High rent is the number one issue community members bring to Eastside For All and our nonprofit partners.

A mother in Kirkland recently shared that her $2,240 rent went up 10%. Now she’s living paycheck to paycheck, can’t keep up with rent and other bills, has to get food assistance, and has no money for any type of activities for her son or herself. She is on the verge of displacement and is overwhelmed at the thought of having to move out of the area. One Redmond nonprofit leader recently shared they were given a 49% increase in their rent. They are actively looking for a new place to live, but know it will likely be far from where they work.

Hundreds of folks we’ve surveyed in Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond have shared how large unexpected rent increases impact their lives. When seniors and families with children are spending more than half their income on rent, they don’t have enough left for other basic needs like food, medication, clothing and other supplies for their kids. They get into debt and their credit is ruined. Excessive rent hikes, piled onto some of the highest rents in the country, are creating a downward spiral for tens of thousands of East King County renter households and manufactured home owners.

There are no restrictions on how much landlords can raise rents on tenants in Washington state. Renters know there’s a good chance their rent will increase, but it’s impossible to plan for increases of 10%, 15%, 20% or more, with wages not keeping up, and the cost of living continues to rise.

Excessive rent hikes don’t only affect low income people. Middle income workers and families are experiencing the same instability. Essential front line workers like teachers, even firefighters, say they cannot afford to live in King County, where they work. They are commuting from farther away cities. Some are having to share a one bedroom apartment with eight to ten others from Monday-Friday to be close enough to their jobs. At Eastside For All, a nonprofit that serves East King County, the majority of our staff live outside of East King County due to unlimited rent increases on top of already high rents. And we are not alone. Nearly 90% of people who work in Bellevue live outside of Bellevue.

Solving our housing crisis requires the engagement of the private marketplace. A bill (HB 1217) before our state legislature this session would limit rent increases to no more than 7% on existing tenants, while allowing landlords to set rent at whatever they want in-between vacancies. This rent stabilization policy enjoys huge public support according to a recent opinion survey by EMC Research. It’s unfortunate that we need to legislate guardrails like capping rent increases, but we can no longer ignore the harmful practices of too many landlords.

It’s disheartening that lobbyists for large developers and property management companies use a spurious argument that restricting their ability to raise rent as much as they want will disincentivize investment in rental properties. There is no empirical evidence to support that argument. The rent stabilization bill under consideration by the Washington legislature applies only to rental properties that are more than ten years old, exempting new construction. Property sales are driven by many factors, including the escalating value of real estate across Washington and interest rates for buyers, not tenant protections like rent stabilization.

We expect our legislators to support solutions to real problems – like rent gouging – that are having serious consequences for East King County households. We also expect them to reject greed-motivated arguments by the deep-pocketed lobbyists in Olympia fighting to block the desperately needed stability and predictability that rent stabilization will provide.

Our housing crisis demands a multi-tiered solution that includes rent stabilization, increasing the supply of affordable homes and also increasing the supply of market-rate homes. Together these strategies can pave the way out of our crisis, ensure that workers can reside near their jobs, that seniors aren’t displaced from their homes, and that all renter households have predictability and stability. If rent increases continue unchecked, our housing crisis will continue to worsen, and that hurts all of us.

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Debbie Lacy is the Founder and Executive Director of Eastside For All, Guillermo Rivera is Housing Justice Organizer for Eastside For All.