Rent caps, other housing protections signed into Washington law

Rent caps and other housing reforms are coming to Washington State after Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a swath of historic legislation Wednesday meant to ease the state’s homelessness crisis.

Washington now joins California as the only states to offer a statewide version of rent control. The majority of states specifically bar it, according to the National Apartment Association, and only a handful allow local jurisdictions to adopt caps. Some don’t address the issue either way.

According to Ferguson, the number one issue he heard while campaigning was the lack of affordable housing in the state.

“It just came up over and over and over again,” he said Wednesday. “It doesn’t matter if someone lives in North Seattle or Spokane, in a red jurisdiction or a blue jurisdiction, it doesn’t matter. I just heard that concern over and over and over again.”

While on the campaign trail, Ferguson pledged to build 200,000 new units of housing in the state during his first term in office. Following his first legislative session, which he dubbed “the session of affordable housing,” the governor said the state has made progress towards the goal, though more must be done.

“We must make it easier, faster, and less expensive to build housing of all kinds,” Ferguson said. “And this group of bills does precisely that.”

On Wednesday, Ferguson signed a slate of bills he said will reduce red tape and cut construction costs, which he hopes will spur the construction of more housing in the state and further the state’s efforts to reach his goal.

The governor also signed a bill to cap yearly rent increases at 7% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is less, each year. Landlords will be required to provide a 90-day notice of rent increases. Under the legislation, new construction will be exempt for 12 years, as will affordable housing managed by nonprofit organizations and public housing authorities. Similar to Washington, California caps rents at 10%, or 5% plus inflation, whichever is lower.

“At a time of economic uncertainty, this common-sense guardrail will protect working families and seniors from excessive rent hikes,” sponsor Sen. Emily Alvarado, D-West Seattle, said in a statement.

Ferguson said he has frequently heard from renters forced to move further and further away from their jobs in large metropolitan cities as their rents have increased. The bill, Ferguson said, is evidence that a constituent’s voice matters in the legislative process.

In a statement Wednesday, Sean Flynn, executive director of the Rental Housing Association of Washington, said the bill is a “death knell for Washington’s rental housing market.”

“This bill sends two messages. First, to small housing providers – it tells them they cannot do this alone in a system this chaotic and overregulated,” Flynn said. “Second, to capital – it signals that your development dollars are better spent in states with more predictable and stable housing policy.”

Flynn added that the rent increase cap “locks in housing scarcity and will ultimately harm the very tenants it claims to protect.”

Lawmakers took other steps towards increasing the supply of affordable housing during the legislative session. The capital budget awaiting a signature from Ferguson includes $605 million, a record, for the construction of affordable housing projects through the Housing Trust Fund.

Lt. Governor Denny Heck, who headed Ferguson’s efforts to boost housing during his transition, gathered reports in the Capitol on the last day of the session to discuss the progress legislators had made.

“They took big steps forward,” Heck said.

Heck pointed to legislation to limit the number of parking spaces cities and counties require for housing projects and permitting reform, among other proposals, as proof that lawmakers had taken steps towards increasing housing supply.

Still, Heck said, “We have a very, very long way to go.”

Heck said the supply shortage in the state “is so severe that no one should be leaving here thinking ‘Ah, we’ve got this.’ ”

“Because we don’t have this, yet,” Heck said.

Like the governor, Heck said the state lags behind others and must take additional steps to increase the supply of housing.

“I think one of the biggest impediments to us taking that truly giant step forward is just a fundamental lack of understanding that in order to solve this, it’s going to take the private sector being fully partnered with us,” Heck said.

While the record funding for the Housing Trust Fund was a positive step, Heck said, it pales in comparison to the amount needed to fully address the issue, something that would require additional involvement of the private sector.

“There’s no way public or social housing investments are going to build ourselves out of this problem,” Heck said. “And yet, there is a perspective among too many members that somehow, those who seek to build housing or profit are the enemy. And if we cannot figure out a way to begin partnering with them, to harness that capital, then we are not going to take that giant step forward.”