Warning of ‘wave of evictions,’ Sawant calls for extension of Seattle eviction moratorium

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant announced plans this week to introduce legislation that would extend the city’s eviction moratorium “through the end of the COVID public health emergency.”

Mayor Harrell to end Seattle eviction moratorium Feb. 28

This comes on the heels of Mayor Bruce Harrell setting a Feb. 28 end date for the moratorium, citing a steady decline in COVID-19 cases, and a need to “move on the broad approach of the eviction moratoria and instead drive more deliberate and focused efforts to support those most in need.”

Seattle’s eviction moratorium was first enacted in March 2020, and has since been extended numerous times in response to variant-fueled COVID surges.

Sawant — who chairs the council’s Sustainability and Renters Rights Committee — took issue with Harrell’s decision to conclude the moratorium, criticizing it as “unacceptable and inhumane.”

“Mayor Harrell claims that ‘COVID cases steadily declining’ justifies the end of the eviction moratorium. Yet the fatality rate from COVID is still frighteningly high, both in the United States and globally,” she said in a press release. “In fact, the daily fatality rate is still nearly as high as during the peaks of earlier waves of the pandemic. Ending the eviction moratorium now would lead to a deadly wave of evictions, and increased homelessness, in the midst of this ongoing crisis.”

As of last week, Seattle’s two-week daily average for COVID-related deaths hovered around two. That’s down from an average of 2.4 a day that the city saw at the height of the omicron surge, but also nearly double the rate Seattle experienced during its last major surge in the fall of 2021.

Why extending eviction moratoriums could actually hurt renters

Meanwhile, King County plans to stop accepting new applications for pandemic-related rent assistance on the same day Seattle’s eviction moratorium will end, on Feb. 28. That’s due to dwindling funds originally sourced from federal stimulus dollars. Countywide, it’s estimated that as many as 8,000 tenants may still be in need of assistance by the time applications close.

That could “unleash a wave of evictions,” Sawant warned, particularly among “Black working-class renters and other communities of color,” who she says would be disproportionately affected.

Sawant plans to present her proposal to extend Seattle’s eviction moratorium in the council’s renters rights committee on Friday, Feb. 18.

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