A bill intended to limit cities’ power to block housing for people who are homeless has cleared the Washington state Legislature and now awaits the governor’s signature.
House Bill 2266 would prohibit cities from placing additional restrictions on permanent supportive housing in areas where residential housing is allowed and would limit the restrictions they could place on emergency shelter projects.
The bill builds off previous efforts in the Legislature to stop local opposition to shelters and housing that would help stabilize people who are homeless. A zoning law passed in 2021, which required cities to demonstrate how they would accommodate future housing needs across all income levels, also prohibited them from banning supportive housing in residential areas and shelters in areas zoned for hotels.
But some high-profile cases, including one fully funded supportive housing project in Kenmore that the City Council called off in 2024 after nearly two years of planning, showed cities could still find ways to obstruct those housing projects for people exiting homelessness, especially when public campaigns pressured them to do so.