Renter Melody Frazier stood in front of the Pierce County District Courthouse this week, taking a step few tenants reach: suing her landlord.
The suit, which alleges substandard conditions, illegal rent hikes and retaliation at her Tacoma apartment building, will wind its way through the usual court process, but Frazier and local tenant advocates say it also represents a bigger need in Tacoma.
“I have learned that this isn't just about one tenant or one apartment,” Frazier said. “It is about a system that allows landlords to neglect their responsibilities and leaves tenants with too few protections.”
For that broader accountability, Frazier and others are backing a measure on the Nov. 3 ballot that would strengthen Tacoma’s landlord-tenant laws, already some of the strongest in the state. Landlord groups are battling the measure, warning about potential costs for the city and for housing operators.
At the heart of the political battle is the debate over how to improve enforcement and discourage landlords who repeatedly violate the law.
“Housing laws only work when they are actively enforced,” said Tyron Moore, executive director of Tacoma for All, the group supporting the measure.
Ballot measure draws debate
Tacoma already boasts some of the strongest tenant rights measures on the books, surpassing even Seattle on certain rules, such as financial help for tenants who move out after a rent hike.
A 2023 ballot measure, backed by Tacoma for All and the Tacoma chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, mandates six months' notice of rent hikes, limits on late fees, winter and school-year eviction limits and relocation assistance after certain rent increases. The Tacoma City Council later exempted nonprofit and public housing from those rules and made other changes.
But tenant advocates say the city has issued only one fine in the nearly three years since those rules went into effect. Instead, government staff in Tacoma often negotiate with landlords, prioritizing getting the issues repaired rather than issuing fines. Other cities, including Seattle, take a similar approach.
That system, they argue, doesn't deter landlords from repeated violations and does little to encourage tenants to file complaints, especially if they fear retaliation.
Tacoma needs “proactive city-led enforcement with real teeth,” Moore said.
The new proposal, Initiative Measure No. 1, would require fines starting at $500 and ranging up to five times the rent for confirmed violations of tenant law. Those fines would go directly to tenants. The measure would also require landlords to bargain with tenant unions over lease terms and housing conditions and would create a public database of Tacoma landlords, evictions and rent increases. The law would direct the city to create a rental licensing program and charge per-unit licensing fees to fund enforcement of tenant protections.
“Civil lawsuits cannot be our city's enforcement plan,” Moore said.
Landlords are incensed.
The measure will amount to “housing police” “hunting landlords” in what is already Washington’s “worst” market for rental property owners, said Sean Flynn, executive director of the Rental Housing Association of Washington.
The new protections “don't do anything to address affordability, only drive up costs, and not a single piece of new housing is built because of them,” Flynn said.
The Washington Multifamily Housing Association, which represents larger property owners, argued “no one has yet made the case for what specifically is failing in Tacoma's current system.”
Bad actors exist, and we've never argued otherwise. Landlords who put tenants in unsafe conditions should be held accountable, and we'd welcome a serious conversation about how to do that better,” Government Affairs Director Jake Mayson said in an email.
Opponents also point to potential costs. Tacoma's city manager estimated the city could spend $8 million to $10 million a year enforcing and defending the new rules, the News Tribune reported.
Supporters say the cost would be more like $1 million and question the city’s methodology for its estimate.
Tenant advocates highlight that state law already outlines timelines by which landlords must address severe maintenance issues.
“The landlord will have a chance to solve the problems before it (enters) fine territory,” Moore said.
Tacoma for All has raised more than $130,000 to campaign for the measure, known as “Safe Homes for All,” with donations from the Tacoma chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the law firm representing Frazier, unions and others.
With plans to mount an opposition campaign, the Rental Housing Association has raised about $33,000, largely from property managers and owners.
Lawsuit alleges landlord failures
Frazier sued her landlord Tuesday after the property owner allegedly refused to address ongoing problems despite her seeking legal help.
The case accuses North Pearl Street, the limited partnership that owns her building, of issuing illegal rent hikes, retaliating against Frazier, wrongly claiming an exemption from Tacoma tenant laws and failing to address “unsafe and deteriorating conditions,” including mold that Frazier believes caused health issues.
The landlord failed to repair various maintenance issues, Frazier said, including a broken window that wouldn’t lock and caused her utilities costs to soar.
After receiving a 13% rent increase, Frazier requested relocation assistance in December. Under Tacoma law, if a tenant moves out following a rent increase of 5% or more, the landlord must pay the tenant relocation assistance of two months of rent. Larger rent increases require larger relocation assistance payments.
Soon after Frazier's rent increase, the Tacoma City Council exempted nonprofits, and her landlord cited that exemption, pointing to a nonprofit partner, Hearthstone Housing Foundation, according to the lawsuit. “But we have never heard of Hearthstone,” Frazier said. She and her neighbors felt the landlord was “hiding behind this nonprofit to avoid accountability to our Tacoma tenant laws.”
Frazier, who relies on Supplemental Security Income and a Section 8 housing voucher that covers part of her rent, said the landlord told her some repairs to her home would require her to move, but she could not afford to move without relocation assistance.
In a statement to The Seattle Times on Tuesday, building representatives maintained that they are exempt from Tacoma’s Landlord Fairness Code because they have a Low Income Housing Tax Credit agreement recorded against the property and said they were not aware of the lawsuit. Representatives did not respond to other questions about claims in the lawsuit.
North Pearl Street has also sued Tacoma over its tenant protection measures.
The building owner Steven Arterberry told the Tacoma News Tribune in May the apartments where Frazier lives are “decent, safe, and sanitary” and complied with “all applicable building codes at all times.”
Arterberry did not respond to a Seattle Times request for comment.
Frazier said that despite repeatedly seeking legal help, building management did little to respond to her concerns.
She hopes the ballot measure could help tenants who face similar persistent issues.
“Landlords should be held accountable,” she said, “and not be able to ignore dangerous or unhealthy conditions and expect tenants to live with them.”
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