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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Washington state House lawmakers again push cap on rent increases

Tina Hammond, owner of a mobile home on a rented lot in Spokane, is facing a rent increase that has her looking for ways to trim her fixed monthly budget.  (Jesse Tinsley/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)

Washington lawmakers are again considering whether to cap the amount landlords can increase rents each year.

If passed, the legislation would limit annual rent increases to 7% every 12 months for tenants and require six months’ notice for rent increases of 3% or more, though landlords could set a rent above the 7% cap for the unit when a new tenant signs a lease. The proposal would also cap late and move-in fees and requires additional notices for rent increases.

Under the current legislation, new construction would be exempt from the requirements for 10 years, and owner-occupied housing and duplexes would be exempt.

The Legislature considered a similar bill last session, though the proposal died in the Senate after it cleared the House. This year, the proposal was among the first to be considered by the Legislature, with the House housing committee holding a hearing on the bill about an hour after the new session began Monday.

There, state Rep. Emily Alvarado, D-West Seattle, the bill’s sponsor, said the proposal is a “compromise.”

“It includes significant changes that we’ve made over the past few years to respond to the concerns of stakeholders,” Alvarado said. “And the cost of inaction is far too high.”

During the hearing, Spokane resident Tina Hammond told the committee that she temporarily stopped taking medicines after she struggled to afford a rent increase of $66 per month, a 12% increase from her prior rent.

Hammond, 64, told legislators that it took three months “to come up with a workable plan” to afford her medications and the increase, and it included turning off her heat at night to conserve energy.

According to Hammond, her struggles to afford a rent increase are not uncommon in her mobile home community for residents 55 or older, Sans Souci West in northwest Spokane, where residents pay monthly rent for a plot to park their unit.

Were her rent to be raised too high, Hammond said the age of her unit would make it difficult to move to a new spot.

“If I was forced to sell, where would I go? There isn’t enough housing,” Hammond said. “There certainly isn’t something affordable for somebody on a fixed income.”

But Republicans argue that the proposal may hurt tenants in the long run. It also has sparked concerns among some landlords, who worry the cap could cause them to struggle to afford improvements and other costs that outpace the 7%.

On the first day of the session, roughly 20 people protested the legislation in the Capitol rotunda, including Rick Glenn, a landlord from Yakima with roughly 150 tenants.

At the protest, Glenn said Washington has “continuously made it more expensive to be a landlord.” If the proposal were to pass, Glenn said he would likely put his properties up for sale.

Glenn, president of the Yakima Valley Landlords Association, said his group represents approximately 660 landlords in Yakima.

“The problem with rent control is that we do not control the cost of goods, we do not control the cost of repairs, we don’t control the cost of evictions, we don’t control the costs that the state imposes on us,” Glenn said.

According to Glenn, the cost to manage a rental property has tripled over the past three years – costs he said landlords ultimately eat.

“The government, they keep talking like they’re helping people to get housing,” Glenn said. “But everything they’re doing is the exact opposite.”

Alvarado said at a news conference before the legislative session began that the proposal would ease “excessive and unnecessary rent increases,” and help provide stability for the state’s renters.

“Washingtonians are asking for our help to rein in costs and make it easier to live, raise a family and retire with dignity,” Alvarado said. “That’s what this bill does.”

State Rep. Natasha Hill, D-Spokane, vice chair of the housing committee, said she is optimistic of the bill’s chances of passing out of the committee.

The committee is set to further consider the proposal Monday afternoon.

Hill, who strongly supported rent stabilization during her bid for her seat last year, said Hammond delivered “critical information on the choices that she’s having to make to buy groceries or pay bills so that she can pay her utility bills.

“I think when you hear that, it was really impactful,” Hill said in an interview on Thursday.

Hill said the housing committee is considering other legislation that would directly impact mobile home parks, including preventing corporate purchases.

“To me, that was important that that very specific type of housing was highlighted,” Hill said. “Because I think overall, this bill is getting quite a bit of support. We know it passed one chamber, so we’ve got to work on that this year.”

According to House leadership, the rent stabilization will likely see support across the chamber. Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, said during a news conference earlier this month that legislators will “pass it off the floor of the House this year.”

Meanwhile, after Republicans universally opposed the measure last session, House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, said during the news conference that he suspected “folks’ opinion on it hasn’t really changed.”

In his remarks, Stokesbary said while he understood the appeal of the proposal, it could ultimately serve as a detractor for developers and hamper new construction.

“If you’re a capital allocator sitting somewhere in Texas or California or New York, and you’re looking where to build new housing, and you see these restrictions popping up in states like Washington, and no restrictions popping up in states like Nevada and Texas, that capital will be allocated to those other states, and we will have less supply, less new housing built over the medium and long term,” Stokesbary said.

Whether the legislation can garner enough support to pass the Senate remains unclear.

Majority Leader Jaime Pederson, D-Seattle, said before the legislative session began that he believes his caucus supports the proposal if it’s tied to legislation to increase the amount of housing in the state.

“Particularly if we can match that with a package of measures that will help make sure that our production of housing increases and that that downward pressure on prices will continue over time,” Pederson said.