There is a fine policy line between helping struggling renters and driving landlords away
The city of Olympia is mulling what it can do to help the 53 percent of its residents who are renters. The challenge is to protect renters’ rights without driving landlords — 65 percent of whom are Mom-and-Pop operations with five or fewer units — out of the market.
The city also is concerned about the trend towards national rental companies buying up local houses. Invitation Homes, one of four major national rental companies aggressively buying houses, now owns 30 in Olympia, city data shows.
Yet one local landlord says, “Washington state has a reputation for being a difficult state for landlords to operate in. I hear anecdotal reports of longtime landlords selling out of Washington.”
Renters’ perspectives are radically different. “My landlord isn’t ever reachable and doesn’t fix anything,” says one person who took part in a city survey. Another complains that “landlords, as they are now, have zero accountability and all the power, which they often blatantly abuse.”
In a recent discussion of possible regulatory changes by the Olympia City Council’s Land Use and Environment Committee, chair Dani Madrone repeatedly urged her colleagues to “keep it simple.” But it’s already complicated. There are federal laws on fair housing, and state laws both old (a statewide prohibition on rent control) and new (a required 60-day notice to tenants before rent increases) as well as new laws about evictions.
In the city’s survey, half of Olympia renters reported that they are paying between 30 and 50 percent of their income on rent, and 29.7 percent said their rent costs 50 percent or more of their income. Right now, the combination of rising rent and inflation makes life harder and harder for low-income people with every passing month.
Committee members acknowledged that local regulation can’t bring down rising rents or raise wages to help people pay them. City leaders know their impact may be small, but they are searching for any tools that can help.
After a robust outreach campaign to renters, landlords and third parties such as housing advocates who serve very low-income people, the Land Use and Environment Committee is winnowing a list of possible actions for future Council adoption.
The four deemed most urgent include:
increasing the state-mandated notification for rent increases from 60 to 90 days;
giving tenants more time to pay move-in fees, of which there are many: application fees, security deposits, pet fees, cleaning fees, and often last month’s rent;
establishing a registry for landlords, possibly mandatory, and possibly including a required inspection;
creating a portal on the city website with rights and responsibilities of both tenants and landlords in multiple languages, along with up-to-date policy information and resources.
These recommendations were among the most modest on a longer list. Advocates for low-income and homeless residents didn’t want to limit security deposits because they say they can sometimes offer a higher than asked-for security deposit to persuade a landlord to take a renter who needs a second chance.
Creating a universal credit check and application fee that would save people hunting for housing from paying many of them also fell off the list. Landlords don’t want it.
But even requiring landlords to register, and especially the prospect of inspections, is also sure to meet resistance.
The committee also alluded to the problem of a shadow rental market of clearly substandard housing that offers cheaper rent. Committee members worry about unsafe conditions, but also that cracking down on such housing might make more people homeless.
Clearly, landlords both good and bad have the upper hand: We need them and they know it. We treasure the good ones and want them to thrive.
The city is right to try to rebalance the scales where it can. All landlords should be held accountable for providing safe and healthy rental housing, and for respecting tenants’ rights and needs.
The city’s reforms may be small potatoes in the context of a larger affordable housing crisis, but renters are hungry for them.
This story was originally published May 22, 2022 at 5:00 AM.