A group of tenants continue to push the Kent City Council to adopt what’s known as a just cause ordinance to evict renters.

“It (just cause) requires landlords to give a reason or justification to leave but still make it easy to evict if someone breaks rules of the agreement,” said Helena Benedict, Tenants Union of Washington state community organizer, in an interview. “But it makes it illegal if they arbitrarily don’t want to rent to anyone. We see this as big problem to terminate without justification for evictions that are retaliatory, involve discrimination, a large family or someone who made lots of repair requests.”

Landlords in Kent can give a 20-day notice to a tenant on a month-to-month lease to move out with no reason needed to end the tenancy.

The Tenants Union has been working for months with residents and city officials to try to get the council to adopt a just cause ordinance.

“It establishes regulations and clearly outlines reasons tenants can’t be evicted,” said Merina Hanson, city housing and human services director, in a Nov. 29 report to the council that focused mainly on potential adoption of an ordinance to help protect low-income tenants who pay part of their rent with Section 8 vouchers.

One tenant told the Kent Reporter that her rental lease includes a clause that a renter can’t say anything negative against ownership or management and its left up to management what is negative. If a renter says something negative, they could be evicted.

“I refused to sign something that says I must give up my rights and laws that give me of freedom of speech,” the tenant said. “It’s in our lease and tells us what we can and can’t talk about – it’s totally illegal.”

Benedict said landlords use a clause against criticism as an intimidation factor.

The city of Seattle is the only city in the state that has a just cause ordinance. Several California cities have the ordinance which lists specific reasons tenants can be evicted.

Forty-six percent of Kent residents are renters, Benedict said, so she added it makes sense to offer more protection to renters. The vacancy rate is just 1.8 percent in Kent, which can cause landlords to be more selective in who they rent to.

“Philosophically we see this as a power balance between renters and owners,” Benedict said.

Council members Brenda Fincher and Tina Budell have indicated possible support of a Just Cause ordinance, according to tenants who have talked to the council. The other five members want more information or have not shown support for the proposal.

The council’s Economic and Community Development Committee is scheduled on Jan. 9 to consider an ordinance to protect tenants with Section 8 vouchers. That’s also the meeting city staff will provide information about any other steps the committee might take to protect tenants.