Wave at the capitalism, everyone!

There's a head tax we can pass for this!

Ants and mold simultaneously are good indicators of wet- leaking pipes or roof or something- that the owner should be addressing to protect their investment and because human beings live there. Rats and mice? I'd lay odds on a filthy house attracting them.

But if he has 63 violations that cumulatively don't mean shutting the place down it's a good bet they're all ' you pissed us off so here's some violation citations for your enjoyment!' items. Or city fund raising. Or both.

Just a darned minute here. The tenant can sue the landlord for relocation. The City may or may not decide to come up with emergency money, but that doesn't excuse the landlord from failing to provide habitable housing. Please discuss this with Housing Justice as soon as you can. See the Lang Pham v Corbett case, where the tenants prevailed when the landlord attempted to evict the tenants from a below-code apartment.

3 A rodent infestation has little to do with how dirty or clean a space is. If there are holes to outside, rats and mice in the area will come inside. Mice can squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter. Rodents, like us, prefer to raise their babies in warm, dry homes rather than the cold, wet outdoors. If there's food inside that they can access, that's a nice bonus, but that's not the primarily reason they come in. They come in because they were in the neighborhood -- maybe chowing down at a bird feeder or nice, accessible compost pile -- and took advantage of the opportunity to move inside.

@6 - Not everyone has your spine, Mistral. People get old and sick and no longer have the strength to fight the good fight. It takes dough, and it takes physical stamina. I hope you never get sick, or aged, or broke.

I would back a law that automatically holds landlords accountable for funding emergency housing and relocation as soon as tenants are required to leave in cases like this.

Throw the sumbag slumlord in prison!

That would be SCUMbag, Tabo. You're welcome.

Thank you so much for this article. This story is so common these days. I pray for justice, for the subject above, and others suffering from situations just like this. I personally went through my own living hell @ Lowell Emerson Apts (Metropolitan Management). Just read the Yelp reviews. They're all true!

The landlord is a criminal. Should be in jail.

Yes!! Thank you Stranger for publishing this story. I also had a similar situation; so inhumane by the reactions of site mgrs AND the Property Mgt Co AND owner of a TAX Subsidized 128 Apt Complex in Lynnwood. Mold and Mycotoxins were so bad in my tiny apt that I was told to vacate at once by the mold Co I had to hire because Apt Mgrs refused. I also have the top for most dangerous mycotoxins inside my body now; the exact mycotoxins that were found in my Apt. I am so shocked by this type of treatment going on to paying tenants! I have contacted the Wa State Human Rights Commission and plan to blow this mold crisis out loud and clear that we the people will not tolerate such inhumane abuse. I will also keep the public updated on my success with this horrible crisis in Wa. My name is Shelley Thomas at SThomasEmail52@gmail.com if Anyone wants to join me. I am also joining Washington Community Action Network regarding this issue and other issues around homelessness and Rent issues in our State.

Leon Rosselson, the greatest songwriter nobody's heard of, described this situation perfectly: "If prime ministers and advertising executives/
Royal personages and bank managers' wives/
Had to live out their lives in dank room/
Blinded by smoke, with the foul air of sewers/
Rot on the walls, rats in the cellars/
In rows of dull houses, like mouldering tombs/
Had to bring up their children, and watch them grow/
In a wasteland of dead street, where nothing would grow/
Buttons would be pressed/
Rules would be broken/
Strings would be pulled/
And "magic words" spoken/
Invisible fingers would mold/
Palaces of Gold".

Oh and Mistral...you have no idea what this woman's life was like, how much effort she's put into trying to change things for herself, how many battles she fought, so, kindly know your self in the Biblical sense.

2: No, not a "head tax", which you knew nobody was proposing in this situation, but a rental regulation process with teeth, a massive increase in low-cost or no-cost housing, and whatever help tenants need to protect themselves against sharks like this.

BTW, The ACTUAL Franklin D. Roosevelt effectively governed as a social democrat, so no, you don't get to claim that you represent what he would support today.