They're Evicting the Dolls
Jason Thiel
Eviction rates are spiking in cities and states around the country. In 2023, nearly half of all renters nationwide were rent-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on rent.The Trump administration’s HUD is removing the required 30 day eviction notification period, allowing as little as 5 days notice of evictions in some states. The Democrats are no better. The Biden administration allowed pandemic-era eviction moratoriums around the country to expire, immediately resulting in record numbers of evictions as corporate landlords raking in billions jumped at the opportunity to attack tenants.
As Democrats around the country puppeteer Pride events celebrating “queer joy” and peddling the lie that LGBTQ people’s lives will get better if only they vote Democrats back into the House, working-class queer people are facing the brunt of the nationwide eviction crisis. Queer people are about 1.4 times as likely to be behind on rent and are much more likely to be renters in the first place, with 41% of queer people being renters vs. 25% of non-queer people. And it’s much worse for trans people. Trans people are 8 times more likely to face homelessness. One in five trans people have faced eviction at some point in their lives.
Seattle is often lauded as a progressive haven and a refuge for trans people fleeing red states. But Washington State and King County hit a new record for number of evictions reported in 2025. Nearly 24,000 evictions were filed statewide, rising 3 percent from 2024. And the increase was even larger in the Seattle area, where the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment is about $2500. Many people facing eviction are LGBTQ.
Seattle does have some protections: the nation’s highest minimum wage, tenant protections, a ban on evictions during the winter months and during the school year. These victories were only won under the pressure of working-class movements with an elected independent socialist on the Seattle City Council for ten years: Kshama Sawant.
In 2025, Democrats tried to repeal the slew of renters protections won through Kshama’s Council office. Working people fought back, defeated that attack, and forced the Democrat who put forward the attack to resign in disgrace.
Our victories will always be under threat as long as the Democratic Party runs this city. The Democratic Party is bankrolled by the real estate industry and big business. Joy Hollingsworth, the current City Council President, got over $50,000 in her last election from the National Association of Realtors, a major lobbying group for corporate landlords. Hollingsworth herself sponsored a bill to gut the city’s minimum wage law and revoke a $3/hour wage increase for 200,000 workers (that bill was also defeated).
We need to dump the Democrats and build a socialist party to defend our victories, fight for rent control, and tax the rich for a massive expansion of affordable public housing.