Olympia – The Washington State Senate unanimously passed legislation that aims to build more affordable workforce housing at a faster rate. Sponsored by Rep. Mari Leavitt, D-University Place, House Bill 1892 creates a workforce housing accelerator program. This program will be administered by the Washington Housing Finance Commission and will create a loan program to speed up affordable workforce housing across Washington.
“Workers and potential hires are suffering due to our affordable housing crisis,” said Rep. Leavitt. “Long commutes, lack of affordable housing and the constant threat of homelessness lower worker productivity and happiness. This bill is good for workers and businesses in Washington.”
Nearly half of Washington renters spend over 30 percent of their income on housing, and over 20 percent must allocate over half of their income to keep a roof over their heads. A major contributor to this problem is the state’s housing deficit. It is estimated that Washington is short by as many as 250,000 housing units and will need to build another million units in the next 20 years to meet demand. House Bill 1892 aims to help speed up this new construction.
House Bill 1892 now heads to the governor’s desk for approval.