When a heat dome settled over the Pacific Northwest in 2021, many of the people who died weren't outside baking in the sun — they were inside their own homes.
That grim reality is now fueling a growing push in Washington state to treat air conditioning not as some fancy upgrade, but as a basic protection for tenants.
Heatmap reports that renters and housing advocates in Washington are pressing for a "right-to-cooling" after the 2021 heat dome exposed just how dangerous older rental housing can become during extreme heat. In many multifamily buildings, especially older ones, tenants had little recourse when landlords declined to install cooling systems or blocked residents from adding their own window units.
Washington lawmakers are now pushing to make cooling part of baseline habitability standards, marking a major shift in a region where older climate assumptions once made AC seem optional.
Extreme heat is becoming more common, and renters are often among the least protected. People living in older apartment buildings may have little control over retrofits, even as they face health risks, especially if they are living on low incomes.
Across the country, landlords have long been known to block renters from adopting practical, money-saving changes. Cooling restrictions follow the same pattern, with tenants often expected to endure rising costs and worsening conditions without much freedom to adapt their homes.
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The use of efficient heat pumps, including ductless mini-splits and heat-pump window units, can provide cooling in the summer and lower-cost heating in the winter, giving renters more year-round value than traditional AC.
Washington is moving toward stronger tenant protections that would require landlords to treat cooling as part of a livable home. Vivek Shandas, the founder of the Sustaining Urban Places Research Lab at Portland State University, told Heatmap: "The legal invention of cooling rights — that's part of what I'm really excited to be alive right now to see."
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