No response as of October 14 - we will post late responses within one business day of receiving them.

No response as of October 14 - we will post late responses within one business day of receiving them.

Housing affordability is a key component of community health. People who own their homes are more involved in their local community organizations, maintain their property, and interact with their neighbors. In recent years, skyrocketing housing prices created an ownership problem in Whatcom County. Housing prices rose due to a nationwide speculative bubble and easy credit, combined with a local boom as the rest of the world discovered our northwest paradise. At this time, it is very difficult for local wage earners to purchase a home, as wages did not keep pace with housing prices.

I do not believe we have a supply issue. The inventory in Whatcom County has tripled in the last year, and housing prices have still risen. I believe we need market-based incentives to affordable housing. No matter how many 5,000 square foot view homes we build on King Mountain, they will never be "affordable." We need smaller houses on smaller lots. We should award density bonuses to developers who build smaller houses.

No response as of October 14 - we will post late responses within one business day of receiving them.

The causes of housing unaffordability are complex but they are partly caused by the rapid increase in housing costs with incomes that aren't keeping up. Another main cause is mental and physical illness that prevents individuals from being able to work and even to live in certain settings. This is compounded by our location on the border. Persons with little money and sometimes illnesses are turned away at the border and don't have the finances to go anywhere so they end up out on the streets. The consequences are increased stress, illness, and crime to those victims who don't have a roof over their heads and to the rest of the community.

Our challenges are the result of some very positive changes. We have a strong local economy, we're a desirable place to live and so people are choosing to move here. Our community has benefited from attracting active retirees, small business owners and cyber-commuters. This does increase the demand for housing. It's also more profitable to build high-end homes than it is to build affordable housing and our current development code and standards make it difficult or, in some cases impossible, to build affordable housing.

We need some kind of flexible zoning that, at a minimum, rewards developers and builders for building affordable housing and we need to create a local housing trust fund that can target otherwise unmet income brackets in need of affordable housing. I will continue to support a community land trust that provides perpetual affordable housing and I will be sure to seek out and make use of community block grants.

In the past 5 years, the average home price in Bellingham has increased 65% and as of mid-2007 now stands at nearly $300,000. At the same time, real wages have fallen in Bellingham by about five percent. Trailer parks, of which Bellingham has a good number, are one of the last forms of affordable purchased housing for low-income and elderly residents. As land values soar, the large tracts of land under trailer parks become prime candidates for lucrative redevelopment, which can displace lots of folks with modest means. While buying into the housing market is one significant challenge for our community, staying in housing is another. As property values increase rapidly, the uniform property tax rates applied to that increasing value put low-income and many seniors at risk of not being able to afford the homes they've been in for years. Renting is another challenge: according to the "Out of Reach" national update put out by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, renters in Bellingham need to make at least $14.00/hour to avoid having the average fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment exceed the recommended 30% of income for housing threshold. In addition, there are other factors at play for specific population segments. For example, families with three or more children often compete with higher education students for rental homes that are large enough to meet their needs. Homelessness is on the rise, and getting out of homelessness is daunting. According to the January 2007 annual "Point-in-Time" count of the homeless, 1,298 persons met the definition in Whatcom County, and 42% of those persons were children under age 18. The 'Housing First' approach is promising, but needs consistent support among elected officials and staff. I am aware of the critical importance of the affordable housing issue, and will be a strong, consistent advocate for housing issues as mayor.

Market demand for housing and vacant land has outpaced the rate of growth of wages to pay for these unfairly inflated housing prices. Many households, as a result, put an unsustainable amount of their income into housing costs. Other essential necessities such as food and healthcare cannot be addressed individually and then become a community-wide financial and social burden to provide various safety nets. Government, with public support, has many tools available to better assist in creating affordable housing. We just need the political will to use these tools.

Housing affordability is impacted by many things: some include

• Growth - places demand on housing and drives up the prices
• Loss of business and the associated higher wage jobs - impacts affordability
• Not enough livable wage jobs - results in inability to afford rent and housing
• Lack of recruitment and retention of light industry, high tech and business to provide incomes
• Increased cost of healthcare, childcare, basic food - impact affordability

This is a two-fold (at least) problem. Affordability starts with the "ability to afford". All the challenges of medical expenses, low paying jobs that are often on off hours requiring the burden of extended child care expenses set a dim prospect for low and lower average income housing choices.

Housing costs in Bellingham have risen sharply even in the wake of a national declining market. We are not apt to see our property values go down due to our popularity.

We, as City Council, must advocate for land use decisions that award some zoning incentives to developers that include affordable units in their projects.

The lack of affordable housing can be traced back to a number of causal sources. Supply and demand, construction costs, coupled with a lack of higher wage jobs make affordable housing a great challenge.

Growth and increased pressure for land and an expanding economy has driven up home prices in all sectors. Older homes and mobile homes, typical sources of affordable housing, are drying up. No new mobile home parks are being built. In fill lots are becoming more scarce. Property valuations are rising faster than incomes to support them. Numbers of good paying jobs are not increasing so more people find themselves unable to finance a home and there are fewer fixer uppers available to them. I expect the current task force to recommend a variety of ways government can help. Pass zoning laws that keep mobile home parks from being converted to higher return development. Rewriting zoning to keep up with the intent of the GMA to allow more infilling in every part of Bellingham. Locate receiving zones for the transfer in of development rights (TDR) from Lake Whatcom watershed. I expect a series of methods for GAP financing to bridge the gap between high property costs and the monies needed to qualify for a mortgage or construction loan.

Multiple causes contribute to the lack of affordable housing in Bellingham. Many were identified when I directed Bellingham's Affordable Housing Report in 1989: lack of living wage jobs, higher land cost, increased regulatory costs, state and federal funds beyond the ability of local housing programs to compete, construction costs, permitting delays and higher impact fees. Many of these conditions have worsened over the past eight years as documented in the recent analysis by the current Countywide Housing Affordability Task (CHAT) force. City efforts have failed to make progress on this critical issue for the past 8 years, and local families are suffering the consequences. Many citizens are unable to own a home, or they must spend an excessive percent of their income on rent.

Several City policy changes are necessary to improve affordability for Bellingham's low and moderate income families. Presented in greater detail below, they include creating career opportunities that provide better living wage jobs, reforming our codes to allow for alternate housing styles, reforming the permit system into a rapid response system instead of a gauntlet of hurdles, establishing a housing trust fund, partnering with the Bellingham Housing Authority and non-governmental organizations to produce a supply of permanent affordable housing.

The cause of our high priced housing market has many factors. Bellingham was marketed heavily in high priced housing markets areas like California. This caused much of the initial mark ups. As Bellingham became more popular and well known around the country, market speculation helped fuel the price increases. Because of our topography we are also limited in easy building sites. As the easy sites are built out, development cost increases. We are now faced with a tight supply and demand situation. We have been discovered and more and more people want to move here. As co-chair of the County Wide Affordable Housing Taskforce I am working with multiple stakeholders to come up with a proposal to meet some of the needs for affordable housing. This is going to take an effort involving the city, county, state and federal investment.

There are many causes for the increasing un-affordability of housing in Bellingham.

I have a long history of speaking up for those less fortunate in Bellingham. I have worked to implement many permanent affordable housing projects such as the Washington Grocery Building and many Housing Authority projects. Thru creative partnerships and various housing programs, Bellingham has spent over $13 million on housing for low income residents, leveraging financing thru other means, resulting in over $123 million being spent in Bellingham on over 2000 units of permanent affordable housing.

Another model I have supported on the City Council is the Kulshan Land Trust model which allows ownership of the house but keeps the land in trust. When the house is sold, the owner received some of the profits but the land is kept affordable. This model has a great many advantages over the traditional low income housing model.

One of the causes for high cost of housing is the desirability of Bellingham. I have worked long and hard to keep this a Ògood place to liveÓ. Now we are on all the ÒBest Places to Live ListsÓ. As more people have moved to Bellingham to enjoy our quality of life, the housing prices have gone up. Also, Bellingham has an outdated land use code which does not permit a better utilization of land for housing in its mixed use centers. For instance much of the land on Samish Way consists of single small box stores on large parking lots that are greatly underutilized. Few people walk in the area. There is a large potential to build mixed use buildings with commercial below and housing above. However, in order to do so, Bellingham needs to adopt a urban building code for its mixed use centers rather than a quasi suburban code which we have now.

Mixed use centers should include housing, services, stores, park, etc. and be pedestrian friendly and transit oriented so people living or working there do not have to solely depend on a car for their transportation.

I see housing affordability as the flip side of almost every growth management issue faced by the city of Bellingham.

Affordability is both a jobs issue and a planning and development issue, one that affects not just the lower income ranges, but well into the middle income range as well. It is a symptom of the desirability and economic strength of our region, and at the same time one of the most difficult and troublesome parts of our local economy. If preservation and enhancement of our quality of life - through good schools, adequate parks, clean environment, walkable neighborhoods - is an important goal, it is also a goal which will serve to increase housing values at the same time. By requiring new developments to shoulder more of their true costs to the city, we address one kind of equity concern, but create another - since increased development costs are reflected in higher housing costs, and lower affordability.

Fortunately, some of the solutions to our growth management concerns may, if done properly, also address housing affordability issues. By providing incentives for denser but still attractive and livable forms of development within the city, we may address not only infill issues, but also provide for lower cost/unit housing. Transportation-oriented development not only has ecological benefits, but also removes some of the disadvantages faced by individuals who cannot afford or who chose not to own a car. Reforms in land use regulation that encourage more people-friendly, transit-oriented, walkable urban districts, well supplied with community centers and public parks and trails, increase the quality of life for all of our city's residents rather than just those who live in suburban enclaves.

No response as of October 14 - we will post late responses within one business day of receiving them.

No response as of October 14 - we will post late responses within one business day of receiving them.