Council OKs Law to Prevent Landlords from Refusing Voucher Tenants

Beginning next week, Redmond landlords will no longer be able to refuse rental to tenants because they use a Section 8 housing voucher to help pay rent.

Following in the footsteps of Bellevue, Seattle and King County, the Redmond City Council voted unanimously Tuesday evening to approve an ordinance that makes such discrimination illegal in the city.

The ordinance, which goes into effect Feb. 18, was created after the city learned some landlords in Redmond were refusing to renew leases for individuals with Section 8 based solely on their use of the vouchers. Section 8 is a federal housing assistance program that is administered locally through the King County Housing Authority.

Twenty people testified during a public hearing before the vote. Nineteen individuals—mostly representing tenant-rights and social services groups—were in favor of the ordinance.

Yezenia Hernandez, a mother of three who lives in the Archstone Apartments complex near Microsoft, said she had been asked to move out of the apartment because the company was no longer accepting Section 8 housing. A letter from a tenants association prompted Archstone to allow Hernandez and her family to stay through the end of their lease, she said, but the family was still fearful of being asked to find a new home at any given time.

"If they come and tell you, 'You have 20 days to move'...we don't have the money," Hernandez said. "We are a family with kids, and we are a family with disabilities, and it's not fair that they have the right because we are on Section 8, because we have a voucher, that they discriminate against us."

A woman who answered the phone at Archstone Apartments' Redmond office on Wednesday morning said the company had no comment.

Sean Martin of the Rental Housing Association of Puget Sound was the only individual to speak against the ordinance. He said accepting those with Section 8 vouchers can be overly burdensome for some landlords because the program requires landlords to enter into one-year lease agreements with voucher holders.

"It's a voluntary federal program," Martin said. "It's not something that's going to fit every landlord's business model."

But several Redmond landlords and representatives from local affordable-housing groups refuted that claim, saying the process requires landlords to fill out just one extra piece of paper.

"I'm actually embarassed that we're having to put it on our cities, because we shouldn't be discriminating against anyone," said Jill Richardson, a Redmond resident and landlord.

City council members and other officials said the ordinance was especially important given the scarcity of affordable housing in Redmond.

"Redmond is a welcoming community. We want people to live here of all types, of (all) income levels," Council member Hank Margeson said. "That's why we're trying to build houses that suit all income levels."

Council member John Stilin said he was angry that landlords were getting away with profiting from the city's high quality of life and then turning around and discriminating against low-income families.

"We're not going to tolerate that in Redmond," he said. "It's the quality of our community that allows you to charge the rents you charge to make a profit. If you don't want to share in our community, maybe you don't belong in our community."