Tacoma voters are nearing a decision on a sweeping renter-protection ballot measure, and debate centers on how it would affect tenants and the city budget. Tacoma Initiative Measure 1, known as Safe Homes for All, would expand tenant protections and enforcement across the city.
Cost Concerns
The city's estimate that Measure 1 could cost $8 million to $10 million annually has become part of the debate.
What Measure 1 Would Actually Do
Tacoma Initiative Measure 1 would expand tenant protections and enforcement across the city. It would add a rental licensing fee and create a public database of landlord information, and require landlords to negotiate in good faith with tenant unions representing a majority of residents in a building — a provision that would make Tacoma the first city in Washington with such a requirement if voters approve it, per the same account.
The measure would also require the city to investigate landlord complaints, and landlords found in violation could be required to pay tenants a minimum of $500, with more serious penalties reaching up to five times monthly rent, according to KNKX. Supporters say the changes would help enforce existing tenant safety and habitability rules and hold repeat violators accountable, while giving renters more power to organize and seek remedies.
Dueling Cost Estimates Fuel the Fight
Money is at the center of the dispute. Tacoma City Manager Hyun Kim told KNKX that city officials estimated enforcement and legal costs could reach $8 million to $10 million annually, with the city's preliminary analysis including 43 staff positions and $4 million in legal costs. Measure 1 supporters, organizing as Tacoma For All, dispute that figure and say enforcement operations would cost roughly $1 million to $2 million a year, funded through per-unit licensing fees rather than general tax dollars.
Landlord groups counter that the negotiation requirement could expose property owners to lawsuits over technical violations and add costs without addressing housing affordability; opponents argue the measure would burden housing providers and impose substantial costs on the city overall. Tacoma For All says landlord and real-estate groups have raised more than $569,000 to defeat the measure.
A Familiar Pattern From the Last Fight
This isn't the first time a Tacoma tenant-rights vote has drawn a disclosure complaint. In a 2023 complaint tied to an earlier measure, Tacoma for All alleged that the No on Tacoma Measure 1 PAC, the Tacoma-Pierce County Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors violated public disclosure laws by failing to accurately and timely report at least $255,000 in campaign contributions and failing to register as a political committee, according to The News Tribune. That campaign had entered into a $350,000 contract with vendor Access Marketing weeks earlier. The newspaper reported the complaint remained under initial review, a process the PDC's deputy director said typically takes 10 days or fewer. Tacoma's previous tenant-rights initiative ultimately passed in 2023 by fewer than 400 votes, according to Cascade PBS.
Tacoma's 2023 Tenant Bill of Rights, the policy Measure 1 would build on, added restrictions on winter evictions, extended rent-increase notice periods and mandatory relocation assistance in some cases. The stakes of enforcement are already playing out in court: Tacoma renter Melody Frazier filed a lawsuit against her landlord in September alleging violations of the Tenant Bill of Rights. Since January, at least six apartment complexes in Tacoma have voted to form tenant unions, KNKX reports.
What the Law Requires
Washington requires sponsor identification on written political advertising under WAC 390-18-010.
