So, It’s Started - WMFHA Fights Rent Control

Your advocacy team and fellow industry leaders had no time to rest at the start of this session. With a House and Senate version of rent control scheduled for hearings in the first week, the team and our stakeholder partners had to activate on short notice to address the biggest threat to our industry since, well, last year’s rent control legislation.

Over 100 people were signed up to testify on the bills, with a committee room full of housing providers in attendance for Thursday’s (H) Housing hearing. WMFHA GAC chair Ed Leigh testified, as did affordable housing provider Emily Thompson of GMD Development and economist Ike Bannon, Ph.D., on behalf of WMFHA. A number of other stakeholders also spoke of their opposition through panels submitted by WMFHA, NAIOP, RHA, WA Realtors and others. Another economist, Morgan Shook with EconNW, spoke to the updated rent control study commissioned by Partnership for Affordable Housing (PAH).