WA state lawmakers consider legislation to stabilize rent for tenants
During the first week of the 2024 legislative session lawmakers held a public hearing for a House bill that aims to stabilize housing rents.
House Bill 2114 is sponsored by Rep. Emily Alvarado, D-Seattle, and co-sponsored by 31 other House Democrats.
Alvarado told members of the House Committee on Housing that she brought the bill forward because tenants all over Washington are struggling to pay rent.
“I hear from families who keep paying more and more rent and they can’t save money to buy a home,” Alvarado said during public testimony Thursday, Jan. 11. “Hard-working people — people who work in childcare and healthcare and grocery stores — who pay their rent on time each month and then see their rent go up faster than their wages, and they can’t keep up, and they have to move farther and farther from their jobs.”
The lawmaker added that excessive rent increases destabilize families, and that rising rents are a driving factor in evictions and homelessness.
Rising rents and evictions also disproportionately affect households of color, and have been linked to premature death particularly in marginalized communities, according to studies by The Eviction Lab.
“At a time when working families and older adults are facing real economic pressures, we can provide some stability in the single greatest cost in a household budget — housing costs,” Alvarado said.
The bill would do several things if passed into law.
First, the bill would prohibit any rent or fee increases during the first 12 months of a tenancy, and would also put a 5% cap on fee or rent increases during any 12-month period.
The bill also adds new protections for tenants, such as limiting move-in fees, security deposits and late fees, and would create rent and fee increase notice requirements.
Additionally, tenants would have more legal avenues to take against landlords who violate terms of the legislation, possibly including Attorney General enforcement under the Consumer Protection Act.
More than 500 people signed in to oppose the bill, while more than 1,600 people signed in to the public hearing in support of the measure.
Several people testified on the bill, including multiple tenants who have been affected by rising rents.
Monica Zazueta, a Vancouver resident and mother of two, said she supports the legislation.
“I’ve had multiple rent increases throughout the years, and I ask myself, ‘what more do you want from me?’” she said.
She said that even a 10% increase to her $1,895 in rent would cost her an extra $189 a month, or more than an extra $2,000 a year. That additional cost does not include the utilities, gas, diapers, or food she also has to buy on top of that, she said.
Zazueta noted that the fear that housing insecurity causes affects her mental health and her life, as well as her children’s mental health.
“When you keep people in their homes, they feel better and they do better,” Zazueta said.
But some housing providers and those representing housing providers spoke out against the bill.
Riley Benge, a lobbyist for Washington Realtors, said that although they appreciated the efforts of lawmakers during the 2023 session to create more pathways for housing supply in the state, the trade organization believes the rent stabilization proposal will “deepen and prolong the housing crisis.”
“This bill will force housing providers to make difficult decisions, like whether to keep their homes for rent or remove them from the marketplace,” Benge said. “Moreover, it threatens to limit and discourage future investments in housing creation that we so desperately need.”
He said the bill would “apply pressure to an already stressed market.”
The House bill was scheduled for an executive session on Jan. 16.
A companion bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma, and is co-sponsored by 13 other Senate Democrats. That proposal was to have a public hearing on Friday.
