Seattle City Council votes down Sawant’s rent control proposal

SEATTLE – The Seattle City Council rejected a proposal for rent control Tuesday, rebuffing the last major progressive push by outbound Councilmember Kshama Sawant.

Sawant, the council’s only socialist member, introduced a bill in June that would have capped annual residential rent increases at the rate of inflation in an attempt to make rental housing more affordable. It failed on a vote of 6-2. Opponents on the council argued that controlling rent increases would disincentivize developers from building new housing.

“Seattle has seen unparalleled development alongside rampant homelessness,” Sawant said, rebuking concerns that rent control would impact the city’s available housing.

“We’ve seen Seattle be the construction crane capitol for three years running, and yet they say, ‘Oh, we need to build more. And that’s why housing is not available for people,’ ” she said. “No, actually, housing is not available because it’s not affordable.”

According to Sawant, who has spent years advocating for citywide rent control, the bill would have prohibited landlords from “gouging” tenants with big increases. But this proposal wouldn’t have gone into effect immediately because the state has a restriction on city rent control laws. Sawant’s proposal was what’s called a trigger bill. It would have gone into effect if the state removed its restriction.

Renters have faced large increases in recent years as housing costs in Seattle have surged. Data from the federal American Community Survey cited in a council memo in June shows the median Seattle rent increased by 15% between 2017 and 2021, from $1,555 to $1,787. Average rents climbed 91.8% from 2010 to 2020 in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area.

Still, a majority of Sawant’s colleagues thought the bill was the wrong approach to addressing housing costs.

Councilmembers Lisa Herbold, Andrew Lewis, Sara Nelson, Alex Pedersen, Dan Strauss and Council President Debora Juarez voted against the bill, citing the city’s limited housing stock.

“I just believe that the last thing that we should be doing during a housing affordability crisis is discouraging new housing production at any affordability level,” Nelson said.

“I think it would be better if this bill considered exempting new construction and created incentives for owners of new buildings to participate,” Herbold said, noting she may have offered a related amendment to this bill, but Sawant said no amended version would be supported.

Property owners spoke out against the bill in recent weeks, arguing that rent control makes providing housing unaffordable for “mom and pop” landlords who offer few units. Industry groups like the Rental Housing Association of Washington and the Washington Multi-Family Housing Association warned of landlords and developers leaving Seattle and reducing the city’s already limited housing options if the bill passes.

“Landlords flee in 2023,” Sean Flynn, president and executive director of the Rental Housing Association of Washington, warned in July.

Sawant’s proposal would only be effective if the state repealed the 40-year-old law prohibiting local rent control. While legislators have tried as recently as this spring to remove the law, their efforts have been unsuccessful.

“I don’t see how legislation that fails in Seattle today would build a movement of support for change in Olympia,” Herbold said, noting she was concerned that Tuesday’s all-or-nothing vote will hurt the movement for more agreeable rent control statewide.

Sawant rebuffed Herbold’s comment, saying if Seattle passed the bill it would put “enormous” pressure on the state.

Councilmember Tammy Morales supported the bill with Sawant, leaving the door open for a future version of rent control and committing to advocating for a repeal of the statewide ban.

“I do support rent control here in Seattle and across the state,” Morales said before the vote, noting it would be the broadest version of rent control in the United States, and would mirror models in Vienna and Paris, rather than limited versions in places like New York City.

Sawant was the only council member attending the meeting in person; the other seven attended via Zoom. Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda had an excused absence.

After nearly a decade in office, Sawant will step down from the council at the end of this year when her third term ends. The rent control bill was likely the last in a long list of progressive policies she’s championed, including successful, activist-led efforts to tax Amazon and establish a $15 minimum wage in Seattle. Sawant also staved off an attempt to recall her midterm in 2021.

Tuesday’s rent control vote took place before the council goes on a legislative break Aug. 21 and policy decisions slow down for the rest of the year as members focus on the budget process.

True to Sawant’s style of activist-driven policymaking, the councilmember drew a crowd of supporters, overflowing the council chambers on Tuesday, calling for the council to support the bill and cheering on the councilmember.

“As a socialist, I believe that housing should be a human right, but capitalism turns everything into a commodity,” Sawant said, “which means that economists discuss issues like rent control, not in terms of human beings and our needs, but instead, in terms of investor profits.”