Going into 2026, Washington state faced a lot of uncertainty. Housing costs have continued climbing year after year, climate change is creating more unpredictable extreme weather, and we’re still working to make every community equitable and accessible. While we’ve made great progress over the past years, our work isn’t done!
For our 2026 legislative campaign, we addressed top issues impacting our community, making sure communities are connected to transit, farms are protected from sprawl, and more.
Our top priorities during the 2026 session were:
Tackling Homelessnesss
STEP Housing
HB 2266
Status: PASSED! 🎉
STEP housing refers to critical housing types like Shelters, Transitional housing, Emergency housing, and Permanent supportive housing; and Washington needs a lot more of it. A lot of our cities have added costly but unecessary regulations to these housing types, driven by stigma or neighborhood opposition. This is a follow-up from our successful passage of HB 1220, and will remove barriers to getting more of this housing built as outlined by state law.
Encouraging Middle Housing
Scissor stairs
HB 2228
Status: PASSED! 🎉
Condo Liability HB 2304
Status: PASSED! 🎉
Smaller Elevators
SB 5156
Status: PASSED! 🎉
Landmark missing-middle housing legislation was passed in 2023, but big, complex legislation like HB 1110 needs careful implementation, and often follow-up bills to support its successful implementation. This year, we’re working both with the legislature and the building codes council to make sure building codes are updated to make it feasible to implement this bill while maintaining critical quality and safety standards.
Balancing Rural Housing and the Environment
Rural ADU’s
HB 1345
Status: Passed without bad amendments
Development in LAMIRDs
HB 2269
Status: Passed without bad amendments
Limiting sprawl around rural rail
SB 5820
Status: PASSED! 🎉
Growing equitably and intentionally in rural areas has always been extremely complex – requiring a careful balance of protecting agricultural, farm, and resource-lands from sprawl while providing affordable housing options that folks need, while still maintaining rural areas.
Both bills we are watching this year are aimed at striking this delicate balance.
There is no silver bullet solution, but you can always count on Futurewise to have everyone’s interest in mind and be a careful, thoughtful partner in this area.
Legislative Recap 2026
March 17, 2026
Legislators adjourned on Thursday afternoon, and the 2026 Legislative Session is a wrap! Truly remarkable, every single bill on our 2026 Growing Together agenda passed the Legislature. 🤯 Seven bills with our fingerprints on them are now on their way
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2026 Legislative Campaign Kick Off Recap
December 8, 2025
Last Wednesday on December 3rd, Futurewise hosted our annual kick off meeting to launch our 2026 legislative campaign: Growing Together! A huge shout out to the 50+ volunteers and partner organizations that attended, and especially to Representative Strom Peterson (D,
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