A New Initiative is Headed for the TACOMA BALLOT

The same organization that delivered Tacoma's onerous 2023 Landlord Fairness Code (FKA as Measure 1 or Initiative 1, AKA Tenant Bill of Rights or LFC) is back, and this time they are coming with a slew of new provisions intended to function as an enforcement engine. Tacoma for All is currently gathering signatures for the SAFE Homes for All Initiative, a proposed ballot measure that would dramatically expand the reach of the city's existing tenant protection laws. With a goal of approximately 9,000 signatures by June 15, the group is well on its way to putting this measure in front of Tacoma voters this November and housing providers across the city need to be paying close attention.

WHO IS TACOMA FOR ALL?

Tacoma for All (TFA) is an advocacy group led by several members of the Democratic Socialists of America. They continue to push for additional tenant protections even in the face of the Tacoma City Council passing their own protections that conflict with proposed TFA policies. In 2023, the City Council passed several tenant protections just months before the LFC started picking up steam, these protections had very similar provisions to the LFC and resulted in a hodgepodge of protections that made serving notices in Tacoma the most complicated process in the state, with three different notices in multiple time windows.

Now, Tacoma for All is unhappy with a perceived “lack of enforcement” in the City of Tacoma, this could be a result of a lack of proper enforcement procedures… or it could simply be that there are not as many housing providers violating rental housing laws as they were hoping. Regardless, in 2026 they want to pile on to the already restrictive measures that were just modified after low-income housing providers and RHAWA implored the Tacoma City Council to bring some modifications to these highly restrictive policies.

THE LANDLORD FAIRNESS CODE: WHAT IT DID, AND WHO IT HURT

Before we dig into this new ballot initiative, let’s take a step back to recall where this began a few years ago. The Landlord Fairness Code expanded Tacoma's tenant protections to a level that rivaled the most restrictive cities in the state. Its original version included:

Limits on Fees:
Limits move-in fees to one month’s rent and limits late fees to $10 a month.

Extended Notice Periods:
Housing providers must give six months’ notice to raise the rent, with notices being given between 180–210 days and a second notice given between 90–120 days.

Relocation Assistance:
If serving a rent increase of 5% or more, the rental housing provider is obligated to offer up to two months' rent to the tenants to help with relocating if they choose to leave the property. If the rent
increase is 7.5% or more, the housing provider must pay up to 2.5 months of rent to help with relocation assistance and if the rent increase is 10% or more, the housing provider must pay up to 3
months' rent for assistance.

Eviction Bans:
Winter eviction moratorium, school year eviction moratorium for households with school-age children, or if the tenant is an educator, except under certain conditions.

Prohibiting evictions of members of the military, first responders, seniors, healthcare providers, and educators, except under certain conditions.

All of these policies, combined with the aforementioned provisions passed by Tacoma City Council have caused significant burden and loss of income for even low income, subsidized providers in the City of Tacoma.

The Tacoma Housing Authority and the Tacoma-Pierce County Affordable Housing Consortium, a coalition representing nonprofit low-income housing providers across the region, formally requested an exemption from the eviction moratoriums in October 2025, citing what they described as negative
and unintended consequences that were actively undermining their abilityto serve low-income tenants.

The City of Tacoma itself acknowledged in the preamble to its December 2025 amendments that providers with fewer units are "disproportionately burdened by the fiscal impacts of rent being unpaid for long stretches of time." When a small housing provider owns three or four units and one tenant stops paying for five months, there is no cushion to absorb that loss. There are no investors to fall back on, no corporate balance sheet to carry the shortfall. There is just a housing provider, often a working person themselves, watching their finances erode while the law prevents them from taking action. 

The numbers bear this out. Given Tacoma's average rental rate of approximately $1,650 per month, a provider facing a cold-weather eviction moratorium combined with a school-year restriction could be out more than $15,000 in unpaid rent before they can even begin the eviction process for a tenant with school-age children. For a small independent housing provider, that figure is not an inconvenience, it is
potentially ruinous. 

Data provided to the City Council by the Tacoma-Pierce County Affordable Housing Consortium and the Tacoma Housing Authority demonstrated the Landlord Fairness Code's substantial drain on low-income housing providers' resources and budgets, and documented an increase in staggering tenant
debt that will significantly hinder those tenants' ability to secure housing after eviction. In other words, the law designed to keep people housed was, in some cases, generating the very conditions that would make it harder for those same people to find housing in the future.

2025 MODIFICATIONS

Given the obvious harm caused by these overlapping provisions, but also keeping in mind that the LFC could not be modified for at least two years after its passage, the Tacoma City Council promptly made modifications to bring some consistency back into their rental housing code in late 2025. 

District 2 Council Member Sarah Rumbaugh said plainly that despite the Landlord Fairness Code's intentions, it had "dire consequences" for the city, most notably on low-income housing providers who serve those with the greatest need. That led to the passage of Ordinance 29086 in December 2025, which amended portions of the code by exempting small providers owning four or fewer units from the
cold-weather eviction prohibition, revising notice periods to no longer contain conflicting timelines and carving out nonprofit and public housing providers from the most burdensome provisions. Those amendments took effect January 1, 2026.

WHAT THE SAFE HOMES FOR ALL INITIATIVE WOULD DO

The SAFE Homes for All Initiative is organized into ten parts and is built on a questionable argument: that Tacoma's existing tenant protection laws are routinely ignored, and that the current system gives providers little reason to comply. The measure aims to change that calculus significantly.

Mandatory Rental Licensing and Per-Unit Fees:
Every provider operating in Tacoma would be required to obtain a rental license and pay an annual per-unit fee, with all proceeds directed toward enforcement of the city's tenant laws. This rental registration intends to track ownership of properties both inside and outside the city limits. If passed,
this would be most expansive rental housing registration program in the state and it is unlikely the City of Tacoma has the resources to maintain a registry of this scale. Large housing providers those owning
25 or more units would have 18 months to comply. All others would have up to three years. Fees would be tiered, with large providers paying substantially more.

Tenant Union Recognition and Mandatory Bargaining:

This is one of the most aggressive provisions in the initiative. Once a tenant union demonstrates support from residents in more than 50% of occupied units in a building or complex, a housing provider would be legally required to sit down and bargain in good faith with that union on a wide range of topics: lease terms, fees, deposits, utilities, building policies, and compliance with tenant protection laws. Housing providers would also be required to attend at least one tenant union meeting per quarter upon written request. Small providers owning four or fewer units are exempt from this requirement but
for larger operators, this is uncharted territory.

Expanded Enforcement Rights and Penalties:
Currently, enforcement of many of Tacoma's tenant protections relies largely on individuals pursuing legal action on their own. This initiative would throw the door wide open. Tenants, tenant unions, and tenant advocates would all be authorized to directly enforce tenant safety laws either through a complaint filed with the City Director or a lawsuit in Superior Court. Penalties for each violation would
range from a minimum of $500 to a maximum of five times the monthly rent for the unit in question, paid directly to the affected tenant.

A Public Database:
The City would be required to build and maintain a publicly searchable database of housing providers operating in Tacoma, including information on affiliated companies, unit counts, eviction history, and rent increases. The database would need to be live within 18 months of the effective date. The transparency implications of this provision alone are worth taking seriously.

Enhanced Consequences for Large Repeat Offenders:
Housing Providers classified as both large (25 or more units) and repeat offenders, meaning six or more violations within a 36-month period, with violations by affiliated companies counting toward the total, would face additional cost-recovery penalties and permanently lose eligibility for exemptions under Tacoma's tenant safety laws.

Business License Revocation:
In the most extreme cases, the City Director would have the authority to revoke a housing provider's business license entirely if their violations of tenant safety laws are found to have posed a serious threat of loss of life or serious bodily injury.

Protections for Small and Nonprofit Providers:
The initiative does include carve-outs for smaller housing providers. Small providers are exempt from the tenant union bargaining requirements and mandatory notice postings. Nonprofit and public housing providers would receive a reduced licensing fee structure with a longer phase-in period and would not be subject to the enhanced cost-recovery penalties that apply tolarge repeat offenders.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR RHAWA MEMBERS

If this initiative qualifies for the November ballot and passes, Tacoma housing providers would be operating under an entirely new enforcement reality: one layered directly on top of a Landlord Fairness Code that has already proven costly and destabilizing for independent housing providers across the city. The mandatory licensing fees, tenant union bargaining obligations, private enforcement rights,
and expanded penalty structure are not minor adjustments. Together, they would represent an even greater shift in the power dynamic between housing providers and tenant advocacy groups in Tacoma, especially for those owning 25 or more units. 

We have already seen what happens when sweeping tenant protection legislation moves faster than the evidence can support it. Nonprofit housing providers, small independent housing providers, and ultimately the tenants who depend on them all paid a price. RHAWA will be watching this initiative closely at every step and will keep members informed as the signature- gathering process unfolds. If you own rental property in Tacoma, now is the time to get informed, consult with legal counsel about how these provisions could affect your operations, and stay engaged with RHAWA so that your voice is part of the conversation. Do not wait until this is on the ballot to start paying attention.