In April 2021, Washington passed legislation reforming eviction laws and guaranteeing a “right to counsel” (RTC) for low-income tenants. These changes are, of course, controversial in the minds of landlords and property managers, much like the promise of public defenders probably was for prosecutors. For some “lords of the land,” the state committing to providing legal counsel for the poor is an extreme, unbearable injustice.
The truth is the eviction and criminal systems are not very different. They both target very similar communities and identities, have life-threatening consequences for defendants and offer no help for the fundamental problems leading to their existences. RTC is not a solution to the eviction process, just as public defenders do not “solve” the criminal system. It simply highlights the futility of the process as a whole.
It’s important to note that even with RTC, tenants do not get the same level of attorney representation that landlords often obtain. While RTC attorneys provide an excellent caliber of legal assistance, high demand for attorneys means that full representation is often limited to when cases are actually filed with the court, which is significantly far into the eviction process. Landlords, on the other hand, often have access to counsel long before an eviction lawsuit starts. If they don’t have an established firm, an available eviction attorney is just a phone call away.
In King County, landlords wealthy enough to own residential space they don’t live in have the money to call on an attorney. The person paying half (or more) of their paycheck just to rent a space to rest their head cannot.
I have represented hundreds of tenants and seen hundreds more eviction cases take place in King County. It is incredibly rare that a low-income tenant will as a first resort refuse to pay rent. Landlords have called tenants who have become disabled or lose work “deadbeats” and “lazy.” Long before an eviction starts, most tenants have made call after call trying to find any kind of help. Rental assistance availability can be extremely volatile, requiring a tenant to call thousands of places for months on end. Tenants have to check everywhere, from federal and state governmental agencies to local churches, temples and mosques, desperately hoping they win the lottery of circumstance to find some small bit of assistance. By the time they find it, it may not be much help at all.
There is also no consistency when it comes to rental assistance programs, which cover anywhere from a few hundred dollars to over $10,000 and could be available for years at a time or mere days or weeks. This leaves most, if not all, indigent tenants to enter a series of lotteries and waitlists, desperate for any kind of assistance that, more times than not, does not come.
Many low-income tenants, especially those targeted by various social systems, seek help from housing vouchers. Several local entities assist with these, including the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA), Renton Housing Authority (RHA) and King County Housing Authority (KCHA). The voucher process, however, is a dismal dead end, with some agencies having closed access to new applications entirely. RHA closed new applications in 2018, while KCHA closed its voucher waitlist in 2020. KCHA reported progress on applicants from a 2020 lottery waiting list, but SHA, which primarily serves children and elderly or disabled folks, requires applicants to check in monthly to preserve their spot, presumably during the years-long wait.
Disability also plays a unique role in these dimensions, as disability and poverty tend to intersect, so many experience both simultaneously. Tenants whose ability status has recently changed often face a newfound need to apply for disability benefits to replace or initiate a source of income — a process that is neither speedy nor forgiving. Additionally, applicants have to obtain myriad materials, which often require appointments with doctors, caseworkers and more. Some specialists may not even have initial appointment availability for six to eight months.
At the same time, to remain eligible, individuals seeking disability benefits can only have up to $2,000 in savings. Even people who find temporary assistance are actively discouraged from having anything too substantial, or they risk losing disability benefits entirely.
While tenants wait on dead-end waitlists and suffer through indefinite phone holds, landlords and their attorneys are sending letters, notices and emails and making calls telling tenants to leave immediately or face dire consequences. Often these threatening messages provide information that is biased, incomplete or entirely incorrect.
Landlords and their attorneys have frequently disregarded their obligation to correctly inform tenants of their rights. A recent prominent court of appeals case, Sherwood Auburn v. Pinzon, touched on this assertion. An Auburn landlord was notifying tenants that they had either 14 or 30 days to move and made no attempt to clarify which number was correct.
Landlords have also entirely failed to provide tenants a repayment plan when required by law. Situations like this are common, with landlords or their attorneys often providing unclear or false information in an attempt to pressure tenants into abandoning their right to defend themselves.
It’s clear these systems weren’t designed to help poor people. You can tell by watching what happens to these systems when poor folks can access them. Not even win or control them — just access. Defendants show up to court, that system is overwhelmed, and the defendants apply for housing — and the waitlists close. So tenants turn to relying on benefits but end up getting left on hold for hours, days, weeks.
We are spending countless resources constructing glass systems that build an aesthetic of responsiveness but break at the first touch. If we want to help tenants or fix our eviction system, we must actively invest in what low-income tenants need: abundant, accessible and affordable housing.
Joey Wolfe is an eviction defense attorney with the Housing Justice Project, which provides right-to-counsel eviction defense for low-income families in King County.
Read more of the April 24–30, 2024 issue.