Local Government Update Washington State Legislature Likely to Remain in Democratic Control After

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS

Local Government Update

Alex Robertson | Policy Analyst |  arobertson@RHAwa.org |  (206) 905-0611

The election is now behind us, and we begin to prepare to jump right into the 2023 Legislative Session; however, that doesn’t mean that local governments have stopped passing their own policies. We have seen more local regulations this year than nearly any year before. Local governments have passed more and more differing regulations on housing providers, making it harder than nearly any time in Washington’s history to operate rental housing. As such, lets walk through all the changes to the housing provider and tenant relationship this year. We start with Kenmore passing their regulations in February, while session was still ongoing. They led the pack in passing increase notice periods for rent increases, move-in fee caps, late fee caps, and Social Security Number (SSN) requirement ban. These regulations passed only weeks before the letter from A Rental Coalition for Housing (ARCH) in April, recommending rent increase, move-in fee, and late fee regulations. Following the ARCH letter, RHAWA sent a response letter to each of the ARCH cities pointing out the many flaws with the recommended regulations. We also ramped up our advocacy efforts, meeting almost daily with City Councilmembers. Following the ARCH letter, Shoreline met and made the wise decision of putting the recommendations on their 2023 workplan rather than pushing through rushed, short-sited regulations. The next city to join Unincorporated King County, Kenmore, and Seattle was Redmond. In July, the Redmond City Council decided, despite strong opposition from housing providers and realtors, to pass the same rent increase notice requirements, move-in fee cap, late fee cap, and SSN requirement ban. Quickly after Redmond was Kirkland, which passed the rent increase notice and move-in fee regulations but, through strong advocacy efforts by

RHAWA members, did not add the late fee cap. August marked the first non-ARCH city to follow its lead. The City of Olympia passed not only the increase rent notice period but went beyond what ARCH recommended for move-in fee Alex Robertson caps. Olympia has not only capped move-in fees to one month’s rent but has outright banned non-refundable fees. Olympia does allow a pet deposit for non-assistance of up to 25% of one month’s rent, which makes Olympia now one of the most restrictive move-in fee regulations. Issaquah and Port Townsend both opened up discussion on tenant regulations and were responsive to the many concerns brought forward by housing providers. Issaquah decided to pass a weakened version of the rent increase notice regulations after pointing out that there were a growing number of cities that added to the confusion for housing providers by passing different regulations. Port Townsend, towards the end of September passed on the rent increase notice regulations as well. The key difference between these cities is that while both identified that they would like to revisit the topic at some point in the future, Issaquah wants to have the discussion and find a solution, Port Townsend said they want to pass more regulations and made some extremely concerning comments regarding rent control. Finally, we come to October, which has been a busy budget season for many City Councils across the state, including Seattle, with discussions of the Eviction Resolution Pilot Program (ERPP), rent assistance, and bolstering city programs. Burien has passed a first in the state screening regulation with very little discussion or input. Burien passed the ARCH regulations, RRIO penalty raises, modified their just cause, and passed the first ever portable screening requirement. In another unnecessary move, Burien made the ordinance an emergency ordinance, meaning it went into effect immediately after its October 24 passage. The ordinance not only has the provision that housing providers cannot require a Social Security Number from a prospective tenant, but also requires a housing provider to accept any other form of tenant financial screening information, including portable tenant screening. The ordinance does not have any provision regarding the timeliness of the report, meaning the portable report has no requirement for it to be recent by any standard. The ordinance also does not identify what these other informational sources must look like. The ordinance initially had required relocation assistance similar to Seattle's Economic Displacement Relocation Assistance (EDRA). Due to advocacy effort by RHAWA and our members, that was removed from the ordinance.

There are some positive developments as well. Both the State and Seattle Emergencies ended on October 31. This begins the clock for many of the regulations related to COVID put in place over the long pandemic eviction moratoriums. We are now, finally, beginning to see the end of the COVID pandemic and will begin the long road to normalcy. Many of the protections for non-payment of rent are still in place until the end of April, which means that there is still the chance that the State Legislature tries to extend, or make permanent, the regulations.

This legislative session is shaping up to be another long fight for housing providers and we are looking to be more proactive than ever. To do so we need your help. Check the Advocacy Center, keep an eye out for our Calls to Action, and as always please reach out to arobertson@RHAwa.org or dbannon@ RHAwa.org if you have any questions.