Tenant Violence Threatens Region’s Housing Providers
Just last week, a 19-year-old tenant allegedly stabbed her 73-year-old landlord to death. The murder took place in an apartment in White Center, a neighborhood south of Seattle. According to a news report, the landlord asked the tenant about unpaid rent before being stabbed twice. The suspect told authorities that her landlord struck her in the face and admitted to the stabbing one the phone with a 911-operator.
Incidents like this are not representative of the vast majority of tenants, but they are not anomalies either. At an apartment community in Tacoma, an angry resident attempted to grab a hammer from a grounds-maintenance cart in an act of aggression towards a maintenance technician. According to an incident report, the resident became agitated upon discovering the cart parked in an open parking spot. The report indicates that property staff are aware of this tenant’s mental health “episodes,” and the maintenance technician described him as “a danger to everyone that lives at [the community] and to himself.”
Recent online reviews of the apartment community suggest that violent tenant behavior is not uncommon. One review states that “cops have been to several units over the last few weeks, there is never any peace.” While online reviews don’t carry the evidential weight of incident reports, they do indicate the property’s atmosphere from the unfiltered perspective of those who live there.
The two properties above are not isolated in experiencing violent tenant behavior that puts property management at risk. Public record of housing provider applications for one-time funding from the City of Seattle confirms the safety threats that management face. An application from Bellwether Housing describes making “costly investments in security patrols, cameras and other infrastructure in an attempt to address the increase in criminal activity.” The housing provider is hoping to hire a “Site Safety and Security Manager” to address safety concerns and help protect management staff from “residents conducting unlawful behavior.”
Mt. Zion Housing asked for funding for a security system due to an assault in their building. The Low-Income Housing Institute (LIHI) describes paying “hundreds of thousands of dollars” because “the level of violence at many of our Seattle properties has increased considerably.” LIHI’s properties have “had to hire armed and unarmed security.”
Resident violence is not just a threat to property management, who have a right not to be assaulted in their workplace, but also to tenants who have a right to the quiet enjoyment of their homes. The Tenants Union of Washington State informs renters of the “common law principle of the covenant of quiet enjoyment,” that “makes your landlord responsible for dealing with any disturbances that reasonably interfere with your enjoyment of the rental.”
But “quiet enjoyment” is not the arrant responsibility of landlords to ensure. Rather, the covenant creates duties in law for both landlords and tenants to uphold. In Washington, the law outlines duties for tenants that include paying rent on time and keeping the property clean. Tenants also have duties not to damage the property, create a nuisance, or engage in behavior that harms others nearby. Similarly, the law outlines duties for landlords that include maintaining the premises and making repairs. When a tenant breaches their duties, landlords must have the tools to protect the quiet enjoyment of other residents.
The ability of housing provider’s to protect the right to quiet enjoyment suffers when policies inhibit the landlord’s ability to control who resides on the premises and to remove residents who threaten the quiet enjoyment of others. A recent lawsuit from GRE Downtowner, LLC (GRE) against the City of Seattle accuses six city ordinances of doing just that. GRE says the city’s policies have destroyed their ability “to uphold the tenants’ rights to the peaceful and quiet enjoyment of their residences” at the Addison on Fourth apartment building.
Even spending as much as $833,000 on security at the Addison annually, GRE is unable to maintain a safe and peaceful environment for its residents. Bellweather Housing budgeted almost $200,000 for third party security in 2023, Mt. Zion Housing requested nearly $40,000 to install security cameras, and LIHI spent more than $4 million on security services across properties in 2023. These housing providers are shouldering significant costs to protect the quiet enjoyment of their residents, but finding it unsustainable, if not impossible, to do so without the tools to address harmful behavior.
As Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announces plans to double the city’s housing capacity to “over 330,000 new units,” it would be wise for elected officials in Seattle and across the whole of Washington State to aid, not inhibit, housing providers in maintaining safe work environments for their staff and the safe and quiet enjoyment of their tenants.