I’m a renter in Puyallup. But without help, I won’t be able to afford it for long | Opinion

I’m a renter and I’m concerned about the future, and I think you should be too. A lack of affordable housing affects us all in some way — from neighborhood destabilization when families have to move because rents become too high to “Help Wanted” signs on our local businesses.

Today, you can see the impacts of the state’s affordable housing shortage in the essential worker shortages in our schools, hospitals and nursing homes. Workers can’t afford to live near their jobs. As reported by The News Tribune, rents in Pierce County climbed an average of 22.1% between February 2021 and February 2022, with the average median rent around $2,400.

I am a state employee with nearly 44 years of service working in Pierce County for the Washington Department of Social and Health Services. In July 2000, I moved into my apartment in Puyallup. The rent was $650 a month. But when our building was sold to the owner of a neighboring complex, we started being hit with big rent hikes each year and other changes, including charges for previously free amenities.

In February, rent for the same apartment was roughly $1500 a month. This month, it’s scheduled to increase again, by more than $200 a month. The rent does not include utilities or internet, both of which add to my monthly expenses.

My new rent will require half of my monthly take-home pay. I also have a car to pay for, plus gas for my daily 30-mile round trip to work, groceries, car insurance, medical copays and prescriptions — all of which have to come out of what’s left. It will leave little to nothing to save for my retirement.

Rent in the area doesn’t get cheaper than what I pay. I do not qualify for low-income housing, though I make roughly $23,000 a year less than Puyallup’s median household income. I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. In four years I’ll be old enough to receive my full benefit of Social Security and Medicare. Maybe I’ll qualify for low-income housing. Until then, I’m stuck with rent hikes I can’t afford, and thousands of other families and workers are in the same spot.

Forty percent of Washingtonians are renters. And people living on fixed incomes are particularly vulnerable to housing insecurity due to rising rents. For example, the average apartment in the Tri-Cities area cost $764 to rent in September 2010, compared to $1,316 in September 2022, according to Axios. That’s a 75% increase, way more than any increase in Social Security benefit payments.

It doesn’t take a math genius to see the imbalance. While it’s true that property values have soared, in Pierce County property taxes will only increase 5.1% over 2022 rates.. So, why is this rent gouging happening in our community?

In Washington, landlords can hike rent as much as they want, as often as they want. This amounts to economic eviction for many households, and it’s a driving force behind our homelessness crisis. Exorbitant rent hikes have a disproportionate impact on seniors and disabled people living on a fixed income, and on low and even “middle” income folks like me.

Of course, Pierce County, like the whole state, needs to build more affordable housing. But even if the state invested billions of dollars, new housing wouldn’t be available for years, and the units created would not meet the scale and urgency of the crisis facing renters today.

Rent stabilization measures under consideration by the legislature this year would help ensure millions of renters in Washington are able to stay in their homes. It would also bring balance to the landlord and tenant relationship. Rent stabilization is different from rent control, and allows landlords to increase rents by 3 to 7% each year, in line with inflation, while providing tenants with more stability and predictability around rent increases.

According to a December 2022 EMC Research survey of Washington voters, nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents had either experienced housing instability themselves or knew someone who has. Sixty-three percent supported taking measures to protect renters from unfair rent increases.

Our state lawmakers have the opportunity to provide rent fairness, a critical piece to solving our housing crisis. This will benefit not only us renter households. It will benefit our communities as a whole.

Robert Gregory works in Pierce County for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services and is a renter living in Puyallup.