Seattle tenant hotlines, legal aid could face sweeping budget cuts

Thousands of Seattle tenants every year find themselves bewildered by confusing landlord-tenant rules, frustrated with an unresolved repair in their rental or facing potential eviction. Beyond a desperate Google search, many of these renters will seek out help from an array of tenant hotlines, counseling programs and legal aid services.

Those programs could soon face steep budget cuts.

As part of the proposed 2025 budget, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and the city’s Department of Construction and Inspections plan to slash funding for programs known as “tenant services” by about half, part of a larger effort to address the city’s $251 million budget deficit.

Funding for renter programs represents a tiny fraction of Seattle’s proposed $8.3 billion budget, but tenant counselors and attorneys say those dollars play a crucial role in safeguarding renters’ rights, keeping their disputes with landlords from escalating into legal battles and preventing them from falling into homelessness.

Harrell argues the cuts are necessary in a tough budget environment.

The move comes amid elevated eviction case filings and high housing costs that continue to squeeze Seattle renters.

Across the Seattle metro area, 10% of renters report in an online census survey that they are behind on rent. Nearly half of Seattle-area renters spent more than 30% of their income on housing in 2022, the latest year available, qualifying them as rent-burdened. Seattle and other nearby cities have also passed an array of new tenant protections in recent years, leaving both landlords and tenants with more new rules and rights to understand.

Because helping renters stay in their homes can help prevent them from becoming homeless, cutting funds to renter hotlines, counseling and legal aid is “short-sighted,” said Bill Hallerman, agency director at Catholic Community Services of King County, which houses the Tenant Law Center. About 40% of the center’s budget this year came from the city funding source now facing cuts.

“Those are services that keep folks housed,” Hallerman said.

Budget proposal

Harrell proposed his 2025 budget last month, largely relying on a funding swap to plug the city’s massive budget shortfall by redirecting payroll tax revenues previously earmarked for affordable housing and environmental programs to the general fund for other basic services. Beyond the funding shift, some departments are facing cuts, including the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections.

SDCI has taken on a larger role in landlord-tenant relations over the last decade as Seattle added new tenant protections.

When the pandemic took hold, more renters struggled financially and local officials worried about a flood of evictions. SDCI’s budget for tenant services climbed from $712,000 in 2019 to $2.6 million this year, and the department contracted with nonprofits to offer those renter services. The department also directed $1 million a year toward rental assistance — payments typically made directly to landlords after tenants fall behind — in 2023 and 2024.

The mayor’s budget proposal would not renew that $1 million for rental assistance, describing it as one-time funding. The budget would also cut funding for tenant services from about $2.6 million to $1.8 million and earmark $527,000 for rent assistance, leaving about $1.2 million for tenant services, a more than 50% reduction.

Harrell’s administration pointed out that other city departments also provide rent assistance and the state provides funding for eviction attorneys through Washington’s right-to-counsel program, which guarantees attorneys for low-income tenants facing eviction.

Harrell “challenged” city departments to ask, “How does the city’s work intersect with the work of other governments,” Dan Eder, interim director of the City Budget Office, told council members last month.

Budget cuts were “challenging but necessary,” Harrell spokesperson Callie Craighead said in a statement Thursday. Craighead pointed to other funds in the budget for homelessness prevention, including rent assistance and case management.

“Should the revenue forecast improve, we would be supportive of restoring this funding for tenant services,” Craighead said.

Even so, tenant advocates say renters need more legal help, counseling and financial assistance than local governments are funding. About 5,800 Seattle residents are on the waitlist for rental assistance from United Way of King County, Councilmember Cathy Moore said during a recent budget committee meeting.

Unpaid rent is the most common driver of eviction cases in Washington, according to data from the state Office of Civil Legal Aid. While evictions in Washington leveled off after spiking last year, the number of cases filed statewide remains higher than pre-pandemic, especially in King County: About 570 eviction cases were filed in King County in August, up 82% from August 2019.

Council members will spend the next six weeks debating and tweaking the mayor’s budget proposal before a final vote expected on Nov. 21. The council will host a public hearing on the budget on Wednesday at 5 pm.

Most council members have given little indication so far of whether they may reverse the cuts to tenant hotlines, training and legal aid, but some raised concerns about reduced funding for tenants who’ve fallen behind on rent.

“The data is quite clear that we need more rental assistance, not less rental assistance,” Moore said.

‘Difficult choices’

At the Tenant Law Center, senior staff attorney Elizabeth Powell fields calls from renters who’ve been locked out of their apartments, face serious maintenance issues or may end up facing eviction in court.

While other legal aid organizations focus primarily on those eviction cases, Powell and her colleagues often help renters try to avoid reaching that point. She connects tenants to rental assistance, calls landlords to try to strike deals or helps panicked renters understand that they have the right to a legal process before they’re physically evicted from their home.

“The whole point of it is to keep people out of the maw of eviction court,” Powell said.

The organization and others also host know-your-rights training sessions — crucial as more cities change their landlord-tenant laws, said Neal Simpson, spokesperson for Solid Ground, another nonprofit that received about three-quarters of its tenant funding from SDCI this year.

Simpson argues the programs benefit landlords, too, by educating tenants on how to handle conflicts with landlords without escalating into a legal fight.

Other organizations take on similar work, helping tenants understand city and state laws, negotiate with their landlords, find rent assistance and navigate rent hikes, fees or deposits. The Tenants Union of Washington State worked with more than 2,000 Seattle residents last year, plus others around the state, with bilingual counselors sometimes translating between Spanish-speaking tenants and English-speaking landlords. Roughly a quarter of the organization’s funding comes from Seattle, and reductions could mean staff cuts, said operations and finance manager Jenny McIntosh.

Renters who are refugees or immigrants often need help understanding their leases and advocating for repairs, said Derek Lum, policy and advocacy manager at the InterIm Community Development Association, which focuses on the Chinatown International District.

“If anything, we might need to make this budget larger, not shrink it,” Lum said.

If the cuts take effect, advocates say they may cut back on tenant hotline hours or take on fewer cases.

Although King County’s primary eviction defense organization, the Housing Justice Project, gets most of its funding from the state, the group also received about $1 million from the city this year for eviction defense and tenant education. Reduced funding next year could mean turning away 100 to 200 households, said senior managing attorney Edmund Witter.

For the Tenant Law Center, already operating on a “pretty lean” budget, funding cuts will force “difficult choices,” Hallerman said.