Study in the works on effects of Tacoma’s Landlord Fairness Code

Tenants and landlords will soon have a chance to voice their opinions on how Tacoma’s new tenant protections have impacted them. 

It’s been nearly two years since voters here approved the Landlord Fairness Code. The regulations, ranging from a $10 cap on late fees to a ban on economic evictions during certain times of the year, were an attempt to address increased rents and evictions by Tacoma For All, an advocacy organization for tenants and working class Tacomans. 

Whether the measures are meeting these goals and helping people, or whether they might be causing harm, is up for debate.

In December, the Tacoma City Council will be allowed to make changes to the ordinance. Before the council does that, a group of people from around the city with varying perspectives want to provide some insight on what might be working and what might not. 

“A lot of policies have unintended consequences, and so you have to take those into account,” said Amanda DeShazo, the executive director of the Tacoma Pierce County Affordable Housing Consortium. “What we’re trying to understand is, what is the impact of those unintended consequences? How do we work through them to address those?”

The group was formed by Michael Mirra, the former executive director of the Tacoma Housing Authority, and the late Matt Driscoll, a former columnist and editor at the Tacoma News Tribune.

Mirra said the intent was to bring together a group of diverse stakeholders to evaluate the ordinances’ impacts and to help inform the city council, as it may consider amendments to the ordinance. 

The group is composed of a variety of people. At the table are sponsors of the initiative, market rate and nonprofit landlords and housing developers, attorneys, tenants and other housing advocates. The group includes representatives from the city of Tacoma and Pierce County. There is also a professor from The Evergreen State College, who will lead the survey and research. 

They plan to release surveys this spring. Mirra said the surveys are aimed at tenants, market rate and nonprofit landlords, and market rate and nonprofit housing developers. 

They’ve been working since last year on what metrics they want to study. Those include rates of homelessness, kids switching schools mid-school year and evictions for nonpayment of rent. 

Michael Craw, a professor at Evergreen, will be turning the metrics into two surveys, one for tenants and one for landlords. Then, Craw will use the results to provide reports to the city council. 

Craw said that for now, the group will focus on qualitative data they gather from the surveys, and not include quantitative data on these metrics. The quantitative data, Craw said, would be better for measuring outcomes over a longer period of time. The ordinance has only been in place for a little over a year. 

“One reason to do a survey at all is that surveys can provide some short run measures on at least some outcomes,” Craw said.

For now, there are differing perspectives on how the ordinance has impacted the rental landscape in Tacoma. These range from concerns that it will decrease housing availability, scare landlords and developers away from the city or make it harder for tenants with prior evictions to find housing. 

Some fear it could have a greater impact on housing availability. 

DeShazo said affordable housing providers were already doing many of the things set in the code’s regulations, such as advanced notice of rent increases. 

But, she said she sees how some of the changes have negatively impacted some of those providers. Banks that provide loans to some of the affordable housing providers DeShazo works with told her that there was a 20% delinquency among tenant rent payments in the fall, although she said she hasn’t heard recently if that’s changed. 

“ When you see that, it makes it a lot harder and a lot riskier to provide funding to affordable housing development,” DeShazo said.

DeShazo said some providers were going through a lengthy process when they did have to remove tenants, but she has heard that could be getting quicker. 

The worry is that with landlords unable to evict tenants solely for nonpayment during certain times of the year, there could be more failure to pay, which could in turn, make it more difficult for affordable housing providers to stay afloat, or to finance development. It’s a concern some of the study group members expressed, but they say they don’t know whether it’s come to fruition, whether the Landlord Fairness Code would be solely to blame and to what extent.

On the flip side, some are hopeful that the ordinance has been keeping people housed. 

Evictions are tracked at the county level, so it’s hard to get data for just within the city, where the ordinance would have an effect. 

However, in the experience of Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers, who are appointed counsel for low-income tenants facing eviction, shows that the regulations might be giving attorneys a tool to keep clients housed. 

“These bans on evictions are really helping people stay housed and stay healthy,” said Soren Anderson, a staff attorney with the group.

Because of those time-of-year eviction bans, Anderson said they’re seeing that some clients can put together enough money to back pay rent and prevent the eviction. 

“It just gives people a fighting chance to stay housed,” Anderson said.

Cecily Jurman, assistant managing attorney of the Housing Justice Project for Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers, provided numbers on eviction cases she and her colleagues have represented. 

Of the 445 cases they were appointed on in Tacoma in 2022, Jurman said 184 clients remained in their homes. In 2023, the group was appointed on 805 cases and 283 of those remained in their homes. 

For 2024, which was the first year the Landlord Fairness Code was in effect the whole year, Jurman said they were appointed on 898 Tacoma cases, and 271 tenants remained in their homes.

Comparing these three years doesn’t provide a complete picture of what impact the ordinance has had on evictions, Jurman said, in part because  there was a transition period for all parties to determine how the ordinance would impact court decisions. There was also a separate change in case law that Jurman said had an impact on eviction cases. 

“ This year in 2025 is probably going to be the best reflection of the impact of the municipal code, because we have kind of worked out those kinks and the changes,” Jurman said. 

So far for 2025, Jurman said they’ve closed 69 cases in Tacoma, with 27 able to stay in their homes. If that rate stays consistent, Jurman said they’re on track to improve the rate of tenancies they’re able to salvage.