[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a Letter to the Editor, written and submitted by a verified resident. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions of South King Media, nor its staff. The Letter writer also donated to Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling’s opponent in the 2023 election.]
I am disturbed that our mayor, Kevin Schilling, testified against the statewide rent stabilization bill, HB 2114, in Olympia on February 22.
He began his testimony by saying that he was testifying in his “personal capacity as Mayor of Burien.” Either he was testifying in his personal capacity and NOT as mayor, or he was testifying as our mayor. He can’t have it both ways. As it is, it looks very much like he was improperly using the prestige of his official elected position to advance a personal opinion.
I also don’t believe his opinion represents the beliefs or the needs of Burien residents. HB 2114 would limit rent increases to 7% annually — for a $2,000 apartment, that’s still a hefty $140 monthly increase. It would also require at least six months’ notice of any rent increase of more than 3% and limit late fees to 1.5% of monthly rent. Almost half of Burien households are renters and would benefit from this bill.
The day before Mayor Schilling testified against HB 2114, the Seattle Times Editorial Board came out strongly in favor of the bill, calling it a “reasonable compromise.” They noted that high rent increases create “revolving doors in some neighborhoods” and force families to move, which creates “instability for students who have to switch schools.”
“Fixed-income seniors, veterans, and those with disabilities who often don’t have reliable access to the internet to search for housing options and transportation are just some who would benefit from knowing their rent will not rise by more than 7% each year,” they wrote. Why would our mayor testify against legislation that would help thousands of our elderly and disabled neighbors stay in their homes?
Homelessness has become a contentious issue in Burien and divided community members who have differing opinions about how it should be addressed. Limiting excessive rent increases is one of the best ways to prevent people from falling into homelessness, not just in Burien but across King County and Washington state. We should all be able to agree on that.
I would like to ask for an apology from Mayor Schilling and clarification from the city council that they have not, in fact, taken an official position against HB 2114 or rent stabilization.
– Stephen Lamphear
Shorewood, Burien
Mayor Schilling Responds
Below is full text of Mayor Schilling’s response to this Letter to the Editor:
“Last week, I spoke before the legislature in my personal capacity as Mayor of Burien on HB 2114. I informed the City Manager and City Attorney I was doing so, as well as our city lobbyist and State Representative Alvarado and State Senator Joe Nguyen.
“I believe efforts should be taken in expanding construction of affordable housing (explained as rent costing 30% of someone’s salary or less) and expanding state directed rental assistance payments and unlawful eviction support as the state’s priority, not rent control.
“As a local elected official and an advocate for density, I know that what local communities need more of right now is housing of all kinds, not less.
“Since 2020, Burien has permitted and approved for 160 units at the Legacy Affordable Retirement Community (LARC), 46 affordable units within the Kinect (not to mention hundreds more in market rate), 95 units of permanent supportive housing in DESC, 40 affordable ownership units in Habitat for Humanity, 27 in EcoThrive, 200 shelter space beds for Mary’s Place and 90 units of permanent supportive housing at Mercy Housing (a project Council voted for and fast tracked that recently received $6 million from Amazon). This is on top of market rate as well as low income/subsidized housing.
“Burien is implementing changes to our code to allow more density and transit oriented development. And we continue to push to make it faster, cheaper, and easier to build housing of all kinds in Burien. And over the last few years, we’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on rental assistance.
“The majority of rental units in Burien are owned by ma and pa landlords that own and operate 1 to 2 buildings in the city. During Covid, and now, housing providers support rental assistance over rent control. But they’re not alone.
“According to a report from the US Federal Reserve from just 15 days ago, America is short 7.3 million affordable units, and have the second lowest vacancy rate of units from the last 50 years. This report does not support rent control as a policy to grow housing or lower cost of rents.
“Regulations that limit the amount of rent a building owner can charge discourage people from building new buildings and maintaining existing ones.
“We need to grow the supply of rental units through more construction of housing of all sizes to reduce rents, not control the price owners can charge that may not cover taxes and repairs or improvements to existing stock.
“I understand that the point of this policy of the state regulating rents is to protect vulnerable tenants who may not be able to find replacement housing at prices they can afford.
“But in order to help keep people where they want to live, the best way to do that is through rental assistance and unlawful eviction support, not state directed rent control.
“I’m a strong ally of constructing more units of all kinds, increasing density, improving quality, and expanding rental assistance. But I’m opposed to any kind of arbitrary rent mandate on local housing providers.
“Thanks for the opportunity to explain my thinking on the possibility of state rent control.
“Sincerely,
Mayor Kevin Schilling”EDITOR’S NOTE: Do you have an opinion you’d like to share with our highly engaged local Readers? If so, please email your Letter to the Editor to scott@southkingmedia.com and, pending review and verification that you’re a real human being, we may publish it. Letter writers must provide an address and phone number (NOT for publication but for verification purposes). Read our updated Letter to the Editor policy here.
Responding to Mayor Schilling’s response: There is no such thing as “personal capacity as Mayor of Burien.” It’s either personal or official. You clearly used your official capacity to present a personal opinion. The people deserve an apology for that.
Thank you to Mayor Schilling for his measured and articulate response regarding rent control.
If you want MORE of something, you make it easier to get, keep and maintain and you make the process uncomplicated. If you want less of something, you make it hard to get, complicated and difficult to keep and maintain. This works for almost everything in life, including rental properties.
By passing rent control legislation, one makes owning and offering rental property difficult and complicated, especially for smaller housing providers.
There’s a lot of risk involved in owning rental properties. Values go up and down, expensive home maintenance issues appear, it’s hard work with the hope of pay-out but not the assurance. Therefore, housing providers want a good rate of return or the risk isn’t worth it. If you eliminate or greatly reduce the potential or possibility of profit, you will lose many small housing providers.
If a big apartment building with 100 units has 1 or 2 people not performing or paying rent, that represents 1 or 2% of their holdings. If Mom & Pop have a duplex or 4-plex and 1 or 2 people are not paying rent, that could be 50 or 100% of their holdings that are underwater.
What this bill did was make owning rental housing and providing rental housing more difficult. It makes it riskier and more difficult and complicated for the housing provider. It will chase many out of the business.
Over the last 5 years, Seattle and King County has enacted dozens of new ordinances that taken together, significantly increase the risk to the small housing provider while increasing their costs. The result is an ongoing departure of rental housing as the providers (landlords) sell and leave the market. These homes typically become owner occupied, rather than continuing as rentals. According to the latest data from Seattle’s Rental Registration and Inspection Program, Seatle has had a net loss of 3,050 properties and 9,759 units since May 2021. During that time, just 27 rental units were added to the market. I imagine we would see the same loss of rental units county-wide.
While designed to help tenants what these new rules and laws will do will make rentals less available and more expensive as property owners and landlords take measures to secure and protect their property.