The Tacoma City Council at its July 7 meeting voted unanimously to send the “Safe Homes For All” initiative to the ballot on Nov. 3 — following an unusual lack of discussion in public meetings about the measure. The measure would create an enforcement mechanism for the city’s existing tenant protections, which now can only be enforced by individual legal action. The initiative outlines a per-unit rental license fee that landlords would pay to cover the cost of enforcement.
It also would require landlords to pay penalties for each violation of Tacoma’s tenant laws and require the city to create a program to educate landlords and tenants on those laws. The measure is making its way to the ballot via Tacoma’s initiative petition process, which allows Tacoma residents to put ballot measures to the people by collecting a certain number of signatures. Tacoma For All, the group that spearheaded the effort to pass a “Tenant Bill of Rights” in Tacoma, also led the effort to get Safe Homes For All on the ballot.
Tyron Moore, executive director for Tacoma for All, said the group is now gearing for “a big fight.” “We fully expect the landlord lobby, real estate interests to once again spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of outside corporate money to try and stop this,” Moore told The News Tribune.