Susan Kane-Ronning: Adjusting Washington state HB 1217 by adding rent caps would help our children thrive

Impending federal cuts to safety net programs like school meals and Medicaid threaten our most vulnerable residents, especially children who cannot advocate for themselves. As a result, states have a greater obligation to provide stability.

Here in Washington, nearly 30% of working-age households in Washington can’t afford their basic needs. More than 10% of Washington’s students live in shelters. Another 6% live in hotels or motels, while nearly 7% are considered unsheltered and live in cars, parks, campgrounds or abandoned buildings. High and rising housing costs are one of the biggest catalysts of this crisis.

Home ownership and the stability that comes with a fixed mortgage are simply out of reach for the vast majority of young people and families today. Renter households already pay some of the highest rents in the country and face the additional challenge of excessively large and unpredictable rent increases.

The result is widespread housing insecurity that causes severe stress with extremely negative impacts on children. These effects can last for years. Results from a 20-year longitudinal study that followed children from birth through age 15 who experienced housing insecurity showed that kids with any level of housing insecurity experienced significant adverse consequences such as higher rates of malnutrition, vaccine-preventable infectious diseases, asthma, obesity, dental and vision problems, and emotional, behavioral and developmental issues. They had poorer mental health, including higher levels of depression and anxiety. A lack of secure housing creates behaviors in children that set them back socially, academically, and financially in their youth and into later life.

As a licensed child psychologist specializing in child behavior disorders, children, families, and trauma. I have spent my career working with at-risk children and families. I began as a high school special education teacher and worked with street kids and dropouts. I perform lethality evaluations for students who make threats in schools. I work with high-conflict child custody cases and perform trauma evaluations on children severely harmed by the foster care system. I have seen firsthand the devastating toll that chronic stress from housing insecurity takes on children and families. It’s toxic and unrelenting.

Large rent hikes are, in effect, economic evictions and are acutely destabilizing. Children may miss school while their parents find a new place to live, or they’re forced to change schools altogether. Children who change schools once or more during a school year are four times more likely to be chronically absent. Chronic absenteeism correlates with lower test scores and grades, higher rates of repeating grades, and dropping out. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association of Pediatrics, governments must create initiatives to implement and address the affordable housing crisis.

Washington state was poised to deliver increased stability and predictability to hundreds of thousands of families. A rent stabilization bill by the Legislature, SHB 1217, would have prohibited excessive rent increases, a big step toward helping parents maintain housing, cover other basic needs such as food and medicine, and afford goods and services that enrich their children’s development.

This policy was intended to protect seniors, workers and families with children by setting a reasonable limit of 7% per year for rent increases. The measure allowed landlords to set rent as much as they want in-between tenants and exempted newly constructed apartments for their first 12 years.

Instead, SB 1217 passed the Senate with a cap that will still enable excessive rent increases. The U.S. Government Accountability Office found that a $100 increase in median rent is associated with a 9% increase in homelessness in the areas studied.

The median rent in Spokane as of April 2025, is approximately $1,340 for all property types and bedroom counts. Single-family homes and mobile homes are not included in SB 1217 and will have no rent caps.

Because SB 1217 passed in the Senate with changes to the original bill, it now returns to the House for a vote. Washington House lawmakers still have a chance to remove one of the most significant threats to children’s ability to thrive by passing a sensible rent stabilization policy and returning the reasonable limit of 7% per year for rent increases. If they do, the positive impacts will not only help families and children today, they will also help protect the well-being of future generations.

Susan Kane-Ronning, PhD, is a resident of Chelan, a licensed child psychologist and national trainer on children, teens and families.