One of the most hotly debated housing-related bills of the 2025 legislative session — at least, an overhauled form of it — passed the state Senate Thursday.
The original version of House Bill 1217 aimed to cap annual rent hikes at 7%. But the upper chamber instead voted 29-20 to pass a version that raised the cap to 10% plus the consumer price index (CPI), a measure of inflation.
State Sen. Emily Alvarado, a West Seattle Democrat who sponsored the bill, provided example after example on the Senate floor of renters who are struggling to scrape by. One mother of two named Stephanie from Alvarado’s district was forced to move after her rent increased, and she was panicked trying to find another home in the same school district.
These aren’t just stories, Alvarado said: They’re the lived experiences of people across Washington who are “getting crushed by rent increases.”
“Forty percent of the people in this state — though not 40% of the people in this body — are renters or manufactured homeowners, and they have zero protections of how high the rent will go,” she said. “What a landlord does is they charge what the market can bear. But Washingtonians can’t bear it anymore.”
Thursday was the first time that a rent cap bill cleared both chambers of the state Legislature. Last session the House gave it a green light, but it didn’t make it past a Senate committee.
Before HB 1217 can become law, though, the House will need to weigh in amendments the Senate has made. In addition to raising the cap to 10% plus CPI, the Senate created an exemption for single-family homes that are not owned by a real estate development trust, corporation or limited liability company wherein a member is a corporation.
It’s unclear whether Gov. Bob Ferguson will sign the proposal, but if he does, it would take effect immediately.
Michele Thomas, director of policy and advocacy for the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, blasted the Senate’s “gutting” of the bill in a statement after the vote. She noted that close to 1 million renter households in Washington risk displacement. Even the 10% cap — translating to $180 increase on a $1,830 monthly rent — will harm and displace renters, she said.
The senators who said yes to that change “should be ashamed of themselves,” she said.
“There will never be a time when vulnerable seniors, disabled people, low- and middle-income workers and families with children can withstand excessive rent increases,” Thomas said.
In Thomas’ view, HB 1217 isn’t actually controversial. She pointed to a January poll that found nearly 7 in 10 respondents support limiting how much landlords can boost rents every year.
Critics, however, think the bill could lead to unintended consequences.
Last month, House Republican Floor Leader April Connors of Kennewick warned that the 7%-cap proposal would rock the state’s housing market and “choke off supply.”
“This is a great bill: It’s a great bill for Idaho, it’s a great bill for Montana and it’s a great bill for Arizona,” Connors said at the time. “Because just the hint of this bill is causing our developers to start moving towards those states.”
Efforts to solve WA housing crisis
In a Tuesday phone interview, Thomas with the Low Income Housing Alliance told McClatchy that lawmakers have been hearing for years that housing is too expensive. Rents are rising at an untenable rate, and homelessness is ballooning.
Thomas highlighted housing bills that her organization supports. House Bill 1491, for instance, aims to increase housing density around transit stations. She also cited an effort to expand eligibility for the covenant homeownership program, which aims to undo historic harms that denied communities of color the opportunity to buy homes.
In addition, Thomas pointed to two housing-related bills by state Sen. Jessica Bateman, an Olympia Democrat.
One “puts more teeth” in a past bill that requires cities to do more when planning for the housing needs of residents of all incomes, she said. The other gives more flexibility on parking mandates when building new construction.
Lots of folks can’t save to buy a home because of rent gouging, Thomas said. At the same time, many still face barriers because of high mortgage costs and a lack of intergenerational wealth.
“So I think all these bills work really beautifully together, and together will solve our affordable housing crisis,” Thomas said.
At an April 9 news conference about the 7%-cap-version of HB 1217, renter Brandon Sheffer said that he’s lived in Issaquah since 2019. During that time he’s seen the rent for his two-bed apartment increase by more than $1,000 per month. He said that both he and his wife work white-collar jobs with average incomes.
“And we are still finding it really, really hard to keep up with the pace that these rents increase,” Sheffer said.
Concern about proposed WA property tax bill
Janelle Guthrie, vice president of communications for the Building Industry Association of Washington, told McClatchy in a Wednesday phone interview that her group has concerns about HB 1217.
“Basically our concern about the rent-control bills is just that expenses are rising higher and more quickly than a 7% cap,” Guthrie said the day before the Senate voted to raise the cap to 10%. “So there needs to be more flexibility in how that legislation works.”
Guthrie said the BIAW also is fighting Senate Bill 5798, which would get rid of the existing 1% cap on annual property tax increases and let local governments increase taxes more without voter approval.
“This means property taxes could skyrocket by an average of 4.7% per year — or even higher — potentially doubling your tax burden within a decade,” Guthrie wrote.
HB 2049, meanwhile, would increase the property-tax growth cap to 3% annually, she said, adding that it would further strain the pocketbooks’ of already financially strapped families and communities.
Gina Carlson, who sits on the board of the Olympia Master Builders, told reporters Wednesday that her organization’s main mission is affordable housing. The Senate’s property-tax proposal should concern everyone, she said, adding that it’s a “nonpartisan disaster.”
“You put a bill in place like this, and we have no idea what the implications of that could be, other than people being driven out of their homes, driven out of the state and driven out of the economy that we have a chance to save,” she said at an April 9 press conference hosted by Senate Republicans.
Guthrie also referenced bills that BIAW supports, such as HB 1096, which aims to improve housing supply by letting property owners split their lots to build additional housing.
Another measure, HB 1403, would simplify laws about condominium construction, Guthrie said; Washington’s current condo-liability laws have been flagged as a serious disincentive to developers building condos.
And HB 1414 is aimed at addressing the state’s trade-labor shortage, Guthrie said. It would direct the Career and Technical Education Task Force to provide suggestions for getting students more opportunities for hands-on experience in the trades before graduating high school.
Overall, BIAW is disappointed that much of lawmakers’ focus has been on housing availability and affordability at the same time there are proposals to spike property taxes, which would increase the cost of housing, Guthrie said.
Builders are in the business because they believe in the American dream of homeownership, she said.
“They believe that people should be able to get that first step into a starter home so they can begin the process of building generational wealth,” Guthrie said. “And if we continue down this road of making housing so much less affordable than the rest of the nation, people in Washington are really going to be at a disadvantage.”
© 2025 The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.). Visit www.TheNewsTribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
