affordable housing
Crime, taxes and artificial intelligence on tap as WA lawmakers prep for session
Rising costs of transportation projects. Using artificial intelligence in Washington classrooms. Preserving affordable housing. Spending proceeds from the state’s new capital gains tax and recent cap-and-trade auctions. Those are a few topics state lawmakers will delve into when they return to Olympia for committee days, an annual fete in which they get schooled on issues […]
Jayapal calls for action on ‘out of control’ affordable housing crisis
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Washington state Democrat, joined about 100 tenant advocates at a press event outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to demand action on the housing crisis. Jayapal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to bolster tenant protections and rent regulations. The People’s […]
Is a rent-to-own housing program working? WA auditor looks for answers
A state-managed program two lawmakers say has failed to help hundreds of families become homeowners as promised is about to get more scrutiny. State Auditor Pat McCarthy said Thursday she ordered a performance audit of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission’s oversight of a program that is designed to enable eligible low-income renters to own […]
Older adults want to ‘age in place,’ but their options are limited in most states
Read more Stateline coverage of how communities across the country are trying to create more affordable housing. As older adults begin to outnumber young people in the United States in the coming decade, advocacy groups are challenging states to shift away from single-family zoning in favor of housing solutions that allow older adults to “age […]
Mobile home residents are seizing the opportunity to buy their parks
Mobile home parks are coming up for sale and there are signs that a new law giving residents a chance to buy them is working. Since mid-July, 11 properties have gone on the market in Washington and residents of seven are using tools from the three-month-old law to pursue ownership, the state House Housing Committee […]
How housing and homelessness are shaping local elections across Washington
An expensive mayoral race in Spokane where candidates are fighting over vastly different approaches to solving homelessness. A proposed Seattle levy that could pay for more affordable housing across the city. Ballot initiatives in Tacoma and Bellingham that could protect tenants from steep rent increases and evictions. Housing shortfalls and homelessness hang heavy over this […]
A historic housing construction boom may finally moderate rent hikes
An unprecedented surge in the nationwide construction of new housing — mostly apartments — may finally be making a dent in fast-rising rents that have been making life harder for tenants. More than 1.65 million housing units were under construction last year, the highest annual number since federal record-keeping started in 1969. This year, the […]
How a Montana city with an affordable housing crunch added hundreds of new homes
This article was first published by the Daily Montanan. People who used to be homeless are moving into the Villagio. “We’ve had quite a few who had been living in their cars,” said Mary Melton, with the Missoula Housing Authority. Tenants fleeing rental increases of $500 to $700 a month are finding homes in the […]
How a Washington agency is trying to get housing built on public land
A half-acre concrete lot in Spokane. A 655-acre expanse of cropland in Pasco. Sixty acres off the side of Interstate 90 in Benton County. Washington’s Department of Natural Resources owns more than 7,000 acres of “transition land” scattered across the state. Most of this property is surrounded by development, leaving it unsuitable for timber sales […]
Building more homes is Oregon governor’s top priority for 2024 legislative session
This article was first published by the Oregon Capital Chronicle. After spending hundreds of millions in the past year to get people off the streets and into shelters, Gov. Tina Kotek and the Oregon Legislature say they’re focused on addressing the state’s underlying housing crisis. Kotek and the co-chairs of her Housing Production Advisory Council […]
Washington’s reworked heat pump rules get a cool reception from critics
Washington regulators on Friday veered away from requiring builders to install electric heat pumps rather than natural gas furnaces in new homes, apartments and commercial buildings they construct. Instead, in an expected move, the Washington State Building Code Council settled on an overhaul of energy regulations aimed at beefing up incentives for choosing heat pumps […]
Data shows drop in multifamily home construction in Washington
Building permits for apartments and other multifamily housing in Washington were down in the second quarter of the year while permits for single-family homes continued to rise. Numbers the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council released Tuesday showed housing construction overall in the last four years slowed, but mostly because of a 7,000-unit drop during […]