“Durkan’s announcement comes under pressure from the unanimously-passed June 7 City Council resolution from our socialist Council office, to extend the moratorium to the end of this year.”
Councilmember Kshama Sawant (District 3, Central Seattle), chair of the Council’s Sustainability and Renters’ Rights Committee, issued the following statement in response to Mayor Durkan extending the citywide eviction moratorium through the end of September, following the Seattle City Council’s unanimous 7-0 adoption, on June 7th, of Resolution 31998 sponsored by Sawant, which called on Mayor Durkan and Governor Inslee to renew and extend city and state moratoriums through 2021:
“Let’s be clear: The mayor’s announcement today is a victory for all renters. Durkan’s announcement comes under pressure from the unanimously-passed June 7 City Council resolution from our socialist Council office, to extend the moratorium to the end of this year. Thousands of renters have been speaking out, signing petitions, rallying, and demanding that the political establishment extend protections against eviction.
“Our movement celebrates today’s extension of the moratorium as a direct result of mass action, but we won’t stop fighting. We demanded an extension of the moratorium through the end of 2021, and will continue to fight for that.
“We need strong rent control in this city, without corporate loopholes. Corporate landlords have raised rents a staggering 13 percent in just the last five months. And my office will be moving forward full-speed alongside rank-and-file renters with the next legislative pieces of our Renters’ Bill of Rights – a bill requiring landlords to provide relocation assistance when tenants are forced out due to rent increases, and a bill requiring 180 days’ advance notice for any rent increases.
“Corporate landlords made hundreds of millions of dollars during the pandemic, exploiting the suffering of working people. Renters deserve nothing less than our full Renters’ Bill of Rights, and my Council office is committed to work alongside community activists and labor unions to build our movement and fight for our rights.”