Drafter
Clerk 06/30/2021
Title
AN ORDINANCE relating to tenant protections; amending Ordinance 383, Section 5, as amended, and K.C.C. 2.60.050, adding a new chapter to K.C.C. Title 12 and repealing Ordinance 16223, Section 3, and K.C.C. 12.47.010, Ordinance 16223, Section 4, and K.C.C. 12.47.020, Ordinance 16223, Section 5, and K.C.C. 12.47.030 and Ordinance 16223, Section 6, and K.C.C. 12.47.040.
Body
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. The King County council finds that establishing this ordinance, a just cause and tenant protections ordinance, is necessary to protect the public health, safety and welfare.
B. Under a provision of the Washington state Residential Landlord-Tenant Act of 1973, RCW 59.18.290, landlords may not evict residential tenants without a court order, which under RCW 59.18.380 can be issued by a court only after the tenant has an opportunity to contest the eviction.
C. King County established the regional affordable housing task force in 2017 through Motion 14873. The task force's charge was to develop a recommended countywide affordable housing strategy.
D. The regional affordable housing task force released its Final Report and Recommendations in December 2018, and the King County council declared through Motion 15372 that recommendations contained therein represent the policy of the council.
E. The regional affordable housing task force's report included Census data that showed that more than one hundred twenty-four thousand low-income households in King County are severely cost burdened. Of those, eighty-eight percent, or one hundred nine thousand seven hundred households, earn fifty percent or less of area median income, meaning the county's poorest residents struggle most with housing costs. The report found that communities of color and renters are disproportionately likely to be severely cost burdened, paying more than half of their income toward housing costs. The report also inc...
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