WA’s eviction moratorium is over. What now for Whatcom tenants and landlords?
Washington’s eviction moratorium bridge officially ended at the end of October, exposing tenants to the reality of eviction after about a year and a half of protection.
Now comes the ultimate test: Will the available resources and programs be enough to prevent a wave of evictions in Whatcom in the coming weeks and months?
Gov. Jay Inslee said it was necessary for the eviction moratorium to come to an end at a press conference on Thursday, Oct. 28, stating that “you can’t have an economy ultimately where just nobody pays rent.”
But he stressed that there are mechanisms in place, such as local rental assistance and eviction resolution programs, that will prevent a huge number of evictions from taking place on “day one after the eviction moratorium expires.”
In Whatcom County, the groups managing those resources are doubling down to meet increasing demand as landlords begin to move forward with evictions.
“The need is still great,” said Debbie Paton, community services director for the Opportunity Council, in an email to The Bellingham Herald. The Opportunity Council is a local nonprofit helping to disburse rental assistance funds. “We’re working closely with our partners, including Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center and the Eviction Resolution Pilot Program, to help prevent evictions.”
Inslee’s eviction moratorium bridge proclamation was meant to transition the state out of its eviction moratorium, which began in March 2020.
The bridge was initially supposed to last from July 1 through Sept. 30, dictating that renters were expected to pay rent in full starting on Aug. 1, unless they had negotiated a lesser amount or payment plan with their landlord or were actively seeking rental assistance. In the final days of September, Inslee extended the bridge through October to allow more time for rental assistance funds to be distributed locally.
That deadline has finally arrived.
Keeping up with rental assistance
The Opportunity Council is working to disburse millions of dollars still available in rental assistance and has faced a flood of appointment requests in recent weeks, Paton said.
Since the start of this year, the Opportunity Council has served 1,100 households in Whatcom County and distributed $6 million in eviction rent assistance. About $1.3 million of that was distributed in the last six weeks, since Sept. 23, according to numbers provided by Paton to The Herald at that time.
About 4,655 Whatcom County households were behind on rent as of June 2021, which is the most recent data available, according to Melissa Morin, communications specialist for the Whatcom County Health Department. It’s hard to come up with an accurate updated number, Paton said, since the pandemic is so dynamic.
However, there are more inquiries for rental assistance appointments than the Opportunity Council is able to fill, and feedback from local service providers and advocates confirms that there is still an unmet need for rental assistance.
In response to high demand, the Opportunity Council has increased the number of rental assistance appointments offered each week. The appointments are filled very quickly, Paton said, and November scheduling will be open each Monday.
The organization still has approximately $6 million available in rental assistance funding, and more will likely become available soon in the next round of contracting. But there are continuing challenges to get the money to those in need, including a workforce shortage, navigating program rules, paperwork and communicating with landlords and tenants, Paton said.
The program is becoming more streamlined as time passes, she said in an email to The Herald.
“We are nearly fully staffed to the level we need,” Paton said.
The process for evictions begin
Since the bridge lifted days ago, there has also been a surge in the already high number of inquiries regarding the county’s Eviction Resolution Pilot Program, said Moonwater, executive director of the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center. The state-launched Eviction Resolution Pilot Program was established in Whatcom County in September to address pandemic-spurred, rent-related issues between tenants and landlords. Landlords are required to attempt to engage tenants in the process before an eviction for unpaid rent can proceed to court.
“We are still in the very early stages of service delivery, and entering a phase of peak volume as landlords initiate this process,” Moonwater said in an email to The Bellingham Herald.
The program is a partnership between the county’s Superior Court, the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center, the Northwest Justice Project, LAW Advocates, the Opportunity Council and others. Legal help may be provided free of charge, and services are available in multiple languages and regardless of immigration status.
As of noon on Thursday, Nov. 4, the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center had received 117 Eviction Resolution Pilot Program notices. About 70 cases are being actively managed by staff, who are scheduling mediations between landlords and tenants for the second half of November into December.
“We expect a number of the active cases to be resolved through conciliation and access to rental assistance,” Moonwater told The Herald in an email.
No cases have yet been certified, which would allow a landlord to initiate eviction proceedings in court, but the Whatcom Dispute Resource Center plans to begin certifying cases in which tenants have not responded beginning in the coming two weeks. That means evictions are potentially on the horizon.
Twenty cases have been closed at landlords’ requests after the tenant paid rent before the center engaged them in the eviction resolution program. Only one case was closed due to the tenant declining services.
Stress for tenants and landlords
Tenant education will be key to preventing evictions, said David Henken, a staff attorney with LAW Advocates, which provides free legal assistance to low-income families in Whatcom County. Many people give up as soon as they receive eviction paperwork from their landlord, he said.
“They may just pack up and leave,” Henken said. “But there are many many ways to solve these problems and speaking to a lawyer can help with that.”
“I would just encourage anyone with concerns about their relationship with their landlord to give us a call,” he explained. “These are people who understand the housing laws, which have changed a lot in the past year.”
The phone number for LAW Advocates is 360-671-6079 ext 15. Callers should leave a message, which Henken said will be returned promptly.
The requests for legal assistance regarding evictions for unpaid rent have just started to roll in at LAW Advocates, and Henken is hopeful that his team of around six active volunteers can meet the need. But he’s also very concerned about the impacts of the eviction moratorium fully lifting, since it’s difficult to gauge how many families are in need of assistance. Many individuals who were financially struggling a year ago are likely still struggling, he said.
New legislation also dictates that tenants who are low-income or receive public assistance have a right to state-appointed legal counsel in eviction cases. In Whatcom County, the Northwest Justice Project is the principal provider of these services, and tenants facing eviction should immediately contact the statewide Eviction Defense Screening Line at 855-657-8387, according to Jim Bamberger, director of the state’s Office of Civil Legal Aid.
The Office of Civil Legal Aid administers this program, and eviction cases cannot proceed in Whatcom until the agency certifies the county, which Bamberger predicts will be on Nov. 15.
Landlord frustration
There is also frustration and confusion on the other end of the spectrum, among landlords, said Doug Wight, owner of Windermere Property Management. He said that some tenants don’t fully understand the eviction moratorium policies and think they don’t have to pay rent, causing some landlords to step away from the industry altogether.
“Some landlords have had some very difficult times because of cash flow,” Wight said. “They are the ones investing to provide housing. It seems like they are the ones who have to carry the burden of bad policy.”
He declined to expand on what “bad policy” he was specifically referring to, saying that it was complicated because Windermere as a property management company represents the interests of both tenants and landlords. His team had not yet met to coordinate their public response to specific policies.
“We don’t like the idea of governmental agencies stepping in and basically demonizing the landlords because if it wasn’t for them wanting to put up their funds to invest in housing, we wouldn’t have any,” Wight said.
Not all relationships between landlords and tenants throughout the pandemic have been negative, he said — some landlords have discounted rent or forgiven owed rent, and some tenants have been incredibly active in trying to keep up with their payments using rental assistance and payment programs.
But there are always tenants who don’t pay rent, said Wight, and he believes there are too many barriers for landlords to evict those people.
“It shouldn’t be easy, but it shouldn’t be as difficult as it has been,” Wight said. “It penalizes the people who put up their investment for the housing.”
Resources
▪ Opportunity Council: oppco.org.
▪Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center: whatcomdrc.org/erpp.
▪LAW Advocates: lawadvocates.org.
▪Northwest Justice Project: washingtonlawhelp.org.
This story was originally published November 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
