A pair of bills being introduced in Olympia this legislative session are aimed at limiting the steep rent hikes that tenants have been seeing recently in communities across Washington state.
Such rent stabilization is part of several measures in the state House and Senate that aim to ease housing costs and reduce homelessness, said state Rep. Alex Ramel, a Bellingham Democrat and House majority whip.
Ramel is sponsoring House Bill 1389 to cap rent increases at 3% to 7% annually, based on inflation, and he discussed it during an online briefing Tuesday, Jan. 17, that addressed the housing crisis.
"Rent stabilization is complementary to increasing housing supply. Washington needs both," Ramel told The Bellingham Herald in a text message.
Exceptions would be made for new construction and units where rent was already being subsidized, said Ramel, whose 40th District includes southern Whatcom County, western Skagit County and all of San Juan County.
He was joined at the briefing by state Rep. Nicole Macri, D-Seattle, whose companion measure outlines how Ramel's bill would be enforced.
Tuesday's briefing was presented by the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, which supports both measures.
Since mid-2021, when a statewide eviction ban ended, Macri said Washington residents have been reporting what she called "predatory" monthly rent increases that amount to hundreds of dollars and sometimes more.
"Folks are being driven into homelessness and even more are being driven out of our communities," said Macri, whose 43rd District covers downtown Seattle and some of its northern neighborhoods.
Renters offered their personal stories to illustrate the need for such limits on rental increases.
Shannon Corrick of Cheney said that she was an essential worker and was able to stay employed during the pandemic.
But her rent went up $300 a month in 2021, because that was "what the market would bear," her landlord said, and her family had to lower its standard of living drastically.
"We were forced to go from a house with a yard where my grandson had a swing set to play on, to a tiny apartment that we had to borrow money from our family to be able to afford," Corrick said during the briefing.
"People cannot bear the hardship," she said.
Ramel said that's a story that he's been hearing repeatedly from residents in his district, including a Bellingham man who left town after his rent was raised $600 a month.
Monthly rent on the average Bellingham apartment rose from $700 in January 2015 to $1,350 in January 2023, according to Zumper.
Nearly 40% of Washington households are renters, and average rent in Washington state increased 65% from 2010 to 2021, the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance said, citing U.S. census data.
Full-time workers in Washington must earn $31.33 per hour to be able to afford a "modest" two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent, according to the 2022 "Out of Reach" report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance.
Meanwhile, a statewide analysis conducted by United Way in 2020 showed that 10% of Washington residents earn incomes that are below the federal poverty line and another 23% are classified as working poor and their numbers have been increasing.
A 2022 report from the state Department of Commerce showed that there were 25,000 homeless people statewide, an increase of 10% from 2021.
Ramel said at the briefing that restrictions on rent increases were part of the Legislature's larger strategy to ease homelessness and reduce rent and home prices by making it easier to build homes, especially homes that middle-class workers can afford.
"Everybody in Washington state deserves a home. The status quo is not doing that adequately," he said.
