As many Washingtonians struggle with housing costs, state lawmakers are once again preparing to debate strategies to tackle the crisis.
And with familiar problems come familiar proposals.
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As many Washingtonians struggle with housing costs, state lawmakers are once again preparing to debate strategies to tackle the crisis.
And with familiar problems come familiar proposals.
Anxious about the state's struggling tenants, progressive Democrats will push a proposal to cap rent hikes. Focused on the supply of market-rate housing, other Democrats joined by some Republicans, will look to streamline building regulations and make more land available for housing development.
Here are just a few of the key housing debates likely to play out in the legislative session beginning Monday in Olympia.
Caps on rent hikes
One of the most hotly debated ideas from the last legislative session will return to the forefront: statewide limits on rent increases.
Tenants of both traditional rental housing and mobile home parks have called for limits on how much their landlords can raise rent each year, seeking predictability and financial stability.
Among them is 64-year-old Tina Hammond. Her mobile home community in Spokane saw small rent hikes every year before the pandemic. She and her neighbors, who own their homes but rent the land beneath them, regularly received increases of $15 to $20 to their monthly lot rent, Hammond said.
Pandemic rules temporarily barred rent increases, but after those protections expired, residents received larger rent increases, Hammond said.
A 12% increase last year, amounting to $66, hit hard on a fixed income of disability payments. Hammond said she was forced to pause receiving needed medications while she sought assistance to help cover her costs.
"I turn off my heat at night now," Hammond said Friday at a media briefing organized by tenant advocates. "By the 15th of each month, it's not uncommon for me to have $5 or $10 remaining in my bank account."
"It should bother everybody that a low-income senior has to choose higher rent in lieu of food, medical appointments or vital medications," Hammond said.
Democrats are sponsoring House Bill 1217 and Senate Bill 5222 to limit rent increases to 7% per year, with some exceptions.
New rentals would not be subject to the caps for their first 10 years in operation, and when a tenant moved out, a landlord could increase the rent to any amount before leasing to another tenant. The limits would not apply to subsidized rental housing for people with low incomes or to certain situations in which a landlord lives on-site.
The legislation, which mirrors a bill that failed last year, would also cap late fees and move-in fees and require six months' notice of all rent increases of 3% or more.
Although rents for new leases across the state increased only 1% from 2023 to 2024, they've climbed 24% since 2017, according to Apartment List, and plenty of tenants see their rents increase. In a recent census survey, 64% of Washington renters reported a rent increase of some kind in the last year. Of those, nearly a quarter had received an increase of $250 or more per month.
A recent Cascade PBS/Elway poll found broad support for the idea of tackling rent increases, with 68% of respondents saying they favored limiting the amount landlords can raise rent.
Supporters of the proposal argue that unpredictability around how much rent may climb leaves tenants vulnerable and can force them into homelessness.
"The cost of doing nothing is very expensive," said Rep. Nicole Macri, D-Seattle, pointing to the state's spending on homelessness services.
"Having a stable home isn't a luxury," Macri said at Friday's news conference. "It's a basic necessity."
Landlords and Republican lawmakers are once again gearing up to fight the idea, arguing the rules will discourage new housing construction, drive out small-scale operators who may offer more affordable rentals or hurt landlords' ability to keep up with rising costs. Landlord lobbyists are instead proposing their slate of ideas, including a new rent assistance voucher program for tenants struggling to make rent.
Rep. Andrew Barkis, R-Olympia, said defeating the cap on rent hikes would be his "primary focus" this legislative session, arguing that despite the exemption for new construction, the policy would discourage much-needed new housing development.
"It creates uncertainty" for developers and investors, Barkis said in an interview. "It's just not the right policy to constrict the free market by doing this."
The House version of the bill will receive a public hearing Monday afternoon.
Lawmakers are also likely to spar on proposed landlord-tenant regulations and potential reforms to the eviction process following a steady increase in new state and local renter protections.
Barkis, with backing from Kirkland Democrat Rep. Amy Walen, has proposed a three-year halt on any new local rental regulations.
Boosting homebuilding
On the question of housing supply, legislators on both sides of the aisle are also continuing the push for denser and less expensive development.
Supply-side proposals that lessen regulations on developers often find bipartisan support but may face opposition from city and county lobbyists focused on local control of issues such as zoning. And bills with requirements that new housing include affordable units can face a tough road, too, with opposition from moderate Democrats and Republicans.
Legislation in recent years aimed to inject new supply into the market to keep a lid on prices. The state has required cities to allow more types of housing in single-family neighborhoods and encouraged tiny apartments with shared amenities.
One bipartisan effort from the last session failed to pass. Known as "lot splitting," the proposal would require most cities, including Seattle, to allow property owners to split their parcels into two for new housing construction. A public hearing on the bill, House Bill 1096, is set for Monday afternoon.
The proposal, sponsored by Barkis, previously faced opposition from local governments but has been tweaked some from last year to require that any split result in a second parcel that's suitable for development.
In older neighborhoods with large lots and alley access, lot splitting can transform underused land into a "higher and better use" as housing, Barkis said.
Other land-use proposals would rein in parking requirements for new construction, streamline design review and require most cities to allow corner stores and cafes in residential neighborhoods.
Increasing housing construction to keep up with job and population growth is "the upstream solution" to the state's high cost of housing, said Sen. Jessica Bateman, D-Olympia, chair of the Senate housing committee, in an interview. "It's the root cause of this problem."
Bateman's parking proposal, Senate Bill 5184, would bar cities and counties from requiring more than one parking space for every two housing units or more than one space per 1,000 feet of commercial space. Beyond that, cities could not require any minimum number of parking spaces for certain types of construction such as affordable and senior housing. Developers say parking requirements drive up construction costs and tie up land that could be used for more housing.
Lawmakers will also revisit proposals to encourage more density near transit and ensure cities plan for housing at varying income levels, which could face opposition from local governments.
Taken together, the proposals represent an ongoing push in Olympia to boost housing supply even as some cities resist development. State land-use regulations have previously given "autonomy" to local governments to handle zoning and other regulations, Bateman said. "We've seen the result of that."
"The proof's in the pudding," she said. "We have not built housing commensurate with population growth, and cities are not changing their policies quickly enough in order to address this crisis."
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