Washington Senate Pulverizes Rent Stabilization Bill, But House Could Still Save It
- Hannah Krieg
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Seven hand-wringing, party traitors helped Republican Senators wrestle the Democratic majority into the cuck chair Thursday afternoon when they tacked on ruinous amendments to HB 1217, the long-awaited rent stabilization bill. The amendments raised the proposed 7% cap on rental hikes to 10% plus inflation based on the consumer price index (CPI) and carved a huge exemption for single-family homes, where about 30% of renters live.
Ultimately, the Senate voted 29-20 to FINALLY approve rent stabilization, with all Democrats except Sen. Annette Cleveland (D-Vancouver) voting affirmative. The issue will now go through a concurrence process where the House could still fight off the bad amendments.
As Sen. Emily Alvarado (D-Seattle) said on the floor, she's disappointed in the changes because they "strip far too many people of protections that we could have afforded them." She continued, "But still, this bill is important."
Ahead of the final vote, Sen. Sharon Shewmake (D-Bellingham) proposed an amendment to give landlords more leeway to raise rents. Instead of 7% passed in the House, landlords will have the power to raise rents 10% on top of inflation if Gov. Bob Ferguson signs the bill. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a CPI of 2.4% over the last 12 months as of Thursday. That means, under Shewmake's amendment, a landlord could raise your rent 12.4%. In 2022, the CPI reached a record 9.1% due to COVID-19 pandemic. In such a case, landlords could raise your rent 19.1%. So, hypothetically, if you lived in a $1,500 a month one-bedroom apartment during that time, your landlord could have jacked your rent up to $1,786.50. That would have felt real good during a public health crisis!
Shewmake said she wanted to strike a balance between protecting tenants from gouging and hurting landlords profits, which she worried could stifle growth. The Urbanists attacked that talking point here.
Sens. Cleveland, Adrian Cortes (D-Battleground), Marko Liias (D-Edmonds), John Lovick (D-Mill Creek), and Sen. Jesse Salomon (D-Shoreline) joined Shewmake in crossing party lines to approve the amendment.
Then, Liias proposed an amenmdent to exclude renter in single-family homes that are not owned by corporations. He argued that imposing rent stabilizaiton on single-family homes would drive smalltime landlords out of the market. Critics pointed out that 30% of renters live in single-family homes. Plus, the state does not currently track what single-family homes are owned by corporations, making the amendment difficult to administer and potentially leaving tenants rightfully covered by the law to fall through the cracks. Also, Alvarado noted that many renters in single family homes have small children. "Babies," she said empathically of who the amendment hurt.
Sens. Cleveland, Cortes, Shewmake, Salomon, and Deborah Krishnadasan (D-Gig Harbor) joined Liias and the Republicans to pass the amendment.
Most egregiously, some of these senators also supported a Republican amendment that would prempt all local tenant protections, effectively repealing any measure that went beyond the state's Landlord-Tenant Act to support renters. The amendment failed, thank God, but Sens. Lovick, Liias, Salomon, and Cleveland are ripe for a challenger in their next elections.