At their most recent meeting, Bellevue City Council took a major step toward new affordable housing actions by voting to advance an updated Affordable Housing Strategy (AHS) for 2026-2032. This builds ambitiously on the successful 2017 Affordable Housing Strategy and years of critical work by City staff and council.

The Affordable Housing Strategy update outlines the city’s vision to produce and preserve over 5,700 affordable units between 0 and 80% area median income (AMI) over the next decade. This signals Bellevue’s strong emphasis on meeting the housing needs of its growing workforce and residents and a commitment to meet regional affordable housing goals by pairing strategy with local action. Between 2019 and 2044, 84.7% of housing growth in Bellevue is needed between 0-80% of area median income (King County Countywide Planning Policies).

The AHS is built on five core pillars with 25 related action areas: Affordable Housing, Housing Equity, Housing for Unique Needs, Housing Stability, and Housing Supply & Diversity. This acknowledges the many dimensions of the affordable housing crisis and the need to focus on a range of solutions to make meaningful and equitable progress at a time of increasing community need, especially at the lowest income levels. Among these action areas, the strategy includes accessible education, increased partnerships, and support for residents to stay stably housed.

In particular, the AHS update marks a positive evolution in the city’s approach to funding. The AHS explicitly identifies affordable housing revenue as a critical tool to advancing Bellevue’s goals. Regulatory reforms and programmatic change are essential but insufficient on their own to close the gap for Bellevue’s lowest-income households earning between 0 and 50% of AMI. Actions to reduce costs and timelines for production and preservation of affordable housing will then help this new revenue go further.

With a focus on diversity, innovation, and quality of life, the City of Bellevue has demonstrated again that it is committed to creating a community where people of all income levels can live, work, and thrive. At the end of the March 24th City Council meeting, Council affirmed the AHS update with limited changes from the original draft and directed staff to bring back the strategy as an ordinance on the consent calendar at a future meeting. We look forward to celebrating this final procedural action soon and getting started on this important work.