Olympia advances new tenant protections. What do they mean for renters?
The Olympia City Council voted 6-1 in favor of forwarding a slew of tenant protections aimed at making Olympia’s housing stock more accessible onto second and final reading Jan. 6. If approved, the new requirements would go into effect on April 1, 2026.
Housing Program Specialist Christa Lenssen told The Olympian there won’t be a public hearing at the Jan. 6 meeting.
During the council’s Dec. 16 meeting, Lenssen said the city received 283 responses to its fall community survey on specific tenant screening policies that were being proposed.
She said 84% of the 160 landlords who responded reported that they verify applicants’ income. On the other side, renters were asked about reasons that their rental applications were rejected, and 55% reported it was because their income or another member of their household’s income was too low.
“Currently, over half of renting households in Olympia are housing cost burdened, which means they pay over 1/3 of their income in rent, considering many landlords use a three to one income to rent ratio,” Lenssen said. “Currently, over half of Olympia renter households may not qualify if they apply to rent using this standard ratio.”
Lenssen said according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the fair market rent for a one-bedroom unit in Olympia is $1,585 per month.
“A renter earning the median income can afford a monthly rent of $1,553 while a renter working full time at minimum wage can afford a monthly rent of $866 if they spend 1/3 of their income on rent,” she said.
Proposed ordinance
Lenssen said the proposed ordinance would limit the amount of income applicants have to prove they have upfront to 2.5 times the monthly rent. Right now, it’s three times the monthly rent. And applicants would be able to use their combined household income to qualify for a unit under the new rules.
She said landlords can request that an applicant provide a co-signer or demonstrate a history of successful rent payments if they don’t meet the 2.5 times monthly rent requirement.
The ordinance also includes language on requiring a social security number on an application, which Lenssen said can have an unintended discriminatory effect on immigrants and refugees.
According to previous reporting, city staff recommend adopting similar measures to the cities of Tacoma and Portland, which prohibit landlords from rejecting applicants if they do not provide a social security number or from inquiring about an applicant’s lawful presence in the U.S. The recommendation is that alternative documentation be allowed to verify the identity and financial eligibility of an applicant. Examples of those documents include a birth certificate, driver’s license, individual Tax Payer Identification Number (ITIN), non-immigrant visa, or Certificate of Naturalization (INS I-550).
Lenssen said according to the city’s landlord and tenant survey, 69% of landlords and property managers require applicants to provide a SSN. And 57% of those surveyed said they don’t have an alternative process for applicants who don’t have one.
“Landlords may be unintentionally denying or discouraging immigrants and refugees from housing opportunities by not having a process in place to be able to consider these tenants,” she said.
Lenssen recommended that, if approved, the ordinance not go into effect until at least April 1, 2026, to “allow time to do outreach to the community and to allow landlords some time to adjust their practices” to see if changes are necessary to be compliant with the new policies.
Council member Kelly Green was the sole vote against the ordinance. She said she feels like the city hasn’t spoken enough with the folks who will be enacting these changes about how they will affect their business.
Green said she thinks they have a good understanding of the ordinance’s intent, but that it feels like it’s been too long since housing providers were actually part of the conversation. She said communication has been only through surveys for some time.
“And the surveys have been pretty consistent: things that renters survey in favor of, housing providers survey not in favor of,” she said.
Green said she doesn’t feel comfortable with the pace that things have continued to evolve and change without allowing some policy changes, such as the new rental registry program, to settle. That program, which started last year, requires landlords to register each unit with the city to keep track of business licenses, inspections and other information.
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