Spokane landlords would have to provide cooling options by 2031 under newly introduced law

Spokane landlords would be required to provide options to cool the bedrooms of their tenants by 2031 under a law introduced Monday .

Sponsored by Councilman Paul Dillon and Councilwomen Sarah Dixit and Kitty Klitzke, the "right to cooling" law would deem units uninhabitable - and thus unrentable - if bedrooms cannot be cooled to 80 degrees or below.

The law doesn't mandate a particular approach to cooling, whether it be nonelectric options such as swamp coolers or building design or providing mechanical air conditioning units, but argues that tenants face risks to their health and potentially lives if they do not have access to cooling of some kind, particularly as climate change makes extreme weather events more common.

"I do wish this ordinance had been in place five years ago after the deadly 2021 heat dome, where 19 people died in Spokane County," Dillon said in an interview. "But I think, given a lot of the concerns about implementation, (2031) is a reasonable road map."

The ordinance, which was introduced Monday at the council's Public Infrastructure, Environment and Sustainability Committee, would expand a 2024 Spokane law that prevents landlords from banning their tenants from installing an air conditioner. The state legislature created a similar right at the state level this year with SB 6200.

"Habitability problems are not limited to slumlords," testified Hannah Swenson, managing attorney for the King County Bar Association's Housing Justice Project, at the Monday committee meeting. "We also see these issues, including lack of cooling, in units and subsidized units all over Spokane."

Terri Anderson, director of the Spokane office of the Tenants Union of Washington State, argued the law was about saving lives.

"Heat events are the most deadly weather events that we have," Anderson said in an interview. "When you see fatalities during a heat event, it's usually renters."

Others worry the law would have unintended consequences, pushing housing stock off the market that cannot be feasibly retrofitted with cooling utilities.

"This issue has already been resolved by SB 6200," said Sean Flynn, executive director and board president of the Rental Housing Association of Washington. "The current bill in front of the City Council creates an affirmative duty to provide cooling below 80 degrees in every sleeping room, which is impossible for a lot of the housing stock in the city."

"We want tenant safety, we just think 6200 gets us there in a way that doesn't make half of the rental stock in the city unrentable," Flynn added. "It's the difference between allowing the tenant to choose and forcing the landlord to modify the building."

Dillon argues that the ordinance allows enough flexibility in accomplishing the mandated cooling levels, along with five years to come into compliance, that it would not impact housing stock in the city. He also points to the possibility of incentives to assist property owners in bearing the cost of compliance.

The ordinance does not itself establish any incentive programs, but does state the city "may partner" with utilities and state regulators to offer incentives or rebates "on the condition that cost savings are shared with tenants." It also states the city "may encourage" the development of cooling building features, such as heat-mitigating roofs, through future code updates and incentives.

"The goal is not just to regulate but to look more broadly at how we do retrofitting programs," Dillon said. "It's become so much more commonplace and affordable. We need to make sure that no one is trapped in a deadly heatwave."

At Monday's committee meeting, Councilman Michael Cathcart argued that the ordinance at least needed more details to be practicable. The law as introduced doesn't specify, for instance, whether a unit would be in violation if it heated above 80 degrees for a single moment or for an extended period of time, nor who would be responsible for added energy costs.

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This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 11:44 PM.