Dear neighbors,
Today’s housing crisis affects all of us, whether we own or rent. It’s hard for renters to find an affordable home to buy. Young people entering the workforce see home ownership as an impossible dream while empty nesters looking to downsize are having trouble finding the right place at the right price.
High housing costs also worsen the homeless crisis, which we can’t solve without bringing costs down and building more homes. To meet demand, we need to roughly double the number of homes being built today.
That’s why a massive, complex problem like housing doesn’t have a simple, magical solution. It will take real reforms, year after year, to turn things around and double the number of homes produced.
The good news is we’ve started passing major reforms including middle housing, accessory dwelling units (mother-in-law housing), and lot splitting.
These reforms won’t make headlines or big TV news stories, but they add up, and we need to keep pushing. My new law got mentioned in The Washington Observer as the Senate considered another idea to make homes more affordable:
Aficionados in the housing space gave their two cents worth to the Senate Housing Committee last week about how to turn Washington into a home-building factory. We’re talking about modular homes or the factory-made homes built in pieces and then jigsawed together at their final destination. Most today look indistinguishable from the single-family home that might sit next door. Twentieth-century versions of these homes were popular in your parents or grandparents’ day until local governments largely zoned them out. They’re still legal in Washington and a bill this year from Rep. Davina Duerr, D-Bothell, nixed the strict parking minimums that often made them infeasible to build.
Help for seniors in the Woodcrest neighborhood
Keep in touch
I’d love to hear your thoughts and stories about the housing crisis here in Washington state.
If you share a story, I can use it – first name only – to advocate for reform. Numbers matter, but until you can show how a problem truly hurts people, they’re just numbers.
I know exactly how tough it is out there with rent, mortgages, and trying to sell your home while looking for another that’s in your budget.
I’m working with lawmakers from both parties and every corner of the state to find common-sense solutions. If you have an idea for reform, please share that with me!
