King County Council bill gives renters more protections against evictions amid coronavirus outbreak
King County Council on Tuesday approved legislation to provide relief to renters who can't afford to pay their rent in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The legislation -- co-sponsored by councilmembers Claudia Balducci, Girmay Zahilay, and Jeanne Kohl-Welles -- gives tenants in unincorporated King County a defense to use in eviction proceedings should they receive an eviction notice because they were unable to pay their rent due to the novel coronavirus. It applies to residential tenants and small commercial tenants for rent due before or by March 1, 2021.
The legislation comes as thousands of people in the region remain unemployed, even as the county slowly begins to reopen. After months of being under a stay-at-home order, people across the state are struggling to afford rent and other basic necessities without a steady income. Gov. Jay Inslee earlier this year put into place an eviction moratorium to prevent people from being evicted if they were unable to pay their rent during the crisis, but the moratorium will expire on August 1.
“While the governor’s moratorium headed off an imminent avalanche of evictions, we are still at risk of hundreds or thousands of families losing their homes once the moratorium ends,” Balducci said in a statement.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/king-county-council-bill-gives-renters-more-protections-against-evictions-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/ar-BB15VxBj?ocid=hplocalnews
= new reply since forum marked as read
