Real Talk From RHAWA Members

Over the course of the last few months, I had the opportunity to sit down with a number of RHAWA members from all over the Puget Sound area at various member LINK meetings. I was able to discuss and to hear how many of the most recent rental policy and eviction issues are playing out in real time. We discussed everything from eviction moratorium issues to screening criteria to increased difficulty of operating their business and Just Cause. Many of these interview videos will be released at a later date, but I wanted to share some of what our members had to say.

“Then it means that we have to be extremely careful about who we’re gonna rent to. Even if that means we’re going to have a prolonged vacancy. Whereas before we’re able to get somebody in right away very quickly, now we might go two, three months vacant looking for somebody who’s gonna fit the criteria to make sure that we don’t run into any difficulties later on,” said Enrique Jevons of Jevon’s Property Management when speaking to the topic of Just Cause. “We’re definitely not gonna give second chances to people like we used to before because we just can’t run that risk.” I talked with Waithera Mbure who owns a duplex, about the difficulty of performing background checks and making sure, as a housing provider, you know who is living on your property. “They say we cannot ask for social security or certain questions we cannot ask. This is our home, this our property that we are bringing people into. I need to know who is coming. I need to know what your background is and if you don’t pay, how do I come after you to recoup some of this money.”

I also spoke with Collins Zhao about eviction issues with a few South Sound properties that his company manages. “In the last year we never reached the step where we got to court, but we do have some tenants who didn’t pay the rent. Our landlords, they listened to their lawyer, and they choose to settle with the tenants because they don’t want to wait for eight months or ten months. They have to take a loss.”

 To say that providing housing to your community is becoming increasingly difficult is a vast understatement. Many of the RHAWA members I spoke with for this article, not all of which are written here, expressed the same sentiment. Uncertainty for the future of the small housing provider. Will they be able to continue far into the future and pass the mantle to other family or friends? I didn’t get any solid absolute yes answers. Thank you to all the members who took the time to speak with me and let other housing providers know, we’re navigating this together.