Washington landlords and lawmakers discuss rent and evictions during coronavirus crisis
A group of Seattle landlords held a virtual town hall Tuesday. One of the topics was Gov. Jay Inslee's moratorium on evictions in place through June 4. Now elected leaders are calling for more protections to kick in when the moratorium expires.
MariLyn Yim is one of the landlords who took part in the town hall.
"Our renters will be draining their savings. We will be draining our savings," Yim said about the financial strain as the coronavirus crisis continues. "My husband and I are both working people. We have a family that we're raising. We're actually quite a lot like our tenants. I think that it's easy for people to think of the tenants who have a need, obviously, and then large private landlords. It's easy to miss that there's this whole group in the middle of these small mom-and-pop landlords who are part of the community. We've invested in our community."
Yim said landlords still have to pay utilities, taxes, and repairs for their properties.
"There's a lot of things that the rent goes to pay for. And so, you know, if one tenant can't pay, we might be able to work something out. If all of my tenants didn't pay, that would cause a huge problem for us in a single month," Yim said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/washington-landlords-and-lawmakers-discuss-rent-and-evictions-during-coronavirus-crisis/ar-BB13ljV2
