| Entities | Seattle (3) |
| Topics and Issues |
Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant set forth a public rental screening bureau/rental screening portability proposal in the Seattle FY21 budget. The proposal, which was never approved, was in a miscellaneous budget deliberation paper from Central Staff (10/6/20), Sec. II.8:
[b]udget Actions/SLIs Proposed by Councilmembers as of October 8, 2020 Describes councilmember proposals for changes to the proposed budget that would change the proposed budget for departments or office’s that are not scheduled for a standalone presentation at the Select Budget Committee.”
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- Transferable Rental Histories (Councilmember Sawant) – This proposal would request that [Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections] SDCI design an administrative structure and estimate associated costs for the City to maintain transferable rental history background check reports. The intention of this is to prepare for a future council bill to create a structure to allow rental histories to be transferrable. This will allow prospective tenants who have paid for a background check to reuse the results for each house or apartment they apply to. It will also allow the City to set policy for what is and is not acceptable content for a background check. For example, Council may choose to allow renters to remove attempted evictions that were not upheld by the courts from their rental histories.
CDIA wrote a letter to the City Council opposing the proposal.