Republican legislators have unveiled a slate of bills to increase the state’s housing supply.
The lawmakers unveiled “Housing Solutions Washington” last week, a collection of bills to reduce local zoning laws, create new financial incentives for tenants and landlords, and increase the use of prefabricated homes.
The GOP proposal comes at a time when the state will need to rapidly grow its housing supply in the coming years.
“We’re facing an urgent housing affordability crisis, and Housing Solutions Washington is our roadmap to fix it,” Sen. Keith Goehner, R-Dryden, ranking member on the Senate Housing Committee, said in a statement on Feb. 18. “The 18 bills in the package are about overcoming the biggest barriers to increasing our housing supply.”
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According to a January report from the Washington State Department of Commerce, the state will need to build 1.1 million new homes by 2044, with at least 400,000 of the units considered affordable.
Renters in the state also continue to struggle, with more than half of Washingtonians considered rent-burdened, which means they spend more than 30% of their income on rent. More than a quarter million of the state’s residents are considered severely rent-burdened, which means their monthly rent payment is more than half of their income.
Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, said during a media availability last week the package of bills “would allow a better housing environment, and hopefully lower costs to our citizens around the state.”
The first approach, Republicans said, must be to increase the density of housing throughout the state. To do this, lawmakers have proposed loosening regulations in urban growth areas, which would allow more middle housing outside of incorporated areas and authorize counties to allow accessory dwelling units outside those urban growth areas.
The plan also calls on cities and counties to examine their housing regulations and report the number of building applications they’ve received and approved to the Department of Commerce. The plan also includes legislation to amend their comprehensive plans more regularly, rather than the typical 10-year period.
Under the plan, builders would also be allowed to use older building codes in construction, which lawmakers argue would allow homes to be built for cheaper and on a quicker timeline.
“It has been so onerous and cumbersome for people, and it drives up the cost for housing,” Goehner said during the recent media availability. “So we have bills that would streamline some of that permitting.”
Republicans also offered an alternative to a Democratic proposal to cap annual rent increases at 7% and require six months’ notice for rent increases of 3% or more. The proposal, Democratic leaders have said, would be coupled with other legislation to increase the housing supply.
That proposal, though, has failed to gain support among Republican lawmakers.
“As we heard in committee testimony, areas that implemented rent control policies end up with fewer available rental properties, which is the opposite of what we need to solve the housing crisis in Washington,” Goehner said in a statement. “It discourages developers from building new rental units and it motivates landlords to convert rental units into condominiums or other types of housing that are not subject to rent control.”
Rep. April Connors, R-Kennewick, a member of the House housing committee, said she’s heard from housing developers that the rent control proposal would increase development outside of the state.
“So we have grave concerns in the House that this bill is actually going to decrease the supply, and decrease the affordability, and be worse for renters,” Connors said.
Republican lawmakers have proposed establishing a Residential Landlord Tenant Act taskforce, which would be tasked with finding ways “to make it more effective and beneficial for housing providers and tenants.”
The plan separately proposes modifying the RLTA to allow for a quicker and cheaper process when evicting tenants and include a rental assistance program that would provide grants for public housing for lower-income households.
The rental assistance program, Connors said, would provide tenants with a “hand up until we can stabilize our actual production.”
Goehner said lawmakers hope to advance some of the legislation prior to Friday.
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