Free and Fast Transit
Fund transit. Don’t price people out.
When transit fares rise, fewer people can get where they need to go, whether that's to work, school, healthcare, or around the community.
Higher costs mean more cars on the road, more pollution in our air, and less access for riders who depend on public transportation the most.
Across the country, cities that chose fare-free transit saw stronger ridership, healthier communities, and better access to opportunity.
Bellingham can take a better path by investing in frequent, reliable GO Line service and piloting fare-free transit through local funding, instead of pricing people out.
Add your name to support fare-free transit and GO Line investment.
Raising Wages
1 + 1 = progress toward living wages.
In 2023, CFW sponsored Initiative 23-01 to increase the city minimum wage. Bellingham voters passed it by a 17-point margin, increasing our local minimum wage by $2.
The current Bellingham minimum wage is $19.13 , and is set to permanently stay $2 above the Washington State minimum wage, even as the state’s minimum wage rises.
Read the Minimum Wage Chapter here and check out the City’s FAQ.
Worried you are not receiving the wages you are owed? Email us at info[at]communityfirstwhatcom.org for referrals to legal resources.
When workers earning the minimum wage fall behind, our community falls behind. Raising the wage is helping alleviate poverty and putting spending power back into the hands of workers (and the local businesses they support!)
Economic Eviction Relocation Assistance
Putting people over profits.
In 2023, we sponsored Bellingham Initiative 23-02, to protect renters from extreme rent hikes. Voters passed it by a 23-point margin.
If a tenant’s rent is increased by 8 percent or more in a single year and the tenant has to move due the increase, they are eligible for relocation assistance.
Read the Relocation Assistance Chapter here and email us at info[at]communityfirstwhatcom.org for referrals to legal resources.
Trashing Junk Fees
Limiting unfair and excessive fees.
In 2024, Community First Whatcom helped spearhead coalition to tackle junk fees in local residential rentals and manufactured home communities.
In summer of 2025, the Bellingham City Council passing an ordinance banning junk fees in rentals, effective August 2025.
In 2025 we ran Ferndale City Initiative 25-01, to extend junk fee protections to the north. In November, Ferndale’s voters overwhelmingly approved the measure by a margin of 69-31!
Read a Cascadia Daily Op-Ed and the comment letter from the Consumer Bureau of the Federal Trade Commission on why this matters.
Tenants Rights to Organize
Protecting tenants’ rights to speech, assembly, and association.
In 2025, we ran Bellingham Initiative 25-03 to protect tenant free speech. Voters passed it by almost 50 points!
Landlords cannot interfere with tenants organizing or speaking out
Landlords cannot require non-disclosure agreements or force tenants to waive class action rights
Retaliation for exercising tenant rights is prohibited — and presumed if it occurs within 210 days
The City must create a tenant rights poster, and property managers are required to provide it to tenants by:
Posting it clearly in shared common areas, or
Providing it digitally or by mail when posting isn’t feasible
Bellingham tenants have already used these rights to organize, and have won judgments against retaliatory landlords!