Submitted by TacomaProBono Community Lawyers.
Thousands of people in Pierce County are behind on rent due to COVID-19 and fear eviction – but as of July 1, tenants have new rights, new protections, and an opportunity to take advantage of an unprecedented level of help. Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers, Tacoma Refugee Choir and Stressed Out Entertainment (a Tacoma music label) have produced a unique music video called “I Got Your Back” to inform people of their rights as tenants to stay in their homes, apply for rental assistance, negotiate with landlords and receive representation in court for eviction hearings.
The mission of Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers (tacomaprobono.org) is to combat systemic racism and other forms of discrimination by expanding access to civil legal justice. Tacomaprobono provides free holistic legal services, including representation, advice and education, to low-income, vulnerable and marginalized populations which experience disproportionate barriers to asserting their rights through the civil legal system.
Evictions disproportionately affect people of color. According to a 2019 University of Washington study, Black adults are evicted 5.5 times more than Whites in King County, 6.8 times more in Pierce County. Tacomaprobono’s Housing Justice Project, a homeless prevention program, is ready to level the playing field and change the game by providing legal assistance to people who have received an eviction notice.
Tacoma Refugee Choir has access to a diverse community in Pierce County and specializes in creating music and videos to express love and compassion for those in need of a helping hand.
Tacoma Refugee Choir and Tacomaprobono’s Housing Justice Project partnered with Writer/Producer Lonnie
“Mr. Mav” Perrin from Stressed Out Entertainment and artists Kingpin X, Jay Sears, and Smooth JZ3 to produce the rap music, video and song entitled “I Got Your Back.” Shot by Kaeden Carter of Hustle&PrayFilms.
This original piece of music tells the story of the impact of eviction and sends a message to the public by showing how Tacomaprobono’s Housing Justice Project and similar programs in other Washington counties can help protect tenants and keep people housed.
For more information, please contact: Laurie Davenport, Dir of Development and Outreach, Tacomaprobono Community Lawyers via email at laurie@tacomaprobono.org or by calling 253-572-5134, extension 106
Contact Mr. Lonnie “Mr. Mav” Perrin via email at mrmav31@gmail.com or by calling 253-961-2273.
I pray this is not too good to be true. Tacoma’s resistance has been fighting evictions with our bodies and our time but to no avail. THIS is the piece we have been missing. I will share this with all groups working against eviction in Tacoma. What about Olympia? Can you help there?
Systemic racism? Please provide specific examples. Perhaps the disproportionate number of minorities evicted have issues with paying rent, following lease provisions and are disproportionately renters. I’ve been a landlord for many years and have found that I needed to evict very few tenants of any skin color. The “secret” is to conduct a thorough screening of tenants before you rent a dwelling to them and then sticking to the lease provisions both tenant and landlord. We don’t need Critical Race Theory creeping into the housing market as well as local government and our schools.
This race pedaling is ridiculous. There are a lot of unfortunate facts that people simply refuse to acknowledge and instead disguise as racism. No personal accountability is taken which means no real changes will ever be made. No one is getting evicted simply because they are black, they are getting evicted because they do not pay their rent.
No one is more of a bleeding heart than I am but I feel I need to speak up on this issue. There is no requirement for Tenants to pay rent. There is no protection from owners losing their property because they cannot pay the mortgage payment. My Grandmother used to say “What is good for the goose, is good for the gander.”
We bought some homes in our much younger days because we were self-employed and there was no retirement for us. We had to make decisions to prepare for our own retirement. So, we bought homes that anyone could afford. Over the years, we kept them up and modernized them as time went by. I am an Army Brat so I was raised to respect property because our “homes” belonged to the Government. We have done the same for the homes we own so with every new tenancy the homes were in tip top shape, all the paint touched up or like new, etc.
Luckily, all of our own tenants are paying their rent. Our company manages rentals and most of the Tenants are paying rent. We have one exception who owes a lot of money. Many of the owners whose properties we manage are military or work for companies who promote them to another area and we manage those homes while they are gone but intend to return to the home and move back in.
There has to – at some time soon – be a stop to this program. Otherwise have a program to pay the rental owners directly so they can make their mortgage payments, property taxes and insurance which runs thousands of dollars each year.
We personally spend thousands each year just in property taxes and insurance alone. If we could not pay them because no rent was coming in, Pierce County would take our homes away from us when it hit the three year mark.
Something needs to be done to help the tenants without the home owners risking the loss of their home. Most rental owners are not rich and cannot afford this. It is apparent that the people making these decisions have no knowledge of what the real rental inventory is and who owns the available properties. Just recently, so many of the home owners of properties we manage are having us give notices to tenants and they are putting their homes up for sale. I don’t think that was really the intent of those who made this decision as the available rentals will disappear over time.
Choices have consequences.