KENMORE, Wash. — Nadia Silver said her quest to find housing in Seattle was a journey that started more than two years ago. She was living in Tucson, Arizona, when she decided to make the move to Washington state.
"For myself, and for my son, and going through a divorce, I'm like, 'let’s go someplace where we can benefit the most,'” Silver said. “At the time it was being advertised as Seattle is heaven, basically.”
However, she quickly found out a slice of “heaven” was out of her price range.
"To jump from $750 a month for a two bedroom, to $3,000, $4,000, $5,000 [a month]," said Silver.
She said Seattle’s rent prices were a financial set back that led to her to seek help.
"I had to go to a night shelter," Silver explained.
She said services from the non-profit The Sophia Way allowed her to eventually find her way into an affordable apartment in Kenmore. Recently, Silver has been sharing her experience at city hall.
This past spring, Silver stood before city leaders to campaign for a proposed ordinance that called for more notice before a landlord could increase the rent.
"Like a lot of the Puget Sound region, Kenmore is seeing massive spikes in rent," said Kenmore Deputy Mayor Nigel Herbig.
Herbig said tenants have been receiving a 30-day notice of a rent increase, but city leaders voted to change that starting September 1, 2019.
"What our ordinance does is it requires landlords to give folks 90 days notice if rent is going to increase by 10% or more," Herbig explained.
Violet Lavatai is Co-Director of Tenants Union of Washington. She said the extra time can help avoid what they see too often.
"Good on Kenmore if we can adopt this 90 days statewide," said Lavatai. "We have a lot of tenants who have said we are living in our car right now because of these rent increases."
Silver knows that struggle.
"I am proof positive that you can be up on top one minute, and down in the downy dumps the very next second. Life is all about change," said Silver.
The change she's happy to see is the one her city is making to buy more time for renters.
However, Eric Steven, a lawyer affiliated with Washington Landlord Association, says Kenmore's adoption of an ordinance requiring 90 days notice of rent increases is a bad idea.
"I believe landlord tenant laws should be adopted at a State level and not a municipal level to ensure proper understanding of the laws. It is difficult for smaller landlords to stay on top of changes in the law especially at a municipal level," Steven wrote in an email to King 5.
Steven went on to say, "I believe WA is currently overly regulating landlords and runs the risk of curbing development of additional units. Over regulation of the private market small landlords increases expenses which often leads to higher rents or landlords choosing to sell properties to seek other less regulated Investment strategies. We need to conduct much more market analysis and gather more information. We need to let the new state laws play out and see the impact of those new laws before we adopt additional regulations."
Governor Inslee signed a House bill that will go into effect statewide next month. It will mandate a 60-day notice of rent increases for all tenants, regardless of the size of the increase. The Kenmore ordinance will supplement that requirement for larger increases.