OLYMPIA – Rep. Nicole Macri (D-Seattle) released the following statement upon failure of the Senate Ways & Means Committee to pass HB 2114, Rep. Emily Alvarado’s (D-Seattle) legislation to end excessive rent hikes in Washington state:
“I am incredibly disappointed that it appears rent stabilization will not become law this year. Renters and manufactured homeowners in our state have demanded relief after years of excessive and unfair rental increases.
“We have heard countless stories of seniors, students, families, and people with disabilities struggling to keep up with rent after receiving 5, 10, 15, even 25 percent increases year upon year, far outpacing the rise in inflation or the increase in wages. This is not isolated to one city or county: This is an emergency that we cannot ignore.
“Unfortunately, that’s what the Senate did, ignored the problem by failing to move HB 2114. They had two opportunities to find common ground and move a rent stabilization bill and both times they chose to kill the bill instead. With that choice, the hopes of renters and manufactured homeowners to gain some basic stability died in the Senate today.
“I won’t stop working until we have stable rents in this state because that is what the working families of Washington deserve. But today my thoughts are with the hundreds of thousands of renters who lost big today and to them I can only say I am sorry.”