‘Last place you want to go is government housing’: Curley warns about Tacoma’s direction after tenant measure vote

Tacoma voters backed a sweeping tenant rights measure on Election Night. KIRO host John Curley said the people who wrote it see it as a first step toward something he thinks renters should be wary of: government-owned housing.

Curley, host of “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio, reacted a day after former Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling, government affairs director for the Rental Housing Association of Washington, joined the show to make the case against the measure.

Initiative Measure 1, called “Safe Homes for All,” had about 59.3% support as of Thursday. The measure would create a rental licensing system funded by per-unit fees, along with tougher penalties for landlords and negotiations with tenant unions. Landlords with 25 or more units, along with repeat offenders, would have to get a rental license within 18 months.

Curley said the measure put the city between property owners and their own property.

“You have a person who owns a piece of property, which is their apartment,” Curley began. “But then the city intercedes with the citizens, working together to have the person with their private property have to negotiate with them.”

Tenant advocates claim victory over landlord opposition

Curley played audio from two of the measure’s supporters on Election Night. Tyrone Moore, with the Tacoma for All campaign, said the vote was a rebuke of landlords who spent heavily against it.

“That’s such a decisive answer to the landlord lobby that dumped $800,000 into this election against tenants,” Moore announced. “We want a city that is affordable and dignified for everybody.”

A co-chair of the Tacoma chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America celebrated from the campaign’s watch party.

“This is absolutely incredible in the face of nearly a million dollars in corporate spend,” the co-chair said. “Organized people beat organized money.”

Producer Joe Wallace looked up the other side of the ledger and said supporters raised about $280,000.

“Good for them on that one,” Curley added.

Curley argues private landlords offer a better alternative

As they heard more reaction from Tacoma lawmakers, Curley took issue with the term “public housing.”

“Just like use the word public school. That’s government school. That’s government housing,” Curley mused. “They call it public housing because they think somehow that just sounds nicer.”

He said the problem is that tenants lose anyone to appeal to when the government is both the landlord and the enforcer.

“If the government is your landlord, and the government is the person that’s supposed to be enforcing rules, who do you go to?” Curley said. “You go to the government to get relief from the government because the toilet doesn’t work, or there’s black mold.”

He said he’d take a fair private landlord over that any day.

“Would you rather be in privately held with a landlord that is fair to you, you’re fair to the landlord, and everybody’s doing what they need to do?” Curley said. “To me, I think the last place you want to go is government housing.”

The toilet on the subway

Curley spoke from experience. He described living in a rent-controlled apartment in New York City where nobody seemed to care when things broke.

Curley and his roommates went nine or 10 months without a working toilet. Finally, they took a bus and the subway out to a Home Depot in New Jersey, bought one themselves, and hauled it home.

“The three of us carrying a toilet back on the subway,” Curley remembered.

Competition is what makes landlords do the work, not government oversight.

“If they’re competing against other landlords, and they could possibly be fined by the government, then they went in there and did something,” Curley theorized.

What are the results?

Curley said similar tenant rules have already passed in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He said the people behind Tacoma’s measure have good intentions, but he wants to see whether they actually help renters.

“The intent is fine,” Curley summarized. “What are the results?”

The measure builds on Tacoma’s 2023 tenant protections, which passed by just 370 votes. In September, Schilling told Curley the new measure would push small landlords out of the market.

“Fewer units, same number of renters, higher rents,” Schilling said at the time. “That’s not protection, that’s displacement.”

Listen to The John Curley Show weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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