The Olympia City Council and City Staff have turned providing rental housing into a political game. The City has joined with state representatives to pass rental housing rules and possibly rent control regulations. The political actions have become headline grabbing. While the focus of the actions is to target owners of properties, the actual help for renters is very counterproductive. In Olympia for example the small time rental owner, usually referred to as a Mom and Pop rental operation, is being confronted with regulations that will add costs to the one or two units they provide. This obviously will mean an increase in monthly rental rates to cover the fees and inspections and the time to deal with the added bureaucracy. If tenants cannot be screened for former evictions then there will be an incremental statistical increase in damages that must be considered. This has happened with car insurance rates going up 20% overall. The point is that none of these regulations will reduce rents or provide more affordable housing. The result will be higher rents and and no increase in affordable housing. For a better approach to housing, the Olympia City Council and staff should look at other cities. Look at the Missoula Housing Authority in Montana. Take a look at their website. (missoulahousing.org) Here is a county with 117,000 people that is organized to provide housing. Funding opportunities are different in another state, but the focus needs to be on providing housing. Rental advocates in Olympia and the state legislature should focus on providing more affordable housing not increasing counterproductive rental regulations that will do nothing but increase rent for renters.
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