Here’s what experts say new board must do to boost affordable housing in Pierce County
Housing experts say land and funding need to be addressed by a new affordable housing board of elected officials in Pierce County.
The group of 14 jurisdictions, including elected officials from Pierce County and the City of Tacoma, held its first board meeting on Oct. 18, forming the South Sound Housing Affordability Partners (SSHAP).
In the past decade, Pierce County median home sales prices have increased 108 percent, and rental rates have increased 78 percent, outpacing the 10 percent increases in median household income, according to county documents.
The News Tribune spoke with four Washington housing experts who say the new board should focus on providing discounted land to developers, increasing funding through taxes and federal grants and retaining smaller landlords.
“If they’re genuine about their need or desire to solve the problem, this is an organization that can make some good strides,” said Spencer Anderson, Washington Affordable Housing Association president. “If they’re not all really willing to listen and put up challenging solutions, it’s not gonna to work. Everyone’s gonna have to go outside of their comfort zone.”
The genesis of the board
Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier, Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards and former County Council member Connie Ladenburg began discussing SSHAP in 2018 to address housing for residents of all income levels. The discussion became a Mayor’s Roundtable, where meetings focused on current needs. In 2020, a consultant worked with the group to create a coalition of local elected officials on the structure, budget and work plan of SSHAP.
City councils in Auburn, Edgewood, Fife, Fircrest, Gig Harbor, Lakewood, Milton, Puyallup, Steilacoom, Sumner, Tacoma, and University Place, Pierce County Council, and the Puyallup Tribe of Indians had to approve the intergovernmental agreement. Elected officials from each jurisdiction sit on the board.
Every jurisdiction has contributed to the board’s budget based on its population, ranging from $2,000 to $41,000. The board has collected $106,150 for its first six months of operations, almost all of which will be spent on a board manager’s salary. The manager will provide administrative and policy support, according to the board’s agreement and budget.
In the board’s first meeting last month, members decided Pierce County would provide additional staffing and administrative needs for the board.
Dammeier and Woodards told The News Tribune in October the three main goals of the board: lobby for more action in Olympia, push for more state funding for affordable housing and move forward at least three housing projects across the county.
“It’s not necessarily about getting everyone to agree, but we are working together to apply for funding for the state,” Woodards said. “We should be able to stand strong as a region. If there isn’t affordable housing in Tacoma, we know it affects everyone else.”
In order to reach their goals of more housing, experts say there is a lot to be done.
Setting aside land is crucial
Ali Modarres is the University of Washington Tacoma’s dean of the School of Urban Studies. Modarres focuses his research on Pierce County and Tacoma. He has consulted with the board a few times on the county’s development.
He likes the regional approach rather than a Tacoma-focused solution.
“If we proceed with one city being successful, there will be segregated income categories of housing, and this is going to become an uneven and inequitable landscape,” Modarres told The News Tribune.
His advice for board members? Provide public land for affordable housing and increase affordable housing funding.
He wants the board consider housing as a government job, rather than simply rezoning areas and providing tax breaks to private developers.
“How does this board actually create avenues and processes for creating units through policies, as opposed to policies that just leave it out there for somebody else to do?” Modarres asked.
Some of the issues surrounding affordable housing are beyond the scope of legislation. There have been national shortages of construction labor and timber.
Modarres recommends the board focus on issues it can change, like permitting wait times, encouraging jurisdictions to add funding for affordable housing and offering public land exclusively for affordable housing.
Land is one of the most scarce resources for affordable housing, Modarres said.
“Supplying the land itself as an incentive for affordable housing would be attractive, especially in the market where land is expensive — seeing public land as a public good,” he said. “Let’s try it, because parts of the rest of the country have tried and been successful.”
California has passed legislation, the Surplus Land Act, which requires public entities to prioritize affordable housing development bids. Any public agency selling land is required to notify housing sponsors within the Department of Housing and Community Development.
In Tacoma, land banking has been an issue. Some property owners, including Pierce County, have held onto land with vacant, sometimes derelict, buildings.
“The challenge is that the parcels are under the custody of various departments that view them as assets and are not necessarily willing to relinquish them to affordable housing development,” according to Modarres’ University of Washington Tacoma’s 2020 report on affordable housing policies across Pierce County.
Finding more money also key
The efficacy of the board depends on those invited to the conversation, said Anderson who heads the Washington Affordable Housing Association. He believes the board should talk with developers, property managers and residents to better understand the housing market.
Many Pierce County jurisdictions have passed legislation that allows them to retain some sales tax proceeds to use for affordable housing. Anderson wants more cities to pass an affordable housing tax, as Tacoma has done.
In March, Tacoma City Council approved a one-tenth of 1 percent sales tax increase to fund affordable housing projects. The tax adds a dime to every $100 purchase, excluding groceries. Experts say such funding streams would ensure more steady financial support for affordable housing.
“I don’t think anyone is against affordable housing,” Anderson said. “The issue is how much are you willing to pay to make it happen?”
Kevin Weishaar is a vice president at Mercy Housing Management Group, a national nonprofit organization that looks to provide affordable, low-income housing. His group built the 60-unit senior housing development between Eighth Street and Ninth Street along Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Tacoma’s Hilltop.
“The demand is insane. As many buildings that we can build, we fill them immediately with low-income seniors and their families or whatever specialized population,” Weishaar said.
He wants the board to look at streamlining permitting and providing land at discounted rates for affordable housing.
“Any little random things in the universe can make it fall apart, which is why it’s so difficult,” Weishaar said.
Supporting small landlords
Brett Waller is the policy director at Washington Multi-Family Housing Association, which lobbies for rental housing companies and providers in Olympia. Waller said he is excited about the promise of the board but thinks it has an uphill battle facing the cost of construction and cost of land — the two big obstacles to affordable housing.
One of the biggest things he thinks the board could do is to encourage “mom and pop” landlords to keep renting. His organization says that more than half of the Seattle rental market is owned by individual investors, who own two units on average.
With single-family home prices soaring and increased tenant protections, landlords with one or two homes are choosing to sell their more affordable rental properties, Waller said.
Anderson and Modarres believe the board should look at all housing, including duplexes and triplexes, rather than single-family homes. Tacoma is expected to bring forward a proposal in its Home in Tacoma zoning that would diversity housing to include more than just single-family homes.
“I think it would be a way to sort of increase naturally affordable housing,” Anderson said.
While none of the housing experts expect SSHAP to solve Pierce County’s affordable housing crisis, they do want the board to alleviate the need.
They find Woodards’ and Dammeiers’ goals for the first year acceptable.
“I like to see the baby steps. I don’t mind that. But soon, this thing needs to run faster,” Modarres said. “My hope is that they do enough for them to get comfortable with the process and how it works, then I’d like to see a scaling up.”
This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
