You are here

Rent moratorium update for housing providers October 20, 2020

Rent moratorium update for housing providers October 20, 2020

Good Afternoon Landlord/Housing Provider,

The Seattle Housing Authority is grateful for your continued partnership with our Housing Choice Voucher program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We would like to provide you with a reminder that under the state’s Safe Start proclamation, the governor has extended the eviction moratorium until December 31, 2020.

As you may be aware, in addition to other restrictions, the moratorium continues to prohibit landlords, property owners, and property managers from increasing, or threatening to increase, a tenant’s rent. As a result, SHA will continue to suspend processing any requests for rent increases until the moratorium is lifted.

However, the proclamation does permit the advance notice of a rent increase or notice of a rent increase in some circumstances. We request that you provide SHA a copy of any such advanced notices provided to your tenant. Please send advanced Rent Increase notices or questions regarding Rent Increase requests to HCVRentIncrease@Seattlehousing.org.

Here is the link to the full proclamation: https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/proclamations/20-19.3%20Coronavirus%20Evictions%20%28tmp%29.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

In addition, the City of Seattle has in place a temporary eviction moratorium. Please click on the link below for the details.

City of Seattle Eviction Moratorium

Both moratoriums encourage landlords/property owners/managers to enter into payment agreements, and SHA continues to encourage participants to continue making payments for their portion of rent as part of their obligations under the HCV program. SHA also continues to commit to ensure that landlords receive their SHA Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) on time as scheduled.

Finally, we recently conducted as landlord survey and appreciate your feedback about how you and our participants/tenants are doing during this time, and your thoughts on any ways we might improve our services. From the feedback, we found that landlords are interested in workshops and information sessions about the HCV program. As a result, we have resumed the HCV Landlord Workshops. If you are interested in attending a workshop, or have any other questions or concerns, please contact landlordsupport@SeattleHousing.Org.

Again, we appreciate your continued partnership.