Tacoma took an important step to protect affordable housing | Opinion

Across Pierce County, nonprofit and mission-driven organizations provide more than 7,500 affordable homes for low-income families, seniors and individuals exiting homelessness. These are the organizations the public relies on to prevent homelessness, keep rents low and provide wrap-around services that help residents stay housed.

These organizations have faced mounting challenges and increasing risk, but the Tacoma City Council’s decision to provide a targeted exemption for deed-restricted affordable housing to the Landlord Fairness Code Initiative (LFCI) has provided much needed relief.

Earlier this year, the Tacoma-Pierce County Affordable Housing Consortium surveyed local affordable housing providers to better understand the pressures they face. The results were sobering: vacancy rates are rising, insurance costs have doubled or tripled, and many properties are operating at a loss due to mounting rental arrears and legal fees from extended eviction timelines. Nearly 70% of respondents said their properties cannot sustain their current operating costs.

At the same time, Tacoma’s original LFCI, though well-intentioned, created challenges that disproportionately harmed affordable housing providers. The policy extended eviction timelines, resulting in many tenants remaining in units without paying rent for months at a time, leading to significant arrears and, in some cases, extensive property damage before providers can regain possession.

Unlike private landlords, affordable housing providers cannot raise rents or build profit margins to absorb these costs. Every dollar lost to unpaid rent, unit damage or prolonged vacancy is a dollar that can’t go toward building new affordable housing, completing necessary repairs, or providing case management and housing stability services that keep residents housed.

Affordable housing providers are already bound by state and federal tenant-protection laws and must demonstrate fair housing compliance at every turn. In most cases, they go even further by providing extended notice for nonpayment, connecting tenants with rental or utility assistance, offering mediation and grievance procedures, and engaging case management before ever considering eviction.

That is why the Tacoma City Council’s vote to adopt Substitute Ordinance 29086 represents such an important step forward.

This change recognizes that protecting affordable housing providers is part of protecting tenants. When operating costs outpace funding, we don’t just lose a landlord. We lose homes, services, and the community stability that affordable housing brings, which our vulnerable neighbors and the public rely on.

The council’s action affirms a core truth: tenant protections and affordable housing viability are not mutually exclusive. In fact, one enables the other. By refining the LFCI to account for the realities of affordable housing operations, Tacoma has strengthened both tenant rights and the long-term sustainability of homes serving our lowest-income residents.

This policy shift will not solve every challenge facing affordable housing providers, but it represents an essential alignment between policy and practice. It ensures that mission-driven organizations can continue doing what the private market cannot: housing residents who face the greatest barriers and supporting them with dignity.

Tacoma has taken a meaningful step toward preserving and protecting the affordable housing it already has. Our community is stronger for it.

Amanda DeShazo is the executive director of the Tacoma-Pierce County Affordable Housing Consortium, a nonprofit coalition of more than 70 organizations working to expand and preserve affordable housing across Pierce County.