Tacoma's system for enforcing its tenant protection laws is under pressure from multiple directions.
They include a ballot initiative that would create new penalties for landlords, a federal lawsuit challenging the laws' constitutionality, and a City Council committee that is now reviewing how compliance actually works.
The Community Vitality and Safety Committee received a compliance and enforcement briefing on the Rental Housing Code and Landlord Fairness Code on Thursday, July 23, Sarah Bridgeford, interim division manager for Neighborhood and Community Services, and ChiQuata Elder, senior equity programs consultant in the same department, presented the overview under agenda item 26-0595.
The ballot push
The briefing comes as tenant advocacy group Tacoma for All pushes to put enforcement teeth into the law. The group delivered more than 8,000 petition signatures to the City Clerk's Office on June 16, 2026, seeking to place the "Safe Homes for All" initiative on the November 2026 ballot.
The measure would create a city-run enforcement mechanism funded by a per-unit rental registry fee. Landlords found in violation would owe tenants between $500 and five times the unit's monthly rent per violation.
"Litigation is a lengthy process. Landlords have a lot of resources, and tenants just don't have the time, the energy or the money," Kiss'Shonna Curtis, an organizer with Tacoma for All, said in a May 1 Seattle Times report on the initiative.
What the laws require
The Rental Housing Code (TMC 1.95) and the Landlord Fairness Code Initiative (TMC 1.100) together govern nearly every rental unit in Tacoma. Voters approved the Landlord Fairness Code in November 2023 as Citizens Initiative Measure No. 1. The City Council updated both codes on December 9, 2025, through Amended Substitute Ordinance 29086, with changes taking effect January 1, 2026.
Key provisions now in force:
- 180-day notice for rent increases, up from 120 days
- Late fees capped at 1.5% of unpaid monthly rent
- A cold-weather eviction ban from November 15 through March 15
- Income-to-rent screening limits (3x monthly rent if below HUD Fair Market Rent; 2.5x if above)
- Relocation assistance for tenants displaced from condemned or uninhabitable units: the greater of $2,000 or three times monthly rent, plus return of all deposits
Landlords must hold a city business license for each rental property and cannot raise rent or pursue eviction without one.
Contested from both sides
A coalition of 14 affordable housing providers led by Tacoma Housing Authority warned in an October 31, 2025, letter that two years under the Landlord Fairness Code had produced "mounting delinquent rent" and threatened their ability to build new affordable units.
The December 2025 amendments partially addressed that concern by exempting THA and nonprofit deed-restricted providers from the eviction moratoriums. Whether remaining for-profit landlords share those concerns has not been publicly documented.
A separate federal court challenge filed in August 2024 by Westside Estates Apartment Homes at 922 N. Pearl St. remains pending before Judge Tiffany M. Cartwright in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.
How renters can act
Tenants who believe their landlord is not complying can contact the city's Landlord-Tenant Program through Tacoma FIRST 311 (call 311 from a 253 area code or 253-591-5000) or email [email protected]. Code violations for any Tacoma address are searchable on the city's GeoHub at cityoftacoma.org.
The committee's next scheduled meetings are Thursday, August 13, and Thursday, August 27, 2026. Neither agenda lists a follow-up on the rental code enforcement briefing.
