Despite a short session this year, lawmakers in Olympia were successful in passing 14 known pieces of legislation that serve to help home buyers and sellers as well as landlords and tenants.
Possibly the most notable bill to reach Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk for his signature was a measure that reintroduces into the state a form of co-living housing that was popular here for many decades – boarding houses. This low-cost, dorm-like living arrangement will feature lockable single-room residences while sharing kitchens and other facilities. The new legislation aims to prohibit local government from restricting this form of rental housing where at least six units are currently permitted while generating more options for people struggling to afford a place to live. (Boarding housing mostly went out of favor after World War II as state and local governments scrutinized their use amid growing health and safety concerns.)
What might be even more newsworthy is the lack of breakthrough legislation to address the shortage of homes overall and affordable ones at that. At least 23 pieces of housing-related legislation passed either the state House or Senate but some of them stalled in the other chamber – in most cases by simply running out of time.
“I think we failed,” Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, a Tacoma Democrat, told The Urbanist as the session concluded. “It feels like the pendulum swung back from the momentum that happened last year, and that feels worse than if it were just another year where we didn’t end up meeting our obligations to house people in this current crisis.”
The 3-month, 2023 session was deemed the Year of Housing, with 23 pieces of relevant legislation becoming law. Highlighting that wave was a bill that expanded the use of four- and six-plex homes in areas close to transit hubs that were long held for single-family use – a potential boost to the state’s housing shortage.
Characterized as the Year of Housing 2.0 by many insiders, 2024 left some housing advocates feeling mostly empty. The silver lining: Many of the same proposals will be revised and reintroduced next year for a longer session. (Washington lawmakers meet for 60 days in even-numbered years like 2024 and 105 days in odd-numbered years.)
Many of the bills considered – but did not pass both chambers – were high-profile and progressive. They included proposals to cap annual rent increases for tenants, tax the sale of ultra-luxury real estate, and increase affordable housing in rural areas as well as near transit hubs.
One of the top bills that failed would have permitted larger residential lots to be split to as small as 2000 sq. ft. for the development of second residences, such as cottages and other forms of affordable single-family homes. The measure passed the House on Day 1 of the session only to languish in the Senate’s Land Use committee for the second consecutive year (the same committee that threw water over a popular proposal to ease rules for neighborhood cafés).
“People can’t wait for supply alone,” Rep. Emily Alvarado, a Democrat from West Seattle, was quoted by Crosscut as saying. “Lower-income and middle-income people can’t wait for housing to someday in the future to become affordable.”
The data is dire: Fewer and fewer households can afford to buy a home in Washington. One study released this month showed that 73% of King County households cannot afford to buy a home in today’s economy. The figure is higher – 75% – in Pierce County and “only” 70% in Snohomish.
The state-wide figure is shocking – 84% of Washington families cannot afford to purchase a home, the study claims. Estimates show the state needs 1.1M additional homes by 2043 – half of them affordable – and, frankly, the lack of urgency in Olympia this year was disappointing if not equally shocking.
One of the most progressive pieces of legislation to pass will give the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) permission to allocate about 3,000 acres of state land toward affordable housing. This so-called transition land is unsuitable for logging or other uses that generate state revenue and will be handed to developers who agree to construct homes for households with incomes at or below 80% of the median family level. The land will be tax-exempt if the housing is deemed affordable.
One sticking point: The DNR was hoping to receive infrastructure funding to help improve the chances of more housing development. That was not included in the near-final budget proposal but could be considered in future years.
Among the other bills that passed both chambers include:
- The Workforce Housing Accelerator Revolving Loan Program will create a mechanism to provide loans for eligible organizations to finance affordable housing for low-income households. Loans awarded may not exceed the lesser of $20M or 20% of the total project costs, at loan interest rates between 1.0% and 2.5% for the first 20 years.
- A limited tax deferral will target property owners of commercial buildings to consider conversions for residential purposes, as the legislation reads, to “achieve the highest and best use of land and enable cities to more fully realize their planning goals.”
- Lower parking requirements for developers of higher-density housing.
What remains less clear, as of this writing, is the final budget funding.
Unofficially, about $82M was tentatively allocated for housing and homelessness programs. The budget also sets aside approximately $127M for the Housing Trust Fund to conduct projects for building affordable housing; that’s on top of $400M directed to the trust fund in the budget approved last year.
This year’s trust fund allotment includes $20M to purchase emergency housing for people moving out of encampments – a request from Gov. Inslee. He also secured about $2M in the transportation budget to continue cleaning up encampments along highways.
Now it is up to the governor to review each measure and, hopefully, put his pen to paper and enact these advances toward a better way of life for more Washingtonians.
Housing advocates, like Lt. Gov. Denny Heck, characterized the session as a disappointment.
“We continue to fall further and further behind each year in the number of new homes needed to meet current and future demand,” Heck said in a statement. ”NIMBY attitudes and some local governments unwilling to rise to the challenge continue to have outsized influence on this debate.
“Together we must find a way forward on building significantly more homes of all kinds for all our neighbors.”