Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Housing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Housing advocates urge larger investments; Housing Trust Fund among top asks
Summary
Advocates at the Capital Budget Committee public hearing praised the governor’s large housing proposal but called for larger, sustained investments in the Housing Trust Fund and more dollars targeted to affordable homeownership.
Multiple housing advocates told the House Capital Budget Committee that Gov. Inslee’s capital budget includes major housing investments but urged lawmakers to increase and sustain funding, and to target a share of Housing Trust Fund dollars to affordable homeownership.
Ryan Donahue, chief advocacy officer for Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King-Kittitas, said his organization opposed what he described as “underinvestment in homeownership” in the governor’s draft. Donahue said the proposal’s $50,000,000 in competitively awarded dollars for homeownership represents a retreat from the previous biennium and urged the committee to “allocate 20% of the housing trust fund budget to affordable homeownership as the Department of Commerce originally called for.”
Michelle Thomas, executive director of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, called the governor’s proposed investment—more than $600,000,000 across housing programs in the package—“a bold and much needed step” but asked the legislature to adopt the proposal and maintain funding for manufactured housing preservation and housing infrastructure to support utility connections and impact fee mitigation. Jesse Simpson of the Housing Development Consortium said the Housing Trust Fund remains “routinely oversubscribed by a 3-to-1 ratio” and that capital investments must be paired with ongoing revenue for operations.
Other witnesses reiterated local projects and homeownership priorities. Kathleen Hossfeld of Homestead Community Land Trust described a proposed Skyway homeownership and green-space project that would create up to 57 sustainably built homes and expressed gratitude for recent state support, while organizations such as South Sound Housing Affordability Partners and local housing developers asked the committee to preserve or increase the housing allocations.
Ending: Advocates asked the committee to preserve and expand the Housing Trust Fund and related infrastructure and manufactured-housing preservation dollars as committee budget work proceeds.
