The Housing Development Consortium (HDC), a powerful landlord lobby of united nonprofit and for-profit developers, is working with Mayor Bruce Harrell and the City Council on their legislative wishlist, according to a slide deck sent to The Stranger. The landlord lobby’s long-rumored “policy matrix,” seeks to significantly limit the protection of the winter and school year eviction moratoriums, raise the $10 late fee cap to $50, repeal the 2019 roommate law, cut the six-month rental increase notice requirement to four months and just two in some cases, and implement other policies that favor landlords. by Hannah Krieg The Housing Development Consortium (HDC), a powerful landlord lobby of united nonprofit and for-profit developers, is working with Mayor Bruce Harrell and the City Council on their legislative wishlist, according to a slide deck sent to The Stranger. The landlord lobby’s long-rumored “policy matrix,” seeks to significantly limit the protection of the winter and school year eviction moratoriums, raise the $10 late fee cap to $50, repeal the 2019 roommate law, cut the six-month rental increase notice requirement to four months and just two in some cases, and implement other policies that favor landlords.  “Here in Seattle, providers are grappling with escalating operational costs, rising insurance premiums, and mounting arrears from the pandemic’s lingering economic impacts,” says HDC Executive Director Patience Malaba. “These challenges are not confined to subsidized housing providers; they affect the entire housing ecosystem. Without bold actions to stabilize and sustain the sector, the risk of further destabilization is high, and tenants will ultimately bear the brunt of this collapse. Malaba continues, “The policy changes we propose aim to strike a careful balance between supporting providers’ ability to sustain housing operations while protecting renters and addressing systemic inequities. We will alongside reform be advocating for targeted rental assistance, reforming legislation to improve housing stability, and ensuring practical solutions that serve the entire housing ecosystem.” Housing advocates, who did not wish to go on the record at this time, warn not to be suckered by the “kinder face” of nonprofit landlords in HDC — they are aligned with for-profit landlords to make it easier to make people homeless. The Seattle City Council, which lurched rightward after the 2023 election, first hinted at repealing tenants' rights this summer when Community Roots Housing and Southeast Effective Development (SEED) gave a presentation about the woes of affordable housing developers. As I reported in July, the nonprofit developers did not explicitly call for rollbacks to any of the City’s modest protections. Instead, the nonprofits complained about the eviction backlog and asked for more resources for the tenant to pay their overdue rent or for courts to expedite the eviction of problematic tenants, potentially leading to homelessness. At the time, The Stranger clowned on Council President Sara Nelson for hearing what she wanted to hear from the presentation and from private landlords at public comment — repeal renters rights. And at the time, Nelson had been presumptuous based on the public conversations with HDC members. But now, according to the slide deck from last week, the nonprofit developers appear to have drunk the Kool-Aid, advocating with for-profit developers to implement policies that simply punish tenants without actually unclogging the eviction backlog. Even if you accept the premise that the government should make it easier for landlords to make people homeless, these reforms do not achieve that end.  HDC wants the moratoriums to only cover evictions for non-payment for tenants who can prove they lost their income. “Rather than blanket moratoria,” HDC wrote, “the city should invest in a robust rental assistance program for tenants without income, experiencing financial hardship, or are cost burdened.” As I previously reported, the winter and school year evictions do not bottleneck the eviction process. The Housing Justice Project (HJP), which represents low-income tenants in court as part of the right-to-counsel law, does not use these defenses very often, rather finding errors in landlord paperwork. Skill issue.  HDC’s proposal to price late fees at 3% of rent with a cap at $50 might put a few extra dollars in a landlord’s wallet, but renters overwhelmingly pay their rent in full and on time anyway. HDC claimed in their slide deck that “reasonable late fees foster timely payment habits and incentivize for tenants to stay current on rent.” Citations needed.  HDC is also pushing to shorten the notice landlords must provide before raising rents. As it stands, landlords must give tenants six months’ notice before increasing the rent. HDC’s landlord wishlist would shorten that to 2 months or 4 months for increases above 8%. In the case of an 8% increase, HDC would allow tenants to break their lease with a 30 day notice. How generous!  It is unclear how giving tenants less notice for price hikes would ease the eviction backlog unless the landlords also allowed greater flexibility for breaking leases. Sticking tenants with higher rent and less time to find a better paying job or rework their budget seems like a recipe for eviction. But what’s their answer for preventing evictions? A cash grab. HDC wrote, “The city should establish a rental assistance program for tenants without income. Funding could come from the Housing Levy homelessness prevention program which was allocated $30 million, targeted to the [Office of Housing] portfolio.” So, the City, already strapped for cash, should let landlords nickel and dime their tenants with late fees,  increase rent with less notice, and, to add insult to injury, punch holes in the last line of defense tenants have between the warmth of their apartment and the cold, cold streets. Cool! According to the slide deck, HDC is expected to “move forward” legislation this month. That seems like too quick of a turn around — the year’s basically over, the council will likely focus on appointing a new member, and Nelson may seek to weaken the Ethics Code first, which could hamper the landed council members' ability to vote against the interest of renters. Council Member Cathy Moore, the Chair of the Homelessness and Human Services Committee, says she plans to meet with HDC to hear more about these proposals and will have more to share after that meeting. For now, her offices says, "she believes changes are needed in order to ensure housing providers, across the spectrum, are able to continue to offer safe housing." Harrell's office says he is "interested in working with affordable housing providers on commonsense solutions to ensure their long-term stability and the health and safety of their residents."