The bill (Substitute Senate Bill 6069) amends and adds provisions in the growth management and municipal code chapters to require counties, cities, and code cities planning under RCW 36.70A.040 to allow certain homeless and supportive housing types in specified urban growth area zones. It requires jurisdictions to permit transitional housing and permanent supportive housing in zones where residential dwelling units or hotels are allowed, and to permit indoor emergency shelters and indoor emergency housing in zones where hotels are allowed. Jurisdictions may not confine these uses to industrial zones, may not impose development or operating standards that are more restrictive than those applied to other lodging or residential development in the same zone (subject to objective residential regulations), and must apply the same development permit and environmental review processes as for other lodging or residential development. Where design review applies, only administrative design review may be required. The bill creates procedural requirements for sponsors or managing agencies of indoor emergency shelters and indoor emergency housing: between permit approval and issuance of a certificate of occupancy they must certify in writing that they notified residents within 500 feet, held no more than one community meeting, designated at least one emergency contact with a phone number, and provided documentation of operational policies and procedures for health, fire, safety, and occupancy; that certification constitutes full compliance and jurisdictions may not require additional or repeated certifications. The bill also exempts proposals in certain critical areas, natural hazards, and designated agricultural, forest, or mineral lands where residential development is generally prohibited, and it exempts facilities already in operation on the effective date from being declared unlawful under the act. The bill preempts conflicting local regulations, requires cities and code cities to adopt or amend ordinances and official controls to incorporate the new requirements (some sections set a June 30, 2026 deadline for cities; other sections require adoption within two years of the section’s effective date or by the next comprehensive plan update, whichever is earlier), and reenacts or amends multiple RCW sections (including RCW 36.70A, RCW 35.21.683, RCW 35A.21.430, and RCW 35A.21.440). It adds and clarifies definitions used in the chapter, including administrative design review, emergency housing and emergency shelter, permanent supportive housing, and “existing building” (defined for one section as having received a certificate of occupancy at least three years before an application to add units). The bill also restricts certain local limits on conversions of existing buildings (for example, allowing up to 50% more units within an existing building envelope in multifamily-permitting zones and limiting new parking, permitting, design, energy-code, and study requirements subject to specified exceptions and thresholds). Some parts of the extracted text are incomplete or cut off: certain amendments (for example to RCW 35A.21.430) and some definitions and referenced statutory changes are shown only in part, and the effective date of the act and full text of some reenacted or amended RCW provisions are not included in the provided extracts.

If enacted, counties and cities that plan under state law will have to allow transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, and indoor emergency shelters/housing in urban growth area zones where similar lodging or residential uses are allowed, and they cannot confine these uses only to industrial zones. Local officials must treat these projects with the same permit, environmental review, and largely the same development standards as other lodging or housing in the same zone (with typical objective residential rules still applying), use only administrative design review where design review is applied, and they may still deny projects in critical areas, natural hazard zones, or on resource lands. Sponsors or managers of indoor shelters must complete a short set of requirements between permit approval and occupancy—notify residents within 500 feet, hold no more than one community meeting, provide an emergency contact phone number, and submit operational policies—and those four items constitute full compliance. The people most affected are local governments (counties, cities, and code cities), shelter and supportive-housing providers, and building owners converting existing buildings. Cities and counties will need to revise ordinances and development controls by the specified deadlines or see the state requirements automatically take effect, increasing planning and administrative workload and reducing local discretion to limit siting, capacity, or impose extra conditions; code cities keep narrow powers to set reasonable occupancy/spacing rules but not to block meeting projected needs. Providers will face predictable but mandatory outreach and operational-documentation tasks that add modest upfront costs and responsibilities before occupancy; building owners gain relaxed limits on adding units (including up to 50% more units within an existing multifamily envelope and limits on new parking or design requirements) that can lower conversion barriers but still must meet life-safety and certain energy-code exceptions. Important details needed to fully predict impacts—such as precise definitions for some housing types, how projected need is calculated, and the section’s effective date—are not included in the extracted facts.