As plan to cap rent hikes derails in WA Senate, House Democrats may keep pushing

Democrats in the Washington state House aren’t yet giving up on legislation to cap residential rent increases, despite increasingly difficult odds of passage in the Senate.

House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, told reporters Wednesday afternoon that providing relief to renters is still a priority for her caucus, though she acknowledged that there is work to be done shoring up support in the Senate, where a rent stabilization bill died earlier in the day. 

But with this year’s 60-day session nearly halfway over, the Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate will be reluctant to burn up valuable floor time on doomed legislation.

“We have to make sure there’s some sort of a path,” Jinkins said. “There’s not much of a point in passing bills that we know will die in the other chamber.” 

A bill that would have limited yearly rent increases to 15% for existing tenants, while giving cities and counties the option to set lower caps, died in the Senate Housing Committee after a Democratic lawmaker withheld support.

Following a committee vote on Friday, Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, refused to sign “yes” or “no” on the bill, remaining undecided. 

On Wednesday, Cleveland issued a 900-plus word statement explaining that she could not support the policy, in part because she thinks it could have unintended consequences for the housing market. 

“Many researchers have documented real-world problems caused by existing rent control programs,” she said.

At the same time, Cleveland suggested the bill could leave tenants facing unaffordable rent increases. 

“Landlords would be able to increase rent by 15 percent year after year,” she said. “The math is brutal.”

Without Cleveland’s support, Democrats did not have the votes to move the bill out of its policy committee before a Wednesday deadline.

Bill sponsor Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma, told the Standard she was “confused and surprised” that her legislation faltered. 

The initial bill capped yearly rent increases at 5%, but Trudeau made changes last week to raise the limit to 15% and to let local governments set lower caps. The restrictions were never designed to apply to housing leased to new tenants and would’ve only protected existing renters from sharp price hikes.

Trudeau said the changes reflected a compromise on some of the bill’s sticking points and that she was confident it had enough support to advance.

There is a House version of the bill. For it to keep moving, it has to pass out of the Appropriations Committee by Feb. 5. That version still has the 5% cap. It’s unclear what changes House lawmakers might make to the bill.