LONGVIEW— Local landlords and homeless prevention activists are anticipating an influx of people being removed from their homes when the state moratorium on rental eviction expires June 30.
A nonprofit to mediate between landlords and tenants will open a Longview office as the first step for renters to make up their debts and landlords to receive payment.
The Commerce Avenue office will be part of the Center for Constructive Resolution and Conversation, a nonprofit that has provided mediation in Lewis County since 1993.
Tenants still living in the units where they are behind on rent can prevent evictions by creating repayment plans.
As the countdown to the moratorium closes, Constructive Resolution and Conversation Executive Director Janice Juntunen said staff are anticipating a wave of renters in need.
“It probably will be a tsunami,” she said.
New law
A new law requires state nonprofit dispute centers to issue a certificate before the eviction process can start. The certificate to initiate eviction would indicate the tenant has not been reached during three attempts in 14 days to create a repayment plan, according to Executive Director of Community Mediation Services Savenia Falquist in Clark County.
The state initiated the eviction moratorium in March 2020 to allow renters extra time to pay landlords after many state businesses were shut down during the pandemic. According to the Washington Landlord Association, the moratorium was extended six times.
Falquist said tenants should contact the new local mediation office to start finding solutions. Staff can provide referrals for rental assistance to the Lower Columbia Community Action Program and legal advice to Cowlitz Wahkiakum Legal Aid.
Falquist said people who moved out of units before repaying debts still will owe. She said renters whose income did not drop during the pandemic, but chose not to pay rent, may not be eligible for repayment plans.
Looming evictions
As of Wednesday, 927 local residents were on Lower Columbia CAP’s waiting list to receive rental assistance — a likely indicator they are struggling to pay.
“I would assume all of them are behind on rent,” Executive Director Ilona Kerby said.
The nonprofit’s waitlist has been “going up faster” over the last few weeks, said Kerby, as the moratorium lift looms.
Lower Columbia CAP covers rent for those in need who qualify for federal pandemic relief funds and “low-income energy assistance,” Kerby said.
As the Cullen Rentals property manager for eight Longview rental units, Yvonne Andrews receives a check directly from Lower Columbia CAP to pay rent for one tenant “who has been struggling,” she said.
Another tenant has not paid rent since the moratorium began, Andrews said, and will not answer the door or respond to letters to set up a repayment plan.
At the end of the month, Andrews fears the eviction process may start for that tenant, as well as many others.
According to a study by the University of Washington and the University of California Berkeley, Cowlitz County renters have lived on the verge of eviction even before the pandemic. From 2004 to 2017, the study found Cowlitz County had the highest eviction rate in the state, closely followed by Pierce County.
The report states eviction is more likely to occur in Cowlitz and Pierce counties than any others in Washington.
Available local rentals are also sparse. Cowlitz County’s apartment vacancy rate was 0.5 percent, according to the spring 2021 apartment market report from the Washington Center for Real Estate Research. That’s a fraction of the around 8 percent considered healthy for the economy, according to the state Department of Commerce.
