It’s the final countdown– next Wednesday, April 16th, is the last day the House and Senate can consider and vote on bills. So these next few days they’ll be busy prioritizing which bills they’ll have time to debate, and taking important votes. We’re closely tracking our two priority bills, and there may be urgent opportunities to take action. As always, we’ll be in your inbox with updates!

In a bit of local news- our very own Director of Local Advocacy, Jazmine, wrote about the connection between housing density, tree canopy, and the health of our salmon and orcas. It’s a great example of how important it is to recognize the intersectionality of housing affordability and environmental policies. Check out her great piece in The Urbanist.

GMA Compliance – HB 1135 

As we expected last week, Governor Ferguson has signed HB 1135, GMA Compliance, so it’s now officially law! We’ve said all along that this is a wonky, technical bill (now law). But it’s a law that we’ll be able to feel the benefits of in neighborhoods all across the state, because it makes sure that land use and development planning happens in a way that is thoughtful of environmental impacts, affordability, equity, and accessibility.

We’re sending a big thank you because we want to be sure they know that we appreciate their efforts getting this done, especially in such a busy year.

Rent Stabilization – HB 1217

Last week was busy for HB 1217. It had a tough path through Senate Ways & Means committee, but it made it through. On Thursday, in a historic vote, the Senate voted to PASS HB 1217! Unfortunately, during the floor vote, several amendments passed that significantly weakened the bill.

With these new amendments, the bill heads back to the House. The House can adopt the bill as amended, refuse to adopt it and let the bill die, or send the bill to concurrence where a committee of representatives and senators will negotiate a final bill. We’re not sure yet which path the bill is going to take, but we’ll be in touch as advocacy opportunities arise.

Big thank you and appreciation to our partners at the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance who have been leading this bill through session.

Transit-Oriented Development – HB 1491

Alongside rent stabilization, HB 1491 supporting transit-oriented development also made it through the Senate Ways & Means Committee. But unlike, rent stabilization, it has not yet been pulled from the Rules committee, so it’s not in the queue to be heard on the Senate floor just yet.

---

Results are in! New Polling Shows Strong Support for Housing Policies

Washingtonians overwhelmingly want to see the state take real action to address our housing crisis. Alongside partners, Futurewise recently conducted statewide polling to get a better picture of the impacts of rising housing costs on families in different counties, geographies, and living situations, and to ask them what types of solutions they want to see from the state.

The results are overwhelmingly clear: We need rent stabilization, we need increased development around transit centers, and we need it now.

Rising costs are being felt by families across the state. 7 in 10 renters report not being able to live near where they work because of high rent costs. And nearly ⅔ of renters report having to move from their home because of rent increases they couldn’t afford.

But there’s a bright spot: we are united in the solutions we want to see. Whether Democrat, Independent or Republican, living in a suburb, the city, or a rural area, over ¾ of survey respondents support capping rent increases, and building more homes near transit. This is a huge, bipartisan majority of folks in Washington.

Read more about what we’ve learned from our survey results here.