Tacoma renter initiative is likely to pass as final votes are counted

After nearly two weeks of neck-and-neck results, Tacoma voters are still favoring a sweeping set of new rental regulations, with very few ballots left to be counted.

The vote is the latest effort to add tenant-friendly reforms to a regional housing market where high costs and slim supply are squeezing renters. Initiative Measure No. 1 would enact the state’s strongest pro-tenant policies, including six months’ notice for all rent increases, caps on late fees and move-in fees, limits on evictions during the school year and winter months, and a mandate that landlords pay tenants who move out after rent increases of 5% or more.

About 50.4% of Tacoma voters are backing the initiative as of the latest ballot count released Monday. The measure leads by a narrow 363 votes, but appears likely to prevail when the county certifies the election later this month.

Just 50 ballots are left to count across Pierce County, according to the county elections office. Another 139 Tacoma ballots are considered “challenged,” meaning they have signature problems. The county contacts those voters to attempt to fix the issue. Still, those appear unlikely to change the outcome since the initiative leads by more votes than there are challenged ballots.

The county could also still receive other lingering ballots that voters mailed on time but that have not yet arrived, but the number of arriving ballots has dropped off sharply nearly two weeks after Election Day.

The photo finish follows a heated campaign that drew nearly half a million dollars in spending between the two sides. 

Labor unions, progressive groups and the Democratic Socialists of America campaigned in favor of the measure, arguing Tacoma renters need the additional protections as the city gentrifies and high rents squeeze working-class tenants.

The election result, although narrow, shows that Tacoma residents are dissatisfied with more timid landlord-tenant reforms the Tacoma City Council has favored, Tacoma for All campaign manager Ty Moore said last week. “The housing crisis is bad enough that we need much bolder solutions and there is an appetite amongst voters for bolder measures.”

“It was a hard-fought battle and I think we won against a lot of odds,” Moore said. 

Landlords campaigned against the measure, describing it as unfairly burdensome. They warned the rules could push landlords to sell their properties or discourage new rental housing construction in Tacoma. Realtors also helped fund the opposition campaign, which spent $371,000 against the measure. That dwarfed the $113,000 supporters spent.

Opponents say the narrow margin illustrates that many Tacoma residents did not favor the ideas in the initiative.

“These issues are hard. The voters of Tacoma are not overwhelmingly convinced this is a great plan,” Sean Flynn, executive director of the Rental Housing Association of Washington, which represents landlords, said last week.

A similar but narrower tenant protection measure in Bellingham secured 62% of the vote, according to the latest count there. The proposal was “far more reasonable,” Flynn said. 

Although some of the regulations in the Tacoma measure are in place elsewhere in the state, Tacoma’s goes further in several key ways. For example, a relocation assistance program in Seattle applies only in cases when the landlord raises the rent by 10% or more and when the tenant makes below a certain income. Tacoma tenants could receive assistance after 5% rent hikes and regardless of their income.

Supporters hope the outcome in Tacoma could inspire similar proposals elsewhere in the state. “Already we’ve been contacted by a number of housing justice organizers in other cities discussing the potential to launch similar initiatives,” Moore said.

State Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, D-Tacoma, said in a statement from the campaign last week that the victory “has big implications for local and state lawmakers” and “shows that Washington is ready for a new conversation about tenant rights.”

Ballot measures are not subject to automatic recounts and opponents say they don’t plan to request a recount at their own expense. Landlord groups could sue to attempt to block the measure as they’ve done in response to other regulations. Flynn said his organization is still reviewing its options.