Street Roots • April 29-May 5, 2016
STATE OF CRISIS, from page 4
▼ Tancouver is the fifth largest eity in
Washington, but it feels more like a
V large, sleepy town. The housing crisis
came to Vancouver in late 2014 with a
ferocity no one expected.
Vancouver’s vacancy rate is below 2
percent. The city has one of the fastest
growing rental costs in the nation - between
2014 and 2015, rental costs increased by
15.6 percent. According to the city,
household income rose by an average of 3.1
percent in the last five years, but average
rental costs have increased by 38.3 percent.
There are approximately 80,000
households in Vancouver, according to city
figures. A little over 16,000 households
spend more than 30 percent of their income
on housing costs. Approximately 7,100
households are rent-burdened, spending
more than 50 percent of their income on
housing costs.
The demand for subsidized and Section, 8
housing is so high the Vancouver Housing
Authority no longer employs a wait list.
Instead, the authority now gives any open
units to the most vulnerable and at-risk.
Homelessness has also markedly
increased by at least 11 percent - there are
now 690 homeless people living in Clark
County, according to preliminary numbers
from Vancouver’s Council for the Homeless.
The number mirrors research published in
the Journal of Urban Affairs, in December
2013, which found that a $100 increase in
monthly rent corresponds to a 15 percent
increase in urban homelessness and a 39
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$33,750 for an individual.
housing construction in Seattle, making it an
The Council for the Homeless is the
ambitious goal. But the HALA Agreement
nonprofit organization spearheading the levy also includes regulations on development
campaign. Silver, the organization’s
and creating different revenue streams that
executive director, expects the levy to be
will allow for increased construction.
approved.
The agreement requires mandatory
“The housing crisis has affected so many
inclusionary housing throughout Seattle and
people that housing is one of the major
requires developers to reserve 5 to 7
issues in our community,” he said.
percent of units in every new multifamily
Silver said the levy, if passed, could
building, which will be affordable to people
leverage an additional $200 million in state
who earn up to 60 percent of King County’s
and federal dollars. “What we’re asking from
median family income (MFI), which is
the voters is for this
$37,680 for an
very small investment
individual and $53,760
on the front end, we
for a family of four.
Bend's city council has taken
can get this huge
The agreement also
aggressive steps to build more created a commercial
$200 million
investment in
housing. The council passed
linkage fee, which
affordable housing.
charges between $5
a construction excise tax that
When they hear that, generates approximately $ 1
and $14 per square
when the housing
foot of any new
million a year. Th® city encour**
crisis is affecting all of
commercial
our community, it will ages building more densely,
development. The fee
■building smaller, cottage-style will be phased in over
be an easy vote,” he
said.
housing communities and mak three years and will
“It’s the right time ing it easier for homeowners to fund affordable
to do this. The need
build accessory dwelling units, housing for severely
is in our community
low-income families
or ADUs.
and is only going to
and individuals.
get worse without
The HALA
action.”
Agreement, Anderson
said, “puts (Seattle) way ahead of every city
on the West Coast.”
istorically, Seattle has been the only
Kooistra, of the Housing Development
city on the West Coast to have a
Consortium and a member of the HALA .
dedicated stream of revenue for
committee, said the agreement is a victory.
affordable housing. Since 1981, Seattle’s “The entrenched embattlement between
mandatory versus voluntary (regulatory)
Housing Levy has been approved five times
stuff has been going on for 20 years,” he
by voters in large margins. The levy has
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percent increase in rural areas.
generated $400 million since its existence,
“There is a correlation,” Kooistra said,
noting an average rent increase of $115 a
month in Seattle’s King County.
Vancouver has also experienced mass
evictions. In late 2014, the landlord of the
Courtyard Village Apartments, a
16-apartment complex, gave a 20-day
no-cause eviction notice to everyone who
lived in the complex in order to renovate.
In response, the Vancouver City Council
passed ordinances in September 2015 to
require a 60-day notice for no-cause
evictions, instead of 20 days; a 60-day notice
for rent increases of 10 percent or more,
instead of 20 days; and an ordinance
prohibiting landlords from discriminating
against prospective tenants because of the
source of their income, such as Section 8
vouchers.
On April 11, the City Council declared an
affordable housing emergency, the first step
to putting a property tax measure on the
ballot.
In early May, the council is expected to
decide the details of how much to tax and
for how many years. The maximum amount
the city could pursue would tax 50 cents per
$1,000 of assessed property value, but it is
more likely that the council will propose a
tax of 36 cents per $1,000 of assessed value
— a tax of approximately $90 for a home
worth $250,000, the median home value in
Vancouver.
If passed, the levy would raise
approximately $6 million dollars each year
for seven years, a total of about $40 million
dollars, and pay for building new affordable
housing, preserving existing housing, and
homeless prevention services. The levy’s
funds would help people who earn 50
percent of median family income, or about
and the levy has leveraged other state and
federal dollars to build over 12,500
apartments affordable to formerly homeless
individuals and families, seniors and workers
who make low and moderate wages. The
levy’s funds have also provided home
ownership assistance to over 800 first-time
home owners and prevented homelessness
or displacement of more than 6,500 low-
income households by providing emergency
rental assistance.
Despite those efforts, more than
45,000 households in Seattle are “rent-
burdened,” meaning households spend more
than half their incomes on housing,
according to the city, and more than 2,800
Seattle citizens are homeless.
The city is taking even more aggressive
steps to build and preserve affordable
housing. In late 2014, Seattle Mayor Ed
Murray convened the Housing Affordability
and Livability (HALA) Committee, which
was charged with developing an agenda for
increasing affordability in Seattle.
In 2015, the group released its
recommendations, which the Seattle City
Council accepted in September 2015.
Recommendations include a brokered
agreement between the city, housing
advocates, real estate and development
industries that has become known as the
“HALA Agreement.”
The HALA Agreement calls for building
50,000 new homes in Seattle in the next 10
years; 30,000 of those units will be market
rate, and the other 20,000 units will be
affordable to people who make 30 percent of
the median area income, or $18,850 for an
individual and $26,900 for a family of four.
Building 50,000 homes within 10 years
will require tripling the historical amount of
said. “The battle lines were already drawn
when we started.”
He went on to say that the 20,000 units
of affordable housing is still “significantly
short of what we really need. It is,
conversely, three times what we have ever
done. Is it enough? No. But it will certainly
help.”
Seattle’s Housing Levy is up for renewal
this year, and the city is proposing that
voters double the levy, another
recommendation of the HALA committee.
The doubled levy would generate $290
million in seven years by taxing 26 cents per
$1,000 of assessed value, of about $120 for
an owner of a $480,000 home (the median
home value in Seattle).
The Housing Development Consortium is
leading the campaign to renew the levy, and
«Kooistra thinks the levy will easily pass and
be doubled.
“The levy,” he said, “does ask people to
contribute, but it is a way for people to say
they’re all doing something for families
below 30 percent of MFI.”
Other Washington cities are following in
Seattle’s footsteps. In 2012, 56 percent of
Bellingham voters approved a 7-year levy,
the Bellingham Home Fund, that taxes 35
cents per $1,000 of assessed value, which
has created 500 units of affordable housing.
Everett, Tacoma, Tumwater and Lacey,
cities in the Seattle metropolitan area and
along the 1-5 corridor, are planning to
introduce ballot measures to create funding
for affordable housing in time for the
November 2016 ballot.
In late January, over 300 people attended
a housing summit hosted by Skagit County’s
public health department. It was the first
time that such a meeting had been
organized in Skagit County, a rural,
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northern Washington county between
Bellingham and Seattle. The vacancy rate is
less than 2 percent and there is little to no
vacancy in subsidized or non-profit owned
affordable housing. Homelessness is
increasing.
Speakers presented various options for
raising money to build more affordable
housing, including placing a property tax
measure on the November 2016 ballot.
Some members of the audience, which
included city and county elected officials,
recommended hiring a political consultant
firm, Progressive Strategies Northwest, to
analyze the feasibility of placing the tax
measure on the ballot The consultant firm,
based in Seattle, would charge $2,000 to
conduct the study.
When attendees heard the number, they
reached for their wallets. More than a dozen
people pulled out $10s, $20s and other
dollar amounts to pay for the study that
night.
Cities in California are also beginning to
act. Los Angeles County government
unanimously voted to commit $300 million
to build affordable housing over the next five
years. San Jose City Council created a
“housing impact fee fund” in 2014 that
charges $17 per square foot on new market
rate developments.
The voters of San Francisco - a city
infamous for astronomically high housing
prices, gentrification and displacement -
passed a bond measure, by a 74 percent
margin, that authorizes the city to issue up
to $310 million in bonds to fund affordable
housing programs.
“Cities and counties are getting serious
about what they need to do,” Anderson said.
regon has long been a state that is
wary of tax increases. In 1990, voters
passed Measures 5 and 50, which
limit the amount properties can be taxed to
a maximum of 10 percent per $1,000 of
assessed value. Because of that, levies, in
particular, can be hindered by
“compression,” which shrinks the amount a
levy can generate if there are too many
levies that generate revenue through
property taxes.
But that may change in Multnomah
County. “For the first time, we have the
attention and support of the voters,” Jes
Larson, the director of the Welcome Home
Coalition, said.
Larson said the coalition is beginning to
organize a campaign for an initiative the
coalition hopes will be on the November
2016 ballot, which will ask voters to fund
general obligations bonds for affordable
housing in Multnomah County.
Last year, the average rent in Multnomah
County increased by an average of $104 a
month.
Larson said that while details behind the
initiative and campaign are still being
determined, the initiative will go to
Multnomah County voters and will target
creating affordable housing for people who
make between zero and 30 percent of
median family income.
“We know that the greatest need for
affordable housing is for community
members who live on fixed incomes and
people who are raising families on very low
incomes,” Larson said. “The need is
everywhere. We would do the state of
Oregon if we could pass it.”
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