A former Spokane City Council member and rental housing provider is warning that a proposed local cooling ordinance — designed to protect low-income renters during hot weather — could backfire by pricing smaller landlords out of the market and leaving vulnerable tenants without housing altogether. The debate carries direct relevance for North Idaho residents and property owners in Kootenai County who follow regional housing policy closely.
The Proposed Ordinance and What It Would Require
The measure under consideration in Spokane, known as the Renters’ Right to Cooling Ordinance, would require every rental bedroom in the city to be capable of reaching 80 degrees Fahrenheit by the year 2031. The proposed standard is stricter than what is required in significantly hotter cities, including Phoenix, Tucson, and Dallas — all of which experience far more extreme summer heat than the Inland Northwest.
The ordinance would also repeal a portable cooling ordinance that the Spokane City Council passed unanimously just two years ago. That earlier measure allowed tenants to install their own portable cooling devices — an approach that critics of the new proposal say was already working without placing massive financial burdens on property owners. Washington’s governor also recently signed a statewide right-to-cooling law, effective this month, giving tenants the ability to install portable cooling equipment in their units.
Under the new proposal, any rental unit that cannot maintain the 80-degree standard would be categorized as “imminently hazardous to life” — a designation that could trigger enforcement action and effectively pull housing from the market.
The Cost Problem for Older Housing Stock
Steve Corker, a former Spokane council member and regent of the Rental Housing Association of Washington, argues the ordinance fails to account for the economic reality facing landlords who serve the city’s most vulnerable residents. Corker himself rents homes to families using housing vouchers, refugees, and tenants transitioning out of crisis housing programs.
The financial math is stark. Bringing an older rental unit into compliance with the proposed standard is estimated to cost between $9,000 and $15,000 per unit. That figure is particularly significant given that the median Spokane home was built in 1961, and more than 60 percent of the city’s rental housing stock predates 1980. These are structures that were never designed with modern cooling systems in mind, and retrofitting them at scale represents a substantial capital expense that many small landlords simply cannot absorb.
Spokane averages roughly 21 days per year with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees — a meaningful heat burden, but a fraction of what cities like Phoenix face routinely. The proposed standard, Corker contends, is disproportionate to the actual climate risk.
Impact on Low-Income Renters and the Housing Supply
Corker’s central concern is not the goal of the ordinance but its likely consequence. When compliance costs exceed what a rental property can sustainably generate in revenue, landlords face a choice: raise rents to cover the investment, sell the property, or exit the rental market entirely. For operators serving the lowest-income tenants — those on housing vouchers or coming out of shelters — raising rents often isn’t an option. The result, Corker warns, is fewer units available to the people the ordinance was meant to protect.
“When those operators cannot pay, the tenants are the ones who lose their homes,” Corker said. He added bluntly: “An ordinance that shrinks housing availability does not protect vulnerable residents — it displaces them.”
The warning echoes broader concerns about well-intentioned housing regulations that reduce supply and ultimately harm the renters at the bottom of the market. Kootenai County residents watching local budget pressures and housing affordability challenges in the region will recognize the tension between regulatory intent and real-world housing outcomes.
What Comes Next
The Spokane City Council has not yet taken a final vote on the cooling ordinance. Corker and other rental housing advocates are urging the council to preserve and build upon the portable cooling ordinance already in place rather than replace it with a mandate that could drive affordable rental units off the market.
For Kootenai County landlords and property rights advocates, the Spokane debate serves as a cautionary example of how housing regulations — even those framed as tenant protections — can produce unintended consequences when compliance costs fall on small operators serving the most vulnerable renters. Those interested in regional housing policy developments can follow ongoing Idaho coverage at Idaho News.