Our work this year generated more than 160 news stories in print and online publications, as well as across radio and TV stations during the 2025 legislative session. It also resulted in more than 19 op-ed pieces and dozens of letters to the editor in publications across the state. Here are some highlights:
The Associated Press 5/8/2025 Washington governor signs rent-control bill into law
Also in The Columbian, GoSkagit, KOIN, KOMO, ABC News, KATU, Morning Times, Corvallis-Gazette Times
Bill sponsor Sen. Emily Alvarado, a West Seattle Democrat, said the measure sets common-sense guardrails on the state’s rental-housing market “so that hardworking families and older adults don’t get unchecked excessive rent increases.”
“Housing is not a luxury. It’s a basic human need,” Alvarado said at the bill signing. “And everyone in this state deserves a stable and affordable home.”
KREM 2 5/8/2025 'We all need a break': Spokane renter, lawmaker hope new rent stabilization law will bring financial reprieve
Matt Goode has been renting an apartment in Browne's Addition for 8 years, and he says each year gets more challenging.
"Everybody's rent has just gone up so significantly over the last couple of years. And I know people who have had to move to other places, just because it's frankly, just not a sustainable model, like the way the housing market works right now," said Goode.
He says housing all across Spokane is expensive and hopes that the new Washington law will help.
The Seattle Times 5/8/2025 Gov. Ferguson signs slate of 10 new WA housing bills into law
Easily the most contested housing bill of the session, House Bill 1217 limits the amount a landlord can raise rent on tenants in a yearly period to 7% plus inflation, or 10%, whichever is less. Due to an emergency clause attached to the proposal, the cap went into immediate effect Wednesday with Ferguson’s signature. The law, which sunsets in 15 years, also limits any increase in rent within the first year of a tenancy. It does not limit how much landlords can raise rent on a unit after a tenant moves out
Fox 13 Seattle 5/8/2025 Gov. Ferguson signs bill capping annual rent increases
“Rent goes up faster than wages. Seniors see rent go up faster than social security. A record number of families in this state are paying more than half of their income for rent. That’s not okay.” - Senator Emily Alvarado
Associated Press, US News & World Report, Seattle Times, OPB, and multiple papers across the state 4/20/25: Renters call on Washington lawmakers to approve rent-control bill
Disabled veteran and single parent Duana Ricks-Johnson has moved her family five times in the past four years to keep ahead of rising rents — all while fighting at the state Legislature for a rent control law that hasn’t come.“If this doesn’t go through, it just puts a whole myriad of things in motion, like a landslide that my little family wouldn’t be able to recover from,” she said. “Where do we go?
Michele Thomas, the policy director at the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, said she’s convinced lawmakers can compromise. “Lawmakers in both the House and Senate are continuing to hear from literally thousands, thousands of people across the state who want them to fix the bill and pass a protective version with no more than a 7% increase for residential renters, 5% for manufactured homeowners and also one that doesn’t randomly exempt all people who live in a single family home,” Thomas told The Associated Press
KOMO TV 4/18/25 Housing advocates rally to lower the cap on WA rent increases
Advocates and renters rallied on Friday to send a message to lawmakers to lower the cap on rent increases. With signs in hand and a message heard from the capitol steps, people dealing with sky-high housing costs are demanding a final bill allowing no more than a 7% yearly increase for renters and no more than 5% for those in manufactured homes.
Claudia Franson worries about eviction or even homelessness if her rent goes up much more."I do not one day want to be outside of the home with my kids and be just another family, homeless under a tent," Franson told KOMO News.
Disabled veteran Duana Johnson told KOMO News hundreds of dollars a month in extra housing costs would mean having to sacrifice other essentials, like groceries or medical care."I'm a single mom, I live on my pension, and I cannot afford to keep moving," Johnson added. "I've had to move five times in the last four years due to rental increases.”
KUOW 3/21/2025 Is this the year rent limits pass?
Engrossed House Bill 1217 passed out of the House this week. That’s as far as earlier versions of this bill got last year -- and there’s buzz this year that the Senate could let this version of the bill safely parachute onto the Governor’s desk.
To hear more about the divide around this bill, Sound Politics hosts Libby Denkmann and Scott Greenstone were joined by State Senator Emily Alvarado, the prime sponsor of HB 1217, and Emily Thompson, a partner with GMD Development, which specializes in affordable housing.
KIRO 7 3/14/2025 Hundreds rally at state capitol for rent control bill
Also in MyNorthwest
Tenants who came to the rally Friday said rising rents are crushing them.
“The new owners raised the rent $150,” said Caroline Hardy, an Aberdeen resident who lives at a mobile home park. “The next year, it went up $110.”
Hardy said she and most of her neighbors are senior citizens on fixed incomes.
“It’s looking like a lot of us are going to end up homeless,” she said.
Washington State Standard 3/10/2025 Rent increase cap approved by Washington House
Also in Yahoo News, Everett Post, OPB. Planetizen, OregonLive
Supporters argue that stabilizing rents will provide people with predictability in their expenses to help them stay in their housing and avoid homelessness. They called it a modest and balanced approach to help renters as the supply of affordable housing grows.
“It is a really strong policy,” said Rep. Nicole Macri, D-Seattle, who led negotiations with Republicans on the version that reached the floor. “Keeping the rent increase limit at seven percent will be a huge impact for renters across the state.”