Walla Walla seniors, scared of losing housing as costs go up, share ideas for relief

Dorothy Knudson owns her blush pink home but not the land it sits on at the Rancho Villa Manufactured Housing Community in Walla Walla.

She’s proud of her home, where she’s lived since 2012. It’s hugged by carports that shade the driveways and a lone pot of flowering begonias. Sets of stairs on either side lead into a neatly kept space, where her personal style is captured in bright yellows, subdued greens and rows of books.

“Since I’m right on the creek, I put a lot of these trees in here, and they really love it,” she said.

“It’s not my property,” she added.

Rental costs for Knudson and other homeowners at the 55-and-older community off Dalles Military Road jumped by $193 over 22 months.

Lot rent was increased by $75 in October 2022, with another $50 increase effective in October 2023. A $68 utility fee, billed monthly, was added at the start of 2023.

Knudson has felt the pinch in her pocketbook, though mostly in contributing to causes she cares about.

“My pension is good enough – and my Social Security – that I can cover this,” Knudson said. “But boy, have I had to really stretch (my contributions) over the year. Part of that is inflation, but part of it is because so much has to go to rent.”

The increases have brought even more of a strain to other families’ budgets, with some having to make decisions about which bills to pay in a certain month, which utilities to use, what level of health insurance to pay for and more.

Rancho Villa isn’t the only housing community where residents are seeing increases. Rising living costs are also affecting renters in apartments and senior living communities and homeowners in other manufactured home communities who are unable to move their homes.

Residents shared their concerns, as well as some ideas for relief, at a listening session hosted by District 16 Rep. Mark Klicker, the ranking Republican on the House Housing Committee, in Walla Walla on July 12.

“We have a real housing crunch – a real crunch in mobile home parks and the increase in rent, and it’s just out of control,” Klicker said at the meeting. “This is an idea session to give information and ideas we can take back. It’s not a complaining session.”

Knudson said stories of experiences with rising rental costs, delivered at the session with emotion, some with raised voices, shows the fear people have about losing their housing.

“The anxiety and the anger and the fear is we just don’t know how high they’re going to try to raise it,” she said.

Call for relief

Walla Walla resident Ed Hensley moved to Affinity, a 55-and-older apartment complex at 1706 Fairway Drive, after selling his home in Kansas. As a single, older person, he was attracted to the idea of living in a community where he could be closer to his neighbors.

But his rent has increased at a rate that isn’t sustainable, he said, going up 25% in the past year.

“At the same time, the things that were being offered that were the freebie things of being in a community, those have just constantly been cut,” he said. “It’s kind of distressing. I mean, I hope I have a few more years in my life, but I get to thinking this isn’t sustainable.”

A bill preventing landlords of residential units and manufactured and mobile home parks from raising rent more than a certain percentage, tied to the rate of inflation, annually was introduced in the 2023 session.

It passed the House committees on Housing and Appropriations but did not go further. It did not get Klicker’s vote in the Housing committee.

Hensley said there are parts of the rent stabilization legislation that should still be considered, even if the whole bill wasn’t something that would be brought to the floor.

“There might be a couple pieces of it that could be really helpful,” he told Klicker.

Rent stabilization is different from rent control, which is generally more strict, fixing rent to a specific price.

House policy analyst Ryann Woods, who works with the House Housing Committee and attended the meeting in Walla Walla to hear ideas for legislation, said rent control has been illegal in Washington since 1981. She said states such as Oregon, where rent is capped, have lost housing providers and housing permits with the change.

She said stabilization efforts like the one proposed in House Bill 1389 come with practical issues, including that renters would likely see cost increases every year.

Walla Walla resident Patricia Divine Wilder said there has to be room for negotiations between renters and property owners in the stabilization proposal.

“If 7% of the Consumer Price Index isn’t enough of a profit to make, what is? What’s the right amount?” she asked. “How can we do something to keep this runaway train from going off the cliff?”

Partnering for help

Woods recommended residents look at existing programs for housing vouchers and rental assistance.

Some responded that they have but don’t meet the qualifications.

Community Council Executive Director Mary Campbell said the Walla Walla organization advocates for affordable housing in local policy, housing studies and other ways.

It also formed a nonprofit called Common Roots Housing Trust, which buys property to supply families with permanent affordable housing. Wilder is on the board of directors for the nonprofit.

“I feel like that is one of the answers of what can be done to help with this housing crisis, but that in itself right now isn’t going to help the people who are here today, who are afraid of losing their homes with these rent increases,” she said.

Walla Walla resident R.L. McFarland suggested organizing a lobbying group to communicate with legislators and advocate on behalf of renters.

“Lobbyists generally come with the most clout. That’s just that world. Quite often, the lobbyists generally represent the big people, wherever they are,” he said. “But what about working on getting, if there isn’t already, a cohesive, one lobbying group for all the people here in this room and rooms all around the state just like this?”

Other ideas

George Jameson, a Rancho Villa resident, said that well-understood problems don’t have just one solution.

His ideas included capping rents for existing manufactured home communities and apartments but allowing new developments to flow with the market; allowing low-income families or those on a fixed income to pay a fixed percentage or amount toward rent; or offering tax breaks to developments that maintain a certain number of low-income units.

Walla Walla has such a program for new multifamily housing developments in the city.

“There’s got to be more than one solution,” Jameson said.

Klicker inquired about a way to calculate a rent threshold for low-income or fixed-income residents, so they could pay that amount and the state can help with the rest.

“These are ideas I like to hear. This is the stuff I need,” Klicker said. “This is a learning opportunity for me. I am going to learn, and then we are going to work on this.”

What’s next

In an interview after the meeting, Klicker said he wants to work toward immediate relief and a long-term solution to help renters and manufactured home park residents, especially seniors, facing rising costs, while also looking into challenges park owners face.

Klicker said he sees a voucher option or similar program like the one described above as a more immediate solution but doesn’t know exactly what it would look like.

The listening session in Walla Walla and one conducted in the Tri-Cities on July 11 raised some neat ideas and suggestions, he said.

“There weren’t as many people in the Tri-Cities one, but there were more of the park owners,” he said. “There were ideas in both of them, but in Walla Walla there were so many people there. There were so many people that were affected, that gives credence to what we need to do. It really proved that this problem exists. That we have to find a solution.”

He said he wants to plan more listening sessions on the west side of the state with Housing’s assistant ranking member, Republican Rep. April Connors.

Throughout the sessions, policy analyst Woods recommended putting together information sheets about rent control and stabilization and state programs that offer support to tenants.

She said speaking at legislative hearings is an important part of the legislative process. That’s something the staff can help residents access if they’re interested, she said.

“We had hearings about things about the mobile home community, and it helps so much when y’all come in, write in or call in or video in and have your voice heard,” she said at the meeting. “It’s so extremely important.”

At the meeting, Knudson said, “The law is not working. It needs to be changed. That’s the job of the Legislature.”

Afterward, she said she’ll continue to speak with local leaders as well as lawmakers about policy changes that could help.