A November ballot initiative to increase renter protections in Tacoma is drawing big outside spending — and attention from Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, who rallied support for the measure at a fundraising party in Seattle on Monday night.
The initiative, called Safe Homes For All, would require Tacoma landlords to bargain with renters who form tenant unions and add new fines for landlords who don’t comply with regulations. Enforcement would be funded by a new per-unit rental license fee.
The measure has been met with opposition from landlords and real estate interests. In August, an LLC associated with Seattle-based Goodman Real Estate gave $175,000 to the Rental Housing Association of Washington’s political action committee to help fight the measure.
In response to the influx of cash, Wilson joined Tacoma tenant leaders and progressive groups in Seattle for a “solidarity fundraiser” to support the initiative.
The large Seattle real estate contribution “means that Seattle needs to pay attention, too, especially when the person donating that money is also a Donald Trump donor,” Wilson said in a speech, referring to Goodman Real Estate executive chairman George Petrie, Seattle’s leading donor to President Donald Trump in 2021.
About 40 people attended the fundraiser, which was held at a co-housing community in the Central District. It was organized by Tacoma For All, the group behind the initiative, in collaboration with Seattle progressive groups like Tech 4 Housing, House Our Neighbors, the Seattle Democratic Socialists of America and the Transit Riders Union, which Wilson used to lead.
During her speech, Wilson, a renter herself, linked the Tacoma measure to her recent efforts to ban rental junk fees and increase rental protections in Seattle.
“I feel very in tune with the spirit of the measure that you all are fighting for in Tacoma, and it’s very exciting to see this work happening simultaneously in cities around our state,” Wilson said.
In an interview, Kevin Shilling, the government affairs director for the Rental Housing Association of Washington, said he thinks Wilson has enough problems in Seattle without getting involved in Tacoma’s policy issues. He noted that the proposed initiative goes farther than the renter protections on the books in other Washington cities, including Seattle.
“This is, plain and simple, a communist idea that they are trying to implement in the city of Tacoma,” Shilling said.
The Safe Homes For All Measure is a follow-up to Tacoma’s Tenant Bill of Rights, a 2023 ballot initiative that added a suite of new renter protections to Tacoma’s city code. That measure also attracted significant real estate opposition. It broke political spending records in Tacoma and passed with fewer than 400 votes.
Activists say the new initiative is necessary because the city has failed to enforce the protections passed in 2023. Private legal action is often the only option for renters who feel their landlord violated the law, but most renters don’t have the resources to take their landlord to court, said Tacoma For All Chair Kiss’Shonna Curtis during the fundraiser.
“We boldly declared housing is a human right, and three years later we are back fortifying that belief and that message,” Curtis said. “Not only do we deserve housing, but we deserve safe housing. We deserve stable, affordable housing through fair enforcement.”
Shilling argued that “bad actors are already held accountable through the court system,” and that the passage of the new “burdensome regulations” will drive up rents by prompting small Tacoma landlords to sell their properties to large private equity firms.
“This is just going to create an onslaught of enforcement complaints,” Shillings said.
Organizers at the fundraiser rejected the idea that new regulations would drive out small landlords. Curtis noted that the initiative would create a training and education program for tenants and landlords.
“We’ll have special tools for small landlords to navigate” the law, Curtis said. “We’ve heard feedback that it’s complicated; laws are changing all the time. So this will create a pathway for people to know how to operate a business in Tacoma.”
The Tacoma For All political action committee has reported raising $155,000 so far in support of the initiative. The Rental Housing Association of Washington has reported raising $247,460.
