Washington is on track to have more eviction filings this year than any other year on record.

Nine counties, including King and Spokane, hit new high marks, and seven others are on their way.

“The state is in an eviction crisis at this point,” said Tim Thomas, research director at the University of California Berkeley’s Urban Displacement Project.

Washington’s policies, like its right to counsel program, have helped keep some of those people from becoming homeless, Thomas told the Senate Housing Committee on Friday. But he said without more action and funding, evictions will rise further.

Some lawmakers are voicing similar concerns.

“The increase in eviction filings is startling and alarming,” Housing Committee Chair Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, said. “There will be a tsunami of homelessness if we don’t handle this correctly.”

Kuderer is moving on from her role in the state Senate next month after she was elected in November to be Washington’s next insurance commissioner.

Evictions dropped significantly during the pandemic, largely due to national and statewide eviction moratoriums and rental assistance programs. Once those programs expired, evictions began to climb again.

One in 50 Washington renters, or about 2%, faced an eviction filing in the last year, according to data from the Urban Displacement Project. 

During 2024, Clark, Grant, Jefferson, King, Klickitat, Okanogan, Spokane, Thurston and Whitman counties have already broken their records for the number of eviction filings in a year. Asotin, Columbia, Douglas, Kittitas, Pend Oreille, Skagit and Walla Walla are on track to break theirs this month. 

Looking at trends in states similar to Washington, like California and Oregon, Thomas said he expects that evictions will not slow anytime soon.

He said one way the state can attempt to manage the record number of evictions is to expand its right to counsel program, which he called “a really powerful policy counterbalancing the crisis and keeping people housed.” 

The program was established in 2021 and requires an attorney to be appointed in eviction proceedings for tenants with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line. In 2024, that’s one person making $30,120 a year.

Since it launched, the program has handled 22,889 cases. About 81% of tenants in these cases ended up in permanent housing, and about 56% remained in the home subject to the eviction proceeding, according to the Office of Civil Legal Aid, which manages the program. 

“The role that this program plays is not only a procedural safeguard,” said Philippe Knab, eviction defense and reentry program manager at the Office of Civil Legal Aid. “This program and these attorneys serve as a safety net.” 

But as eviction filings rise, attorneys are struggling to keep up, Knab said. “We are currently experiencing a volume of evictions unlike anything we anticipated,” he said.

And with limited resources, some tenants fall through the cracks, Thomas said. 

Just under 45% of tenants facing eviction had legal representation in January 2024, according to research from the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy and Governance. A lack of information on the legal process, psychological barriers and logistical challenges are among the biggest reasons why some tenants never receive representation, Will von Geldern, a University of Washington Ph.D. candidate and researcher, told the Housing Committee.

Attorneys can only help those they can reach, he added.

The Office of Civil Legal Aid is asking lawmakers for $8.8 million in the next two-year budget cycle. That money would go toward continuing funding provided in the last legislative session along with adding five additional attorneys in King County. 

This budget request will allow the program to keep pace with the current eviction levels, not expand any services, Knab said. He acknowledged that legislators will have budget struggles this year given a multibillion-dollar deficit.

Along with continuing to fund the right to counsel program, lawmakers will likely look at other policy solutions to ease the growing wave of evictions. Financial assistance to tenants and landlords, caps on certain rent increases and improving access to social services could all be on the table when they return in January.