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.

We can provide affordable housing without sacrificing the environmental quality all Bellingham residents cherish. Reforming City development codes will permit more efficient design so we can provide more affordable housing units on our limited land supply. For example, small cottage homes or condominiums with reduced road sizes and parking have a greater emphasis on bikes and walking communities, which allows more land for open space. Unfortunately, the current City ordinances do not provide a definition for townhouses or other alternate housing types. As the new 5th Ward City Councilor, I will lead the reform to re-write our development code to ensure affordable housing can be built. The code revisions should reflect our 21st Century need for energy efficiency and wise land utilization instead of advocating development patterns dominated by larger lots. Alternate housing types coupled with neighborhood sensitive design will gracefully produce a housing stock that can be affordable and accepted by the existing neighbors.

Yes I do. We live in an incredible beautiful but environmentally sensitive area. As we work to protect our environment we also limit the amount of available building land. With limited building lots and continued high demand prices increase. In order to protect our area and try to keep housing options affordable, we need to work to create creative development options.

The Whatcom County Homeless Count (March 2007) identified 1,298 homeless people in Whatcom County of which 72% are single individuals. Of the homeless families, 78% are single-parent families (92% of the parents are females). The report also identified about 149 individuals had recently been released from jail, inpatient substance abuse or mental health treatment. The report identified the current depth of homelessness in our community, and now we should provide the leadership for cost-efficient solutions. Our response should provide 1) transitional shelter for female heads of households with sufficient space for children, 2) modest, single-room occupancy apartments for singles, and 3) sufficient day-care and school support for the homeless children. A portion of Bellingham's Community Development Block Grant funds should be partnered with the Bellingham Housing Authority or non-governmental organizations to build new units targeted toward our homeless needs.

This community has a strong network of housing and homeless support services with a long history of working together to address this issue. As a community we learned the hard way from the emergency shelter opened in the old Sears building that it's not enough to simply provide beds. Homeless individuals and families need wrap around services to address the causes and consequences of homelessness. The recent acquisition of the $1.4 million housing grant to Whatcom County was awarded in part because of the collaboration among non-profit providers and local government. I'm hopeful that using this "housing first" model, one that moves homeless people directly to permanent housing, will increase the effectiveness of our local programs.

The City of Bellingham's primary purposes are to keep its residents safe from crime, protect people and property from manmade or natural disasters, deliver safe and consistent utility services (water, sewers, roads, drainage) and guide the physical development and environmental stewardship within the City limits. Bellingham residents have also chosen to place a high priority and developing a substantial system of parks and greenways. Other City efforts include enhancing the local cultural and arts community. With these current pressing needs, the availability of City General Funds to support affordable housing is limited.

However, the City's Federal Community Development Block Grant Funds can be targeted towards affordable housing. More importantly, larger sources of funds for constructing new affordable units are available by partnering with the Housing Authority and soliciting investment from local financial institutions and businesses into a trust housing trust fund. Construction of affordable housing requires large amounts of funding that can easily outstrip the needs to fund daily city government operations. Therefore, most of the financing for affordable housing programs needs to come from non-city revenue sources.

I have tried to be very supportive to affordable housing projects within our City budget. It has been and continues to be a high priority for me. I sponsored the Council Goal that states, "Support programs and provide facilities that service low-income families and individuals". The city budget is built around the council goals. I have supported the waiver for impact fees for a number of affordable housing projects, the funding was used to fill the needed gap in financing and allow the projects to go forward. The impact fees were made up though the use of the general fund reserve funds. I am a strong supporter for the general funds that are used to supplement the CDBG dollars that go to social service providers--housing services are a top priority of those funds.

Yes I support the creation of a local housing trust fund.

I advocated for creating innovative financing techniques when I lead the 1989 Housing Strategies for Bellingham Task Force using a strategy of tax exempt financing, municipal bonds and other techniques. The current Countywide Housing Affordability Task Force (CHAT) has continued the discussion of ideas originated in 1989. The CHAT group members and organizations currently providing affordable housing agree that a locally funded and locally controlled housing trust fund is necessary. There is debate as to the appropriate funding mechanism for this Housing Trust Fund. Some advocate creating a separate tax source by asking the voters to approve a special real estate excise tax. I believe a significant opportunity exists to solicit investment from financial institutions, private individuals, businesses and foundations to build the funding core before we explore other sources.

Yes I would

No I do not support mandatory inclusionary zoning (IZ). I do support incentive inclusionary zoning. I was the first private individual to obtain City approval of an incentive-based inclusionary zoning decision in 1991 for an apartment site on Barkley Boulevard. The project was successfully built by someone else and is operating today.

There is conflicting data that indicates that Mandatory IZ increases the cost and decreases the supply of existing market rate housing while not significantly increasing the supply of subsidized housing. A study by Benjamin Powell Associate, Professor of Economics at San Jose University, concluded that IZ is not the answer.

Incentive IZ does provide additional subsidized homes while not increasing the cost of market rate homes. Bellingham should consider using Incentive IZ with re-zones, or when infilling neighborhoods.

I would have to see the language of an ordinance before I could say yes or no. I would support a version of mandatory inclusionary zoning but there are so many variables that need to be factored into an ordinance that I would not want to say yes to anything that I had not read first and made sure that it was equitable and that there was some permanently affordable provision in it.

I support a permit process that is complete and timely for all permit applications. The current system does not meet today's need for flexible design, respect for neighborhood character, or a rapid response that is fair and efficient. Too many conflicting provisions within the current code prevent efficient service delivery to permit applicants. Reforming the code and establishing clear service performance standards will help to reduce the housing costs for everyone.

Yes, this is an idea I would consider.

Supply is only one part of the problem and increasing supply will help but it will not solve the problem. We need to approach the issue with an attitude for reform, to change the current gauntlet of regulations into one of efficient service delivery for the clients. We need to be creative in soliciting capital into a trust fund specifically for building affordable housing. We need to open our minds to alternative housing styles that are proven to be efficient, well designed, and functional for our working families. We need to provide leadership for design solutions that fit into existing neighborhood character and are accepted in the market.

My experience as a 30 year professional urban planner, a builder/business owner for 16 years and my accreditation in banking finance provide the skills needed on the City Council at this time.

No I don't think we can grow our way out of the housing price problem unless we sprawl to such an extent that our quality of life deteriorates to such an extent that people no longer find this such a great place to live. We have seen a huge increase in new houses come on the market over the last few years and all that has happened is prices accelerating. Increasing the land supply does not necessarily translate into a cost saving to the potential buyer

Our housing affordability gap has steadily grown over the past 20 years. In 1985, the cost of a lot was 20% of the cost of a new single family home. Today, the cost of a lot represents about 30% of the cost of a new single-family zone. In the past 8 years alone, the cost of impact fees, taxes, materials and other components have pushed the cost of construction higher. Meanwhile, the average wages in Bellingham used to be 92% of the average wages earned across Washington State. Today, Bellingham's averages wages are about 80% of the State average, and less than wages in Skagit County. Clearly we are heading the wrong direction.

Providing higher wage jobs is always a positive situation for working families. People want to be successful and provide for their families. We need to look beyond just providing jobs, and provide the leadership that creates career opportunities. It took a long time for our average wages to sink. But with focused leadership, we can begin to reverse this trend. We should designate an ample supply of light industrial land that can be served property with city services (roads, water, sewer, stormwater). We should partner with WWU, WCC and BTC to expand the strength of our labor pool. We should reform the City services to be responsive to businesses wanting to do business in Bellingham. If we perform these three steps, new career opportunities will result, workers will have higher paying jobs and families will be better equipped to meet their housing needs.

Developing more high wage jobs is a great goal, it would help some into housing and should be pursued but it is not the sole answer to the affordable housing crisis. We currently have many people working in jobs with good pay ranges who cannot afford to buy a home in our currant housing market. The currant living wage for a single parent with a child is around $20.00 an hour. Not a bad wage, but given today's Bellingham housing market an individual would still be hard pressed to be able to save enough for a down payment and afford payments for entry level new house costs. We also have a considerable population who are currently under educated or under trained who would have a hard time qualifying for many of the new type of jobs coming into the community without retraining.