AN EVENTFUL SUMMER
Our association is all about bringing people together to share their experiences, enhance each other’s understanding, and develop collaborative solutions to the problems facing small housing providers in Washington state. Many of you attended our Housing Provider Workshop Statewide Tour, which replaced our annual Spring Workshop and Trade Show, allowing us to bring the benefits of this one trade show to the rest of the state. With the new format, we more than doubled our attendance from previous years' events!
Given that this was our first year doing multiple spring trade shows, we look forward to taking your feedback into account as we continue to expand our events offerings. Following these huge spring events, RHAWA hosted a variety of smaller events throughout the summer season. Some of these events are our recurring LINK meetings that happen throughout the year, and some of them are fundraising events that typically only occur during election season, which aligns with the summer time. We hosted six fundraisers across the state and over a dozen LINK meetings this summer. Across all these events, we ended up gathering hundreds of members throughout the summer, fostering community and engagement. Thank you to all of those who took the time out of their busy schedules to join us for our summer events!
Informative LINK Meetings
This summer, we launched a new LINK Meeting in the Clark County/Vancouver area, and the response has been incredible! At our first meetings in the area, we hosted over 20 housing providers who heard directly from Executive Director Sean Flynn as well as Deputy Director Melissa Canfield.
Each following month, a different member of the Government Affairs team headed down to Vancouver to meet with membership and explain the different services RHAWA has to offer them. This new LINK meeting is strengthening RHAWA’s connection to the south Washington region as well as helping strengthen the bonds between housing providers located in the region.
We look forward to continuing this meeting and hosting dozens of members throughout the rest of the year.
Additionally, our LINK meetings in the Puget Sound region are going as smoothly as ever. Members who regularly attend LINK meetings have told us that these meetings provide them with a deeper understanding of the values and services of the association while also providing them a place to share specific concerns or best practices with housing providers in their region. We are always working to expand LINK meetings to other parts of the state, and we hope to bring meetings to north Washington in the Bellingham region as well! We look forward to welcoming you to a LINK Meeting in the near future — check out our events page for the most up-to-date information on these events.
Engaging Fundraisers
As mentioned before, RHAWA hosted six fundraisers this year with the help of our sister organization, Washington Business Properties Association. The candidates we hosted fundraisers for spanned across the various levels of state and local governments, from city councils to state representatives and senators.
Our first fundraiser of the year was hosted in conjunction with our Spokane Housing Provider Workshop, where attendees were welcomed to a happy hour supporting several candidates running for local positions in the Spokane area. Following this, we hosted an event for Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson, and we had a record number of attendees for a City Council candidate. Council President Nelson has helped turn the tide in the City of Seattle, and we look forward to continuing to support her campaign as election day approaches.
Moving across Lake Washington, our next event this summer was for Bellevue City Councilmember Jared Nieuwenhuis, a good friend of housing providers in his city and a strong advocate for property rights at both the local and state level of government. Nieuwenhuis came down to Olympia in his personal capacity in the 2025 Legislative Session to testify in opposition to the rent control bill, and the members of RHAWA should greatly appreciate the effort he has devoted to helping our industry.
Another highlight of our fundraising season was an event we hosted for Representative Amy Walen, running for State Senate. Representative Walen was one of the only Democrat holdouts on the rent control bill, and we appreciate her dedication to fighting against failed policies in Olympia. The Walen Fundraiser was hosted at the 11 Capital in Kirkland, which attendees found to be a beautiful and engaging venue for our event.
We ended our summer fundraising season with events for Representative Michelle Caldier running for State Senate and Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling, who is hoping to move into the State House of Representatives.
RHA PAC works tirelessly to identify key races in the state and direct your donations accordingly. We greatly appreciate all the members who helped support these candidates with either a donation to RHA PAC or made direct contributions at our event.
Make sure you stay on the lookout for more fundraisers as we approach election day. RHAWA hosts most of its fundraisers during the summer time, but we also host a few fall fundraisers each year.
Fundraisers are one of the best ways to get your feet wet in the advocacy space — with the relaxed, yet informative, atmosphere, members are free to mingle with other members and also have the opportunity to ask their most pertinent questions to those who wield political power in our state.
Make sure you don’t miss out on our fundraisers next year! Once again, check out our events page to get an idea of what events are available for you to attend.
See You Soon!
We look forward to hosting you at one of our upcoming events, whatever form it may be. Our next big event of the year is the ENGAGE25 Conference in October, which is sure to be even better than last year! ENGAGE24 was one of our most highly reviewed events ever and we are happy to expand its offering to two full days this time.
Make sure you get your tickets soon as it is sure to sell out! Visit ENGAGEWA.com for more information. Thanks and we will see you soon!