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Spokane to consider new protections, programs for renters

Rebecca White/SPR
Apartments in Kendall Yards in Spokane. Spokane City Council will soon consider new housing policies that could create new programs for both landlords and renters.

The Spokane City Council is poised to enact new housing codes, requiring landlords to get a business license and undergo more inspections.

Many landlords strongly oppose the proposal, saying it will worsen the regions’ housing crisis. Tenant advocates say it will make housing safer and protect vulnerable renters.

Terri Anderson, director of the Spokane Branch of the Tenants Union of Washington State, said the proposal isn’t perfect, but offers relief to Spokane’s most vulnerable tenants.

“One of the most common things I hear when I'm at my table is: ‘I could only apply for three apartments this month, because I don't have enough money. Is there any we could reduce the cost of rental applications,”’ she said.

She said the mandatory, periodic inspections, are also desperately needed.

“There have been apartment fires this year,” Anderson said, “we've had tenants die because of the heat, there's been so many reports of the lack of safety.”

Landlords are strongly opposed to the changes, with many calling into city council last Monday to voice their concerns.

Kathleen Nichols, owner of the River City Management, said the city should do a better job enforcing the laws and building codes it already has, instead of putting new requirements on landlords.

“Don't punish the owners that have their properties managed by professional property managers,” she said. “There's thousands of us out there that do our job, make sure our tenants are taken care of, that they're work orders are addressed, and that they're living in a safe environment and that their property is taken care of.”

If the city council votes to add a housing section to the city code, it would require landlords to pay $10 for every housing unit they operate, have a business license and undergo periodic inspections. It would also create universal background check program. A tenant would pay fee to a city contractor that would perform a background check that would be valid for 60 days. If a landlord doesn’t accept that background check, they would be responsible for the cost of performing their own.

There’s a few proposals that might benefit landlords as well, including a fund to pay to restore rental properties damaged by tenants, and no additional fees to landlords for the extra inspections.

Steve Corker, president of the Spokane Landlords association, said his biggest concern is the fees the city would begin charging landlords. The fund to restore rental housing is paid for through the $10 landlord fee.

“Our question is why aren't we creating funding for state, and federal sources, that don't add costs to the landlord that are passed onto the tenant,” Corker said.

He said a resource for restoring dilapidated rentals or damage could be a good thing, but not if its subsidized by landlords.

He argued fees, and more regulations, could lead smaller, local landlords to sell their properties, possibly to larger, out of state buyers who are less interested in working with low-income tenants.

“What I’m afraid it will do is exacerbate the problem of reducing available low-income housing, and doing it at a time when we can't build fast enough, and we don't have the space to build here,” he said.

Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs told fellow council members in a meeting earlier this month that the city has been working toward this vote for years. He said he has held several work groups, listening to both landlords, and tenants, in hopes of creating a proposal that benefits them both.

“This has been something where we had a balance of landlords and their lawyer, and the tenants and their lawyer to come up with something, so I feel like it’s a pretty good balance,” Beggs said. “I don't think either of them will say, oh my gosh, this is great, the tenants won't say oh my gosh, we got everything that we wanted.”

Anderson said tenants’ rights advocates know their entire wish list, which includes a sixty-day notice for rent increases, and an end to no-cause 20-day vacate notices, may not be possible at the city level.

She said many communities across the region are facing similar housing issues, and she’s hopeful the legislature will address rental housing next legislative session.

“If we had state laws that would make it all consistent, that would be the best,” she said.

Rebecca White is a 2018 graduate of Edward R Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. She's been a reporter at Spokane Public Radio since February 2021. She got her start interning at her hometown paper The Dayton Chronicle and previously covered county government at The Spokesman-Review.