OLYMPIA — The Senate version of a bill to limit rent increases died Wednesday when a state senator on the Housing Committee said she could not support it.
A House version of the proposal, House Bill 2114, lives on and has met the Wednesday deadline. But the failure of Senate Bill 5961 indicates that even if the House can pass its version, the policy will face challenges getting through the Senate and passed into law.
The initial versions of each bill would have capped rent increases for existing tenants at 5%. The amended version that had appeared to pass out of committee Friday would have limited those yearly increases to 15%.
With a statewide average rent of $1,748 per month in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the University of Washington, Washingtonians are feeling the squeeze when they write rent checks every month.
In a survey conducted by the state Department of Commerce, in partnership with the Puget Sound Regional Council, released in January 2023, respondents were asked to identify the top two issues facing Washington. The top two choices were housing costs (rents included) and homelessness. Cost of living was the third most popular choice.
Proponents of the measure say that rising rents are pricing people out of their homes and contributing to homelessness. But opponents say the proposal could undermine the state's ongoing efforts to bolster its sorely undersupplied housing market, arguing it could drive away people who would provide housing or invest in developing more housing.
The Department of Commerce estimates the state will need about 1.1 million units of housing in the next 20 years.
Although the Senate bill seemed like it passed out of committee on Jan. 26, Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, who was present at the committee meeting, did not sign an official document denoting her vote. Cleveland was the lone Democrat on the committee holding out on the bill and came under pressure Tuesday as housing advocates pressed her to support the bill before the deadline Wednesday.
In a written statement Wednesday, Cleveland said her "biggest problem" with the bill was the annual limit of 15%.
That figure was requested by another Democrat on the committee, Sen. Sharon Shewmake, D-Bellingham, who felt 5% was likely too low and could negatively affect the housing supply — but that 15% would be enough to let landlords make repairs while also preventing "egregious" rent increases.
But Cleveland said that limit could result in "brutal" increases in rent every year.
"Landlords would be able to increase rent by 15% year after year, well in excess of the typical economic growth of household salaries and means," Cleveland said. "The math is brutal. What renter could afford a 15% increase in rent with each new year?"
She also said she was concerned about the unintended consequences of imposing the policy. In her statement, she linked to research studies on policies to limit rents, and said other areas that had implemented programs to limit rents or slow rent increases created "real-world problems," like a reduction in available housing.
"I hope more people will seriously weigh the value of doing all we can to fully understand the ramifications of rent control to ensure we don't inadvertently hurt the very people we want to help," she said.
She said that nationally, the rate of growth in rents has slowed over the past 19 months.
"This indicates that our efforts to increase housing supply are beginning to work and suggests we should continue those efforts before adopting risky policies that might do more harm than good and could disrupt the positive path we are now on," she said.
Because the House bill is still alive, the Senate bill's defeat in committee doesn't mean it's over for the proposal altogether.
"We are extremely disappointed in senators who turned their back on renters experiencing unfair and excessive rent increases," said Rachael Myers, executive director of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance. "But one vote isn't going to stop us."
House Democrats have "a ton of interest" in the proposal, House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, said Wednesday. At the same time though, a bill that can't get through both chambers won't become law.
"There's not much of a point in passing bills that we don't have any hope over there," Jinkins said, referring to the Senate. "So I think what we want to do is assess whether or not there's hope."
