(The Center Square) – A rent stabilization bill, given a rare public hearing on the first day of the 2025 legislative session in Olympia, may not have enough Democratic support to cross the finish line, according to Republican leaders’ comments to The Center Square.
Second Substitute House Bill 1217, which Republicans refer to as “rent control,” would limit annual rent and fee increases to 7%. It would also require landlords to provide significant notice of rent increases, cap move-in fees and security deposits, and establish a landlord resource center to support tenant protection.
The Consumer Protection Division of the Washington State Attorney General’s Office would prosecute violators.
Republicans are united in opposition to the bill, and despite majority party Democrats securing its passage out of the House Appropriations Committee on Feb. 10, overall support for the bill may be waning.
“I hear that there are a number of Democratic senators that realize this is bad policy, and they realize this will have a negative effect on the housing and rental market in our state,” Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, told The Center Square in a Tuesday interview.
Gildon said he hopes the bill, which was referred to the House Rules Committee on Feb. 13, will go no further.
“However, I’m of the opinion that if the bill comes to the floor, they [Democrats] would be pressured to vote for it and go ahead and pass it out, so the best scenario I can think of is that the bill never comes to the floor,” he explained. “I’m very hopeful those Democratic senators who have doubts will hold firm in their convictions.”
Minority Leader Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, was asked about SSHB 1217 during Tuesday’s Republican media availability event. He said that some Democrats are less than enthusiastic about supporting the bill.
“I think there’s a growing group in the Senate Democratic Caucus of folks who are just willing to look at the data, to look at the studies out there on rent control and rent stabilization and understand what this is going to do long term to housing, whether it’s rental or owned housing in the future,” Braun elaborated. “So, I think there’s growing understanding of the negatives, and I think that’s a good thing.”
Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima, said members on both sides of the aisle have started asking questions about the bill.
“We’ll continue to fight that fight because we know it just doesn’t work,” he said.
Corry recalled that in 2024 a similar bill was, for a time, steaming ahead in the Legislature.
Last year, House Bill 2114, which sought to limit rent increases to 5% annually, was approved by the House of Representatives. Companion legislation in the other chamber, Senate Bill 5961, however, died in committee.
During Tuesday’s news conference, Sen. Keith Waggoner, R-Sedro-Woolley, suggested the Legislature is responsible for the high cost of rent.
“Landlords have sort of been vilified in all this, but who’s the worst landlords in Washington state?” he asked. “Who’s always raising the rent in the form of taxes? That’s the Legislature when we’ve outspent ourselves, and what do we do? We raise the cost to live in Washington state through bad policy, higher taxes and new taxes.”
A companion bill to HB 1217, Senate Bill 5222, was referred to the Ways & Means Committee on Feb. 20, but no further action has been scheduled.
The Center Square reached out to SSHB 1217 sponsor Sen. Emily Alvarado, D-West Seattle, about the legislation’s prospect of passing but did not receive a reply.
