“Housing continues to be a crisis in Tacoma, both in terms of the quantity of housing units that our city offers and the quality and affordability of many of those units. While the City has taken numerous steps to increase the number of housing units in Tacoma, I believe we must also continue to hone the City’s role in supporting the safety and habitability of our existing units. Tacoma needs stable, safe, and affordable housing, and I am committed to working with my colleagues on legislation that advances these goals.
I plan to introduce a resolution at Study Session on June 16 that recognizes the vital need to ensure rental housing units in Tacoma are kept in good repair and affirms the importance of providing additional education for tenants and landlords on the required standards for those units. In addition, I am committed to exploring a proactive code inspection program for rental housing units and reexamining the City’s Provisional Rental Property License.
Tenants and landlords need to know more about state and local standards for rental units and their rights when those standards are not met. Along with enhanced educational materials, I am eager to explore how the City can provide more open public data on rental code compliance so that our community members can make informed decisions before signing a lease.
I am also a strong supporter of tenants’ right to organize and unionize without retaliation. This is a protected right that all tenants in Washington have through the Washington State Residential Landlord-Tenant Act. I get concerned when I hear from tenants in our community that they do not have a clear understanding of how to exercise these rights. I think we can do more to increase awareness and promote more mutually beneficial communication between landlords and tenants. We need both landlords and tenants to better understand the legal standards they are expected to uphold.
Another step that I am committed to working on is developing a framework for proactive code compliance inspections inside rental units and properties. Proactive inspections, rather than our current complaint-based inspection process, can be one of the best mechanisms for mitigating and preventing unsafe living conditions for tenants. There are several examples of cities using rental registration programs to help fund proactive inspections, including in Seattle, Olympia, and Spokane. These programs benefit tenants and responsible landlords, and I am excited to explore options for efficient and effective proactive inspections in Tacoma.
I am engaged in the work the Community Vitality and Safety Committee has been doing, in partnership with the Planning and Development Services Department, to update our regulatory code, including potentially increasing penalties for code violations. I plan to focus on proposing updates to the City’s Provisional Rental Property License as part of this work, so that we can strengthen deterrents for violating our health and safety standards and rental codes.
In addition to this resolution, I believe turning tenants into homeowners is a necessary component in our overall strategy to address the housing crisis. I look forward to raising awareness of and promoting innovative housing models such as co-ownership and small-scale development that make homeownership more accessible to our residents. I believe that there are many opportunities to continue improving our housing in terms of quantity, affordability, and quality, and I look forward to also partnering with our community in this work.”