Bateman: Working together to solve our housing crisis
OLYMPIA—The middle housing legislation (House Bill 1110) proposed by Rep. Jessica Bateman (D-Olympia) now has the support of the Association of Washington Cities.
“Cities of all sizes in every part of Washington feel deeply that we need to increase housing supply and affordability,” said Carl Schroeder, Deputy Director of Government Relations at the Association of Washington Cities. “It’s important to address the housing needs of our residents, particularly those making lower incomes. As our state’s housing affordability crisis only grows, cities are looking at partnerships to come up with creative solutions to a very complicated and nuanced problem. We are working hard to make sure that proposals are workable in our very diverse cities. With that, cities around the state are reaching to the middle to work on and eventually support many creative policy changes such as this middle housing bill — because our housing challenge requires an all-hands-on-deck approach.”
The middle housing bill passed the House with bipartisan support 75-21 and has passed two Senate policy committees. It awaits a final vote on the Senate floor.
“It’s clear we need to take action to address the housing crisis, which is hurting all of our families and communities,” Bateman said. I’ve worked with the Association of Washington Cities since last interim and throughout this session to get a bill that can work for the majority of cities. I appreciate their collaboration and am happy to have their full support for this reform.”
“Local governments are ready and willing,” Schroeder said, “to build on our longstanding partnership with the state to work together and create a variety of solutions that will benefit all our shared residents, including our most vulnerable. In addition to this proposal and some key regulatory reforms that are advancing this session, the next step is to ensure we can marry these policy changes with the needed dedicated resources to increase affordable housing production.”