OLYMPIA, Wash. — For the past 10 years, Dominique Horn has worked for a community health organization in the fast-growing city of Vancouver in Washington state, helping people squeezed by soaring rents to try to avoid homelessness. Sometimes she wonders if she’s going to be her agency’s next client. With her husband struggling at times to find work, Horn has maxed out her credit cards to keep pace with the rent. She has relied on public assistance and stayed in shelters. The couple and their two
OLYMPIA The Washington State House of Representatives passed a rent increase cap bill by a vote of 54 to 43 Tuesday. A companion bill, SB 5961, failed to pass out of committee in January.
House Bill 2114, sponsored by Rep. Emily Alvarado, D-Seattle, prohibits landlords from raising rent more than once in a 12-month period, and limits increases to 7% within a 12-month period. It also caps move-in fees and security deposits to the cost of one month’s rent, requires 180 days’ notice before raising rent more than 3 % and caps late fees at 1.5% of a tenant’s total monthly rent.
“I hear from families who keep paying more and more rent and they can't save money to buy a home,” Alvarado said in a public hearing on the bill in January. “Hard-working people., people who work in child care and health care and grocery stores who pay their rent on time each month and then see their rent go up faster than their wages and they can't keep up and they have to move farther
WA lawmakers weigh proposal to slow rising rental costs amid ongoing housing crisis nwnewsnetwork.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nwnewsnetwork.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.