THANK YOU FOR COMING TO OLYMPIA – YOUR AMAZING TURNOUT IS MAKING THE DIFFERENCE

As the Legislative session in Olympia nears the policy committee cutoff on February 17 the priorities for both caucuses start to become clearer, and we have a better idea of what we are facing. With six rent control bills already introduced in Olympia (HB 1388, HB 1389/SB 5435, HB 1625/SB 5615, & SB 5697), the Rental Housing Association of Washington has been working double-time to educate lawmakers about the dangers of rent control. WA state is short nearly 800,000 housing units already and will be short more than a million units by 2044 according to the Department of Commerce. This is why the Rental Housing Association of Washington and our partners are supporting a host of bills that will lead to more housing creation.

Thank you to everyone who has come to Olympia this legislative session, you have made a huge difference with your presence and your hard work educating lawmakers about our issues. This past week we had the RHAC Legislative Olympia Day and many of our wonderful members journeyed to Olympia to have their voices heard and we made a difference with lawmakers.

We are also very grateful to our many housing providers that came to the Rent Control hearings in Olympia on Tuesday, January 24 to fight the two rent control bills, House Bills 1388 and 1389. Your presence enabled us to have an incredible hearing and connect with lawmakers Opposing Rent Control. We had an amazing hearing, and it is YOUR time and participation that is making the critical difference for us in this year's battle against rent control!

We had well over 125 people join us on January 24 and we filled the hearing room and needed two additional overflow rooms for our housing providers! The tenant advocates were visibly surprised and not pleased! It was also great to see and hear the number of other industry association representatives, who came to speak against rent control, such as Commercial Real Estate Development (NAIOP), Community Bankers of WA, the WA Realtors, WA Business Properties Association, and Assoc of WA Businesses. That of course was in addition to all of our Rental Housing Association Coalition members including RHAWA, WLA, MHCW, WMFHA, and NARPM, the YLA brought members from Eastern WA!

The only problem with having so many wonderful housing providers join us in Olympia was that there wasn’t enough time for everyone’s voice to be heard in the hearing, but that is okay because the Chair and Committee could not ignore the number of us in attendance and in Opposition. Great job coming to Olympia and changing the narrative.

Included in our group photo are our Lawmakers from the House Housing Committee who also oppose rent control including newly elected Rep. Spencer Hutchins (District 26, Gig Harbor, and peninsula); Rep. Andrew Barkis (District 2, Pierce County and Yelm), Rep April Connors (District 8, Tri-Cities area), and Ranking member Mark Klicker (Distict16, Southeast WA) was the icing on Tuesday’s victory cake!

HB 1388 – Rent Control

HB 1388 applies to both residential housing and manufactured home communities, the bill prohibits a landlord from increasing rent more than the rate of inflation (CPI-U) or 3%, whichever is greater, up to a maximum or 7% above existing rent if the rent increase:

(1) Is not justified by costs necessary to maintain the dwelling unit; (2) Is substantially likely to lead to the displacement of the tenant; or (3) Is used to avoid other tenant protections. The bill’s rent increase provisions do not apply to:

(1) Dwelling units that are less than 10 years old; or (2) Tenancies for which the landlord is required to reduce rent to 30% or less of the tenant's income because of a federal, state, or