The Seattle City Council’s Sustainability and Renters’ Rights Committee will hold a public hearing Thursday night on District 3 representative Kshama Sawant’s proposal to ban winter evictions in the city.

The council member representing Capitol Hill and the Central District is urging constituents to “pack City Hall to demand a halt to cruel winter evictions.”

“Every year, hundreds of Seattleites get evicted from their homes – often for owing a month or less in rent,” the message from Sawant’s office reads. “Nearly 9 out of every 10 end up homeless. In the winter, eviction can be a death sentence – nationally, 700 people experiencing homelessness die annually from the effects of hypothermia in U.S. cities, according to the National Coalition for Homelessness.”

CHS reported on Sawant’s proposed “emergency moratorium” in December. The legislation would create an emergency moratorium “effective immediately” by amending Seattle’s Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, a roster of “16 just causes” Seattle landlords are allowed to use to end month-by-month rental agreements.

Sawant says the committee she chairs will take public testimony and then hold a committee vote on her legislation during Thursday’s session (PDF). The Rental Housing Association of Washington opposes the proposal.

Meanwhile, legislation to make it easier to create and move tiny house villages in Seattle will take at least another month to form after a council committee met Wednesday to discuss the proposals but took no action. The homelessness committee isn’t scheduled to meet again until February when a vote could finally be taken on the Sawant-driven proposal needed to replace the city’s current set of rules which expire in March. A special committee meeting may be called to help iron out the legislation before February’s vote. In the meantime, the Central District village at 22nd and Union is in search of a new home and faces a small set of options with locations tied to religious organizations required under the current legislation.

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