Letter to Rep. Caldier about upcoming housing stabilization legislation
Sent via email 1/20/2024
Our response to this housing crisis has been too slow and has progressed with too much of a top-down perspective. Housing should not be a commodity that can be traded in, as it has been, until basic shelter becomes something people sacrifice and grovel for. In a healthy society, single-income homes are stable and secure. This hasn't been the case for decades and it is getting worse.
"Housing providers," as you call them, are more likely than not these days to be investment firms buying up property in bulk and artificially raising local housing markets to pad their excessive wealth. These are not people that need to be protected, they are people who need to be prosecuted. The housing market is broken and it's the landlords and banks who should pay to fix it. Balance on these issue will, especially in the face of the real estate lobbyists, result in the problem continuing to grow worse until we have rent strikes and riots.
I hope that you will prioritize the wellbeing of the vulnerable and under-supported families, renters, and single-property home owners over that of the capital-crazed "housing providers" and force some real change that will make a difference to more than your ability to get re-elected.
Anton Preisinger
Upcoming legislation in Washington state that relates to housing stability:
HB 2114 and SB 5961 - “Improving housing stability for tenants subject to the residential landlord-tenant act and the manufactured/mobile home landlord-tenant act by limiting rent and fee increases, requiring notice of rent and fee increases, limiting fees and deposits, establishing a landlord resource center and associated services, authorizing tenant lease termination, creating parity between lease types, and providing for attorney general enforcement.”
If you click the links to the House Bill or Senate Bill listed above, there will be a big green button you can click if you would like to contact your legislators.