Sharon Williams…
“On the subject of rent control for Seattle residents who do not qualify for low income housing ( i.e, Section 8 or Seattle Housing Authority), Seattle just doesn’t care about us. We are just not in the loop. No one is speaking up for us in Seattle, you either have to be on the low side of the scale or on the high end to qualify for housing in this city. We need to charge the Mayor’s office, the city council etc., we are being pushed out whether you’re wanting to rent or buy, they want our money and our votes, well I vote for rent control. Make some noise.
DeShawn Jackson…
“When need rent control here in Seattle because we have a lot of outsiders coming in working for these companies like Microsoft and Amazon that are actually pushing up the rents even higher and it is forcing the native people of the area to move further south. So I think there should be rent control there, also should be sites set aside for the low income, some of these buildings they’re constructing should have accommodations and take into account the needs of people of low income.”
Jesse Hagopian…
”Seattle and King County most definitely need rent control I teach at Garfield High School where we have 150 homeless students. This city is one of the wealthiest cities the world has ever known and yet our kids can’t find a place to sleep at night. How can they do homework if they don’t have a home? And, the affordability crisis in this city is real. I mean teachers and janitors and instructional assistants and school office workers can’t afford to live in this city anymore and how are we going to properly educate our youth when we’re pushing educators out of the city? So I definitely think we need to support rent control and make it affordable to live in this city.”
Marquita Prinzing..
“I think that any sort of attempt for our institution of beauracracy to create some sort of equity is going to be re designed to continue to be inequitable and push people of color out of the city. So if there is rent control it will be controlled in such a way that the access is still available to basically the White business people that are coming in. It wont be for the people of color who have been here and are now being pushed out.”
Donte Felder…
“I believe there should be rent control especially that I teach and I see a lot of my students, people of color of course, being pushed further and further out because they can’t afford it. Teachers, in the same way, are also moving further South because of inflation. However, I must say rent control should be strategic because I do believe there should be some type of economic growth and with economic growth there should be some type of economic compensation for those who are making fifteen dollars an hour, maybe it moves up to twenty dollars so they can afford it. Its simple for me, emotionally I would say yes, but it also it needs to be thoughtful if there is ever to be rent control.”
Rita Green…
“My answer to the question of do I think Seattle and King County needs rent control? My answer is hell yeah! How does it work? I mean I think we need it, but we need to make sure we have the right structures in place so that no one is harmed — the landlords or the renters.”
Images by Aaron Allen
