Three Housing Bills Scheduled to Get Hearings in Washington State Senate This Week

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Washington's state legislature begins its 2021 session Monday, and three housing-related bills are set to get hearings in the Senate Housing & Local Government Committee, including ones that would allow cities to levy taxes on short-term rentals, regulate closures of mobile and manufactured home parks, and limit property tax exemptions for home improvements.

SB 5012 — Short-term rental tax to fund affordable housing

Introduced by Sen. Liz Lovelett, an Anacortes Democrat, SB 5012 would allow municipalities to create a special excise tax of up to 10 percent on short-term rentals facilitated through an "internet-based platform" such as AirBnb or VRBO. Cities with more than 400,000 residents are allowed to set the tax up to 12 percent. The revenue must be used to fund capital and operating costs of affordable housing programs.

The Housing and Local Government Committee hearing on the bill will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday.

SB 5033 — Limiting property tax exemption for home improvement to ADUs only

Introduced by Democratic Sens. Patty Kuderer of Bellevue and Rebecca Saldaña of Seattle, SB 5033 would modify the property tax exemption for improvements to single-family dwellings. Currently, any home improvement construction project can qualify to be exempt from property taxes for three years, if the project represents less than 30% of the total home's value. SB 5033 would limit the exemption to only the construction of Accessory Dwelling Units.

This hearing will be directly after the hearing for SB 5012 on Wednesday.

SB 5079 — Requires owners to give tenants three years' notice before closing or converting mobile and manufactured home parks



Introduced by Kuderer and Sen. Mona Das, a Kent Democrat, SB 5079 would extend the period of time that owners of mobile and manufactured home parks must give notice to residents before closing or converting the park to another use. Current law requires one year's notice; the bill would extend it to three years.

Several exceptions are made if the owner sells the park to a nonprofit, housing authority, local government, or organization of the tenants for purpose of preservation; the owner can also justly compensate tenants for the market value of their homes, in which case a 180-day notice is required after payment.

The Housing and Local Government Committee will hear testimony on this bill at 8 a.m. Thursday.

You can access committees schedules at https://app.leg.wa.gov/committeeschedules, register to testify at https://app.leg.wa.gov/CSIRemote/Senate, and watch hearings live on TVW.

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