Dear friends and neighbors,
You know as well as I do Washington faces a housing affordability crisis, especially for renters. Hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians, disproportionately seniors and people of color, are getting hit with rent increases 10, 15, and 20% or more! That’s especially a factor here in the 27th District, where almost half of all our residents rent their home.
That’s why I sponsored SB 5222, the Senate version of our rent stabilization bill. Rent stabilization protects against excessive rent increases, with a cap preventing increases of more than 7% per year, while still allowing increases to cover repairs and other costs. This works for both tenants and landlords — tenants can predict what their housing costs will be from year to year, and landlords still have the flexibility to reasonably raise rent to cover their costs.
I’m excited to let you know this bill has a hearing in just a few days in the Senate Housing Committee and hope you will join me in support! Having Washingtonians officially sign in to support a bill helps show legislators how important it is that we advance this issue THIS YEAR.
Signing in for a bill is so easy — just go to this page and select “Pro” as your position and put in your name, email, and information (don’t worry, you don’t have to share your whole address if you don’t want to) just like this:
And you’re done! Again, that link is right here to fill out the form — it only takes a minute.
Housing costs are a massive driver of unaffordability in Washington state. If we want to address affordability, and I think we need to, this is an important bill in the toolbox. Making the cost of rent more stable and predictable is essential to helping folks make ends meet in this economy. I would appreciate your support for this bill so much — but we need your sign in before noon Wednesday!
Let me know if you have thoughts, questions, concerns — you can reach me any time at Yasmin.Trudeau@leg.wa.gov. I hope to have your help with this bill, and I look forward to keeping in touch. Thank you for reading!
Sen. Yasmin Trudeau
