From Newsgroup: alt.law-enforcement

from Seattle Times

(Current laws are reducing availability on the rental market.)

WA tenant law isnrCOt preventing evictions; itrCOs prolonging them
March 3, 2026 at 8:00 am Updated March 3, 2026 at 8:00 am

Legal representation is important, but it cannot be the centerpiece of WashingtonrCOs evictionrCaprevention strategy, writes the author. Pictured
is an apartment leasing company in Seattle. (Nick Wagner / The Seattle
Times, 2025)


By Cory Brewer
Special to The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times has published multiple pieces on the topic of
WashingtonrCOs tenant right-to-counsel law, whether lamenting the
shortcomings or exploring the issue from the tenant counsel perspective.
As someone who has been representing housing providers in the region
since 2011, I would like to share another perspective.

The law is not preventing evictions. ItrCOs stretching them out. And itrCOs doing so because the state chose to fund lawyers rather than rent
assistance.

At its core, the eviction process is ugly and should be considered a
last resort. Tenants facing eviction are often doing so amid a litany of additional unenviable problems. In its present form, the eviction
process yields no real winners, save for possibly the attorneys
involved. In theory, giving tenants attorneys levels the playing field.
No one disputes that legal help matters. But the state built a system
that treats eviction as a legal puzzle to be solved in court rather than
an economic crisis to be solved with assistance funds.

Talk to small landlords around the state and yourCOll hear the same story. Cases stretch upward of a year or longer. Hearings are continued again
and again. Attorneys file motions that do nothing to resolve the fact
that the tenant cannot pay the rent and has no realistic path to doing
so. Debt accumulates and the tenant does not focus on moving to a more realistic housing situation for their budget.

Meanwhile, the housing provider absorbs months of losses in addition to
their legal fees. In my world, these arenrCOt corporations with deep
reserves. TheyrCOre small mom-and-pop housing providers creating
affordable housing opportunities for families in our communities; they
are the backbone of the regionrCOs family-suitable rental stock, and many
are now deciding itrCOs simply not worth it. When small landlords sell
their properties or leave the rental market entirely, the regionrCOs
already strained housing supply tightens further. That drives rents up
for everyone rCo the very opposite of what lawmakers intended. I wrote
about this in a Seattle Times op-ed five years ago, and just last week
The Seattle Times started conducting a survey on the premise that single-family rental housing in the city is becoming rCLincreasingly
rare.rCY Hate to say I told you so!

Legal representation is important. But it cannot be the centerpiece of WashingtonrCOs evictionrCaprevention strategy. It should be a safeguard, not the entire system. Attorneys should be held to higher standards, be
required to properly vet their clients, and be called out for their
constant delay tactics. This system, by way of organizations such as
Housing Justice Project, should not be propping up the likes of Sang Kim
in Bellevue, who famously avoided eviction and paying rent for two years despite entering his lease with an income of over $30,000 per month. Tax dollars (yes, your tax dollars) funded his legal defense. Is this the
kind of person who should be receiving extensive public assistance?

If lawmakers redirected even a portion of the money currently spent on extended litigation into a dedicated, ongoing rental assistance fund,
far fewer cases would ever reach a courtroom. Tenants would stay housed. Housing providers would stay solvent. A tenant assistance program in the
form of House Bill 1099 would be an excellent place to start. For those
cases that do end up in court, passage of HB 1089 (tenant safety &
eviction reform) would be very beneficial. (Both bills were filed in 2025.)

The rightrCatorCacounsel law was built on the belief that justice requires representation. But justice also requires pragmatism. Washington cannot litigate its way out of a housing crisis. It must pursue the solutions
that promote housing supply and give tenants in need a more effective
helping hand.

Cory Brewer: is vice president of residential operations at Lori Gill & Associates Property Management and serves on advisory committees with
the Rental Housing Association of Washington, the Northwest Multiple
Listing Service and the National Association of Residential Property
Managers.

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