CITY OF SEATTLE
RESOLUTION __________________
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A RESOLUTION recognizing the harms that evictions from housing have on tenants and marginalized communities and describing the City Council's plan to help avoid and mitigate those harms.
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WHEREAS, the Seattle Women's Commission partnered with the Housing Justice Project to study the causes, processes, and effects of evictions in Seattle and how the housing crisis disproportionately impacts marginalized communities; and
WHEREAS, on September 21, 2018, the Seattle Women's Commission presented its study ("Losing Home") to the City Council's Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development & Arts committee (CRUEDA); and
WHEREAS, Losing Home found that 51.7 percent of tenants in eviction filings were people of color and 31.2 percent were Black, 4.5 times more than the Black population in Seattle; and
WHEREAS, women were more likely to be evicted over small amounts of money-of single-tenant household cases where a tenant owed $100 or less, 81 percent were women; and
WHEREAS, based on the high rates of poverty, housing discrimination, and homelessness in the transgender community and the high proportion of the homeless youth population who are LGB youth, it is likely that eviction disproportionately impacts the LGBTQ community; and
WHEREAS, there is a disproportionate rate of seniors experiencing evictions; while 26.6 percent of HJP's clients were 55 years or older, the general population is only comprised of 21.4 percent of individuals 55 and older; and
WHEREAS, almost 87 percent of evictions were for nonpayment of rent, and of those, 52.3 percent were for nonpayment of one month or less of rent; and
WHEREAS, of eviction cases filed by private landlords, 9.2 percent were for rental units renting for less than $750 in monthly rent; and
WHEREAS, for cases in which tenants were behind in rent by one month or less, 70.2 percent of eviction notices were served on or before the 15th of the month, and 27.8 percent of evict...
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