than 10% of their monthly income, according to The Spokesman-Review. Qualifying tenants get a 12-month grace period to repay missed rent, with no late fees or penalties. The ordinance was a direct response to the Spokane Complex fires, which damaged or destroyed more than 850 structures.

Curley aired commentary from Spokane real estate agent Sarah Ruth Hoverson, who raised concerns about the ordinance’s practical application: whether the 10% threshold applies to an individual or an entire household, how self-employment income is calculated, and whether landlords can absorb the financial hit.

Who pays the mortgage?

Curley believes the ordinance ignores the math on the landlord’s side.

“For every dollar they get in rent, by the time they pay everything else, they might make maybe 10%, depending on what their mortgage is,” Curley said. “The tenant gets a break and doesn’t have to pay you for a whole year, but oh, by the way, landlord, you still have to pay everything else. You don’t get a break.”

He pushed the logic further. If a tenant’s nonpayment reduces the landlord’s income, the landlord could theoretically qualify for the same emergency relief.

“Where’s the emergency for the landlord?” Curley said. “Maybe the landlord could show, ‘Oh, I had an emergency as well, because now my income has dropped.'”

A familiar playbook

Curley said the ordinance reflects a broader pattern in local government.

“The natural tendency of most of these people that are on city council is landlord bad, tenant good, employer bad, employee good,” Curley said. “Let’s make sure that we can tip the balance into the direction of the tenant, because landlord bad. We don’t really care about you.”

He argued that most landlords affected by these policies aren’t large corporations.

“Most of these landlords are small private ownership. They have like three or four units trying to pay the bills on the thing,” Curley said. “No break for them, just a break for the tenant during an emergency.”

Curley said he’d rather see tenants and landlords work it out on their own, the way he did when he was a landlord.

A tale of two tenants

Curley said he once had a tenant named Tim who stayed for 10 years. Curley never raised the rent.

“He was functionally illiterate. He worked for the post office,” Curley said. “He sent Paula and I a note. It said, ‘Sink brocken.’ It was included with the check.”

Curley fixed the sink. Tim eventually moved out. A new tenant moved in on a referral.

She paid the first month, then stopped.

“So she’s in there for free,” Curley said. “She’s stealing from me. I’m still paying everything else.”

When the tenant finally left, Curley said she bought a five-gallon bucket of industrial roof tar from Home Depot and smeared it across the walls, poured it into the dishwasher, and ran it through the washer and dryer. The Board of Health declared the materials toxic and ordered all the drywall torn out.

“Don’t forget, landlord bad, woman with five gallons of tar good,” Curley said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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