Earlier this fall, the Reporter published an article regarding a list by real estate blog Movoto which named Issaquah the third most desirable city on the Eastside. Movoto calculated the list, in part, by equating high rents and high home prices to area desirability.
But one Issaquah man has cried foul, arguing sky-high rents are driving people out of the area, not in.
Bruno Lange, speaking to the Reporter last week, said he has been lobbying the city and the state attorney general to consider rent controls that would roll back current rents to 2012 levels and require landlords to peg future increases to the Consumer Price Index. On Monday, Lange brought his proposal to the Issaquah City Council during public comment.
“We need rent control desperately,” he said. “One-third of the population is in rentals. This segment has been totally ignored.”
Lange pointed to single-parent families, senior citizens and persons on fixed incomes as particularly vulnerable populations. He himself is an 80-year-old retired Realtor who lives in an apartment community in Issaquah. He said his rents have risen every year, but he was taken aback when the most recent increase reached 15 percent.
Lange said he has spoken to Mayor Fred Butler about the need for rent controls. Butler confirmed he told Lange he had several senior citizen friends who had left Issaquah because rents exceeded what they could afford on a fixed income.
But this is a fight that will have to be waged at the state level.
Since 1981, it has been illegal under state law for cities and towns to enact rent controls. The only exceptions under RCW 35.21.830 are publicly owned or managed properties and designated low-income housing units maintained by landlords.
As of Tuesday, Butler was in the process of crafting a formal response to Lange’s public comment that would include the state law prohibiting rent controls, the mayor said.
Regardless, Lange said he doesn’t plan to give up lobbying for more affordable housing.
“I’m a Sherman tank with no reverse gear,” he said.
