Yakima County holds HUD-required hearing on 2025 consolidated housing plan as staff flags funding shortfalls

The Yakima County Board of Commissioners held a HUD-required public hearing Tuesday to accept comment on the Yakima County Home Consortium’s 2025 consolidated plan, where county staff outlined housing supply and affordability gaps and warned of falling federal grant dollars.

Brian, home program manager, told the commissioners that a large share of renter households in Yakima County are cost-burdened and that meeting projected needs would require substantial, sustained subsidy spending. “We would need to provide the county or, you know, other organizations who need to spend approximately $100,000,000 each year over the net you know, until 2046 to be able to spend you know, to be able to to provide all the subsidies needed,” Brian said.

The presentation included data on housing production, cost burden and planning requirements. Brian said the county has recently added roughly 600 to 800 net housing units per year, noting available data are aggregated for the entire county and do not separate the city of Yakima from unincorporated areas. He said approximately 45 to 50 percent of renters in Yakima County are cost-burdened — defined in his presentation as spending a high share of income on housing — while homeowner cost burden becomes notable at roughly the mid-30 percent range of income.

Brian also outlined a new state planning requirement that he said directs jurisdictions to split future housing need projections by income category and to zone accordingly, with multifamily zoning needed to accommodate deeply affordable and permanent supportive housing. He described current local resources as limited and reported that the county’s HOME funds are “a little bit lower than usual.” Brian said he has seen a reduction in other funding lines as well and noted that a proposed federal budget would, if adopted, remove HOME and CDBG funding — a proposal he called preliminary.

Commissioner Lindy asked whether historical trends (for example, 2019 levels) could be shown; Brian responded, “that’s something we can trend. I’m happy to to trend that,” and said he would make a note to produce trend data at a future hearing. Commissioner Curtis did not ask further questions during the presentation.

Brian said two projects have been conditionally awarded county support — one with the Yakima Housing Authority and one with Catholic Charities Housing Services — but cautioned that, because of the timing of outside funding sources, the county likely will not see groundbreakings until the end of 2026. He said the consolidated-plan public hearing is part of HUD’s procedural requirements and invited written comments for the draft plan. The board left the hearing open for written submissions and for additional comments through “the 1,” and Brian and the clerk were listed as contacts to receive written input.

No members of the public spoke during the scheduled oral comment period. The county later moved into an executive session under RCW 42 31 10 to discuss litigation or legal risk; the board reconvened after roughly 30 minutes and reported no action or decisions were made in executive session.

Discussion vs. decision: the session was a public hearing and informational presentation, not a final adoption of the consolidated plan. The board took no formal action on the consolidated plan at Tuesday’s meeting; staff were directed only to prepare additional trend data when available and to accept written comments on the draft plan.

A follow-up public hearing is expected to focus on specific goals and priorities for the next five years, and county staff said they will present more detailed targets and allocations at that meeting.