Housing Developments: It’s Bond, County Bond

June 26, 2018 in Uncategorized

$100 Million for Affordable Housing…
Last Wednesday, in a press release, the co-chairs of One Table announced the next steps their respective municipalities would take to combat homelessness in the region. King County Executive, Dow Constantine, announced a plan to bond against future hotel-motel tax revenues. This proposal would create $100 million that could be used to build affordable housing, specifically focused on 30-60 percent AMI. “We must come together to do even more to find creative new solutions and provide resources to help those currently living on the streets and in tents attain stable and secure housing, and the opportunity for a fulfilling life.”-King County Executive Dow Constantine

Other Developments...

  • Seattle Mayor Durkan’s legislation to increase bridge housing and shelter beds.  The Seattle City Council approved Mayor Durkan’s plan to increase shelter beds by 500.  The funds for the new beds will come from the sale of city-owned land in South Lake Union.
  • King County Council committee will meet on Veterans, Seniors, and Human Services Levy. After holding a special meeting last week at the Pike Place Senior Center to hear from the public, the Health, Housing and Human Services Committee is holding a special meeting to begin its consideration of the proposed plan to distribute funds from the voter-approved Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy. (Tuesday, June 26 at 3:30 p.m.)
  • The 2018 Prosperity Now Scorecard Is Out, with New Local Data | TheProsperity Now Scorecardis a comprehensive resource for data on household financial health and policy recommendations to help put everyone in our country on a path to prosperity. The scorecard ranks Seattle seventh in its rankings of cities of over 300,000 along with other local metrics.
  • Kent and Renton win Smart Communities Awards. Kent won the Smart Choices Award for their comprehensive plan and implementation for Meeker Street. Renton won the Smart Projects Award for the new Sartori Elementary School in a designated Regional Growth Center.
  • Downtown Bellevue second fastest growing neighborhood in the region. Bellevue has grownby 13% from 2010-2017. This growth is made possible by zoning that allows for multifamily housing along with the Bellevue City Council’s plan to continue to increase density. South Lake Union is the fastest growing neighborhood.
  • Enterprise is creating a mapping tool to help stakeholders search for public and tax-exempt sites. Enterprise, along with Futurewise, the King County Assessor, and funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is creating a Home & Hope mapping tool in order to help facilitate development of more affordable housing.
  • Olympia begins  conversations on rezoning in order to increase capacity as the region grows. Recommendations to loosen regulations and reduce fees on middle housing types begin to chip away at the 75% of Olympia zoned for single-family housing. It is estimated that these changes would result in around 950 housing units making the region more affordable with a higher density capacity.
  • Region’s growth in transit boarding leads the nation. The central Puget Sound region experienced the highest total increase in transit boardings of any region in the country in 2017 and ranked second for rate of change. Since 2010, the 19% increase in transit boardings in the region has exceeded any other similarly sized region in the county.