Title
Rental Registry One Year Evaluation Briefing
Recommended Action Committee Recommendation:
Not referred to a committee.
City Manager Recommendation:
Receive an update and discuss the implementation of the rental registry and inspection program.
Report Issue:
Whether to receive an update and discuss the implementation of the rental registry and inspection program.
Staff Contact:
Sarah Williams, Rental Registry Program Manager, Community Planning & Economic Development, 360.753.8377
Presenter(s):
Sarah Williams, Rental Registry Program Manager, Community Planning & Economic Development
Jacinda Steltjes, Affordable Housing Program Manager, Community Planning & Economic Development
Christa Lenssen, Senior Housing Program Specialist, Community Planning & Economic Development
Background and Analysis:
The Rental Registry & Inspection program was adopted in November 2023 and enacted in March 2024 after in-depth community engagement around tenant protections and extensive peer-city research on similar programs.
The program is designed to meet the following goals:
• Ensure basic life health and safety in rental housing
• Preserve existing rental housing
• Share information and resources with landlords
• Gather data about rental housing in Olympia.
Unless exempted, landlords are required to:
• Register their rental properties and renew registration annually ($35/unit)
• Obtain and maintain a state business license with an Olympia endorsement through the Department of Revenue
• Schedule inspections with a qualified third-party inspector of a portion of their rental units once every five years after being notified by the City
In its 17-month history, the program has experienced accomplishments as well as challenges. Staff evaluated the program and identified adjustments that will be made through the end of 2025 and into 2026 to address the challenges and meet the program’s goals. Measures of success have been identified to track program progress. Lastly, staff have done preliminary research to introduce further program adjustments the City Council may want to consider.
Program Accomplishments
Program is operational
Staff from many divisions and departments collaborate to operate the program with a focus on customer service.
Enforcement of business license code
Registry staff ensure landlords have an active state business license and Olympia endorsement. An estimated $25,000 in business license revenue associated with rental registrations has been collected since the program began.
Rental Housing Education
Creation of a rental housing and tenant protections related listserv, a series of webinars on the City’s rental housing code, a presentation on how to prevent and mediate mold, and more.
Rental housing data collection
The average rent across rental housing types registered is $1,625. Rents for 2-bedroom and smaller units are generally affordable while rents for 3+ bedroom units are generally not affordable.
Rental Units Registered
Staff originally projected 15,500 rental units existed in Olympia in 2023. Staff estimated that 25% of these units would be registered by the end of 2024 and 50% by the end of 2025. Staff now project there are 18,423 rental units in Olympia. Data shows that landlords of 52% of the currently projected rental units (61% of previously projected rental units) initiated registration within the first 16 months of operating the program.
As of July 9, 2025, (based on the newly estimated 18,423 total units):
• 28% of units are validly registered.
• 1% of units have formally declared the immediate family member exemption.
• 6% of units are associated with landlords who failed to properly renew registration in 2025 after registering in 2024.
• 12% of units are associated with incomplete registrations. Examples of reasons a registration would be considered incomplete are if an application is missing information or the applicant did not pay registration fees.
• 5% of units are pending staff review for program compliance.
• 48% have not begun registration at any stage in the program’s history.
Program Challenges
Initial registration
• Current registration software is difficult for landlords to use and requires a lot of staff time to communicate with customers.
• Business licensing requirement through the state Department of Revenue has confused landlords and makes it difficult to automate the staff review process.
• Process of reporting data on the unit level is difficult for landlords and cannot be easily integrated into the registration process.
Registration renewal
• Difference between City’s registration renewal cycle and Department of Revenue’s business license renewal cycle causes confusion amongst landlords.
• Rather than renewing their previous registrations, several landlords submitted new registry applications, requiring more staff time to resolve this issue.
Program Costs
Program costs have exceeded original projections due to the following issues:
• The number of units registered fell short of projections in 2024.
• Registration challenges have called for higher staffing levels than anticipated.
• Staffing costs have increased due to the classification and compensation study done in 2024, that was implemented beginning 2025.
Inspections
Landlords expressed frustration about unknown inspection costs. Staff removed costs from other jurisdictions and average inspection rates for Olympia are not published, due to communication from the third-party inspectors that prices charged in Olympia may vary due to differences in housing stock, housing conditions, specific requirements, etc. Since the inspection requirement only began in 2025, the webpage communicates that average inspection costs will be provided once more inspections have been completed.
Planned Changes
Staff will make the following adjustments to help meet program goals. These changes come at no extra cost and will mitigate some of the previously mentioned challenges.
• Establish a procedure to capture business license revenue to help sustain the program.
• Switch modules in SmartGov to simplify registration, thereby encouraging more voluntary compliance from landlords and helping ensure tenants have a safe and healthy place to live. This switch will also allow for more customizable applications to collect data more effectively.
• Develop and publish procedures for qualified third-party inspectors and publish average inspection costs to the webpage to increase transparency surrounding inspections and encourage landlords to address health and safety concerns to preserve rental housing.
• Follow up with registration and renewals of landlords of previously registered units that have not renewed, as well as those with initiated, but incomplete, applications. Based on the projected year-end balance (- $63,436 as of July 9, 2025), the City needs 1,813 more non-exempt units registered by the end of 2025 to break even. The unit count for these categories alone totals over 3,000.
Potential Programmatic Changes for Council Consideration
These adjustments would require code amendments or budget enhancements that Council could ask staff to evaluate further. Staff have done some evaluation of these items. More detail can be found in the Addendum.
• Increasing staffing (such as adding a Code Enforcement officer and/or administrative staff) would help support the program but also come at an increased cost during a tough budget season.
• Investing in alternative software for registration would improve the customer experience for landlords and automate data collection and evaluation. This adjustment would also come at a high cost ($60,000 + annually) that may not outweigh the benefits without changes to program requirements.
• Removing or adjusting the business license requirement for long-term rental housing would make compliance simpler for landlords and allow for more automated compliance review for staff. This would also reduce revenue and the current per unit registration fee would likely need to be re-evaluated.
• Transitioning to an affidavit model for inspections in which landlords self-certify their rentals meet health and safety requirements would reduce staff time to administer the program and reduce the time burden and cost to landlords for inspections. It would leave room for landlords to self-certify without fully evaluating their units for health and safety concerns and relies more heavily on tenant complaints to address unsafe housing conditions. Inspections began in 2025, and changes may be premature.
• Extending the registration renewal period so landlords aren’t required to renew annually would reduce staff time spent processing applications, but the City would lose annual comparison data, and this may also exacerbate the issue of not being able to reach landlords (due to not having updated contact information). The per unit registration fee would likely need to be re-evaluated.
• Eliminating the rent roll requirement and relying on broader-scoped external data sources for tracking trends in rental housing would reduce staff time for data entry and evaluation as well as simplify the registration process for landlords. The City would miss out on unit-level data and data about single-family rentals that is currently used to improve City addressing records, identify unpermitted units, and provide data insights for different types of housing in Olympia.
Program Resilience
Staff will continue to monitor the program and use the following measures to gauge success:
• At least 50% of rental units are validly registered by the end of year 3 (2026)
• The program’s revenues meet or exceed expenses by year 4 (2027)
• At least 70% of rental units are validly registered by the end of year 5 (2028)
Climate Analysis:
The Rental Registry and Inspection program may result in a long-term reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by reducing energy use in existing buildings and increasing weatherization through building maintenance and repair. An inspection checklist was developed to monitor health and safety in housing units. This checklist includes structural integrity elements to ensure buildings are weathertight and safe to occupy.
Climate, housing, building and code enforcement staff will work together to develop inspection standards focused on energy efficiency, for future policy consideration, and ensure that third-party inspectors are adequately trained to perform this work. This may include requiring rental property owners to remedy extreme energy efficiency. Information will be shared about City resources to electrify housing units, make weatherization repairs and other updates.
Equity Analysis:
According to a Housing Needs Assessment conducted by Thurston Regional Housing Council in 2021, over half of Olympia households rent (53%). Of these renting households, 52% are housing cost-burdened, which means they spend over 30% of their income on housing costs. According to HUD CHAS data (retrieved from Department of Commerce), 50% of white households in Olympia rent, while 61% of BIPOC households and 73% of Hispanic/Latinx households rent. BIPOC households are over-represented in Thurston County’s homeless crisis response system. According to ACS data (retrieved from the Thurston County Assessment of Fair Housing), about 82% of Olympia households with a single mother rent rather than own their homes.
Renters benefit from ensuring housing units are in good condition. Renters with disabilities whose health may be negatively impacted by unit conditions (inadequate ventilation, mold/moisture intrusion, cold/heat) will benefit from improvements to housing units. About 20% of respondents to the Assessment of Fair Housing survey in 2022 indicated they experience health impacts from their housing unit conditions. The most common concerns among respondents were: high heating costs or insufficient heat (57% of respondents), mold (48% of respondents), high cooling costs or insufficient cooling (45%), and air quality/pollution (33%). About 25% of survey respondents pay over $250 per month for utilities.
According to a national 2016 study by ACEEE and Energy Efficiency for All, low-income, Black, and Latinx communities spend a much higher share of their income on energy. Additionally, this study found that 97% of excess energy burdens for renting households could be eliminated by bringing their homes up to median efficiency standards. Renters will benefit from decreased utility costs if energy efficiency improves and repairs are completed. According to the landlord survey conducted in 2021 as part of the Housing Needs Assessment, only 13% of landlords include electricity/gas utilities in rent. This program may benefit renters by providing education resources and information to landlords regarding tenant rights and their legal responsibilities.
People of color and people with disabilities earn less on average than white, non-disabled people. In Thurston County, about 36% of white households earn over $100,000 per year compared to 18% of Native American households. White households are the most likely to earn over $100,000 annually and least likely to earn under $35,000 annually than any other racial or ethnic group countywide. In 2020 in Olympia, a person with a disability earned on average $26,075, compared to $37,168 earned by a person without a disability. Low-income renters could be disproportionately harmed by this program if they are currently renting lower cost units that need significant repairs and their rents are increased as a result of unit upgrades, they are displaced due to the unit needing significant repairs, or the unit is taken off the rental market. Renters with disabilities may also be burdened by inspectors entering their units (some individuals may be immunocompromised). Staff recommended anti-displacement policies that were adopted by Council to mitigate these impacts and created a process for tenants with disabilities to request a reasonable accommodation if their health would be harmed by a third-party inspector entering their unit.
There is limited data on landlord demographics. City of Olympia surveys include demographic data, but not all respondents provide demographic information and there is a limited sample size. Approximately 71% of landlords who completed the landlord survey (part of the Olympia rental housing code update in 2022) identified as white, which is similar to the general population of Olympia overall. Landlords are burdened by additional requirements and costs. Landlords may benefit from value-added programs and resources offered by the City. Landlords may also benefit from knowing about repairs needed in their housing unit due to inspections which may not be reported by a renter. Some renters may fear retaliation from their landlord if they request repairs or report to code enforcement.
Neighborhood/Community Interests (if known):
The Rental Registry and Inspection program is a highly visible program that has attracted a lot of public attention and strong feelings. Program staff as well as city council members often receive comments from vocal landlords.
City staff and consultant Jason Robertson conducted engagement with renters and landlords from Fall 2021 to Spring 2022 to review policy options, which lead to adoption of a tenant protection ordinance in August 2022. Approximately 100 landlords and 200 renters responded to an Engage Olympia survey question that asked how supportive they would be of a rental housing registry to keep landlords updated on rental rules, codes, policies and resources, and potential unit inspections to ensure health and safety. Both renters and landlords generally expressed support for easily accessible information on laws and resources. Both renters and landlords expressed concern that increased costs related to fees or required property improvements would lead to rent increases. Overall, 56% of renters were very supportive of a registry, while 18% of landlords were very supportive of a registry.
Financial Impact:
There are no financial impacts related to process improvements identified within this staff report. Should Council wish to pursue further process improvements, including those explored in the Addendum, financial impacts can be expected.
Options:
1. Receive an update and discuss the implementation of the rental registry and inspection program.
2. Receive an update and discuss the implementation of the rental registry and inspection program and direct staff to take further action
3. Do not receive an update and discuss the implementation of the rental registry and inspection program.
Attachments:
Addendum