As a renter in Vancouver, I’m deeply concerned about prioritizing landlords over those of us trying to meet our most basic need: housing.
The pandemic is not over. The most recent census data as of this writing shows that 128,126 Washington tenants are still behind on rent and 368,617 tenants who are current on rent had to pull from their savings or retirement to meet basic needs. Many of us are trying to recover so that we can afford rent payments on top of food, child care, student loans, the list goes on.
Landlords have received government assistance to stay afloat, and there are hundreds of thousands more renters than landlords. Harming the many to help a few is not the answer. Preventing evictions is good for public health — eviction moratoriums have literally saved lives. We need Gov. Jay Inslee and state lawmakers to extend eviction protections. If we don’t, all of the funding and previous moratoriums will have been for nothing as the surge in evictions affects the entire state.
Funds are becoming available to landlords for their tenants who are behind. We all need to be patient during this pandemic so that we can keep as many people housed as possible.
