Tacoma sued over renters’ rights ballot measure

(The Center Square) – The Citizen Action Defense Fund has filed a lawsuit against the City of Tacoma for its Landlord Fairness Code Initiative that was approved by voters last year.

CADF is suing on behalf of North Pearl Street, a Tacoma-based apartment complex, specifically due to the passage and implementation of the initiative.

The Landlord Fairness Code Initiative was approved by voters in the November 2023 general election. The measure requires more notice for rent increases, as well as requiring Tacoma landlords to offer relocation assistance if the rent increases more than 5%.

Landlords are also required to provide two notices before increasing rent. The first being between 210 and 180 days prior and the second between 120 and 90 days prior.

The initiative passed by less than 400 votes. It was passed under the guise of protecting tenant rights, according to the CADF, but the negative ramifications of passing the initiative far outweighed any described benefit.

“This initiative isn’t just bad policy – it’s bad law,” CADF Executive Director Jackson Maynard said in a news release after the complaint was filed in Pierce County Superior Court on Tuesday. “The idea that housing providers can be subject to an ordinance that violates the state and federal constitution as well as state and local laws is ridiculous."

The initiative was written and placed on the ballot by the citizen group Tacoma For All. The Tacoma City Council tried to place an alternative ballot measure that would have adjusted renter protections in the city. A Pierce County Superior Court judge ordered the removal of that ballot measure.

CADF argues that the Landlord Fairness Code Initiative does little to solve the housing crisis facing Tacoma, Washington state, and the U.S., and instead makes the situation worse.

Prior to the initiative’s approval by voters, the Rental Housing Association of Washington said that the ballot measure would severely degrade the rental housing market in Tacoma and could lead to hundreds of currently affordable rental housing units being moved off the market in 2024.

A Tacoma spokesperson declined to provide comment to The Center Square.