The Rental Housing Association of Washington has taken out a radio advertisement asking the question I’ve been asking too: “where did all the housing money go that should have been helping people in need in Aberdeen?” I did a post on this question and compared how much housing could be built in Aberdeen, in Grays Harbor County with the money being used for Building 9 in Magnuson Park. It could buy a lot, more than 25 percent of the 2,000 units local activists are calling for. But Speaker Frank Chopp is a big advocate for Building 9, getting Tharinger to put in a $2,500,000 allocation for the project; zero for Grays Harbor County.

Here’s the ad:

And is there need in Grays Harbor County? There is, and the housing situation is worse in Grays Harbor than it is in King County. I’ll post the numbers I sent Senators Palumbo and Mullet this weekend.

	Grays Harbor County	King County
Poverty	16.60%	10.70%
Area Median Income	$48,517	$84,897
60% AMI Hourly	$14.00	$24.49
Unemployment	6.50%	3.40%
Food Assistance	22%	8%
Housing Production*	11.6	2.7
Housing built before 1980	65%	53%
Housing Trust Fund (2008 to 2018)	None	$130,038,755

* Number of residents per units produced (OFM)

Maybe Representative Steve Tharinger, the Chair of the House Capital Budget Committee, has an explanation. After all, it is his committee that gave out about $100 million in housing money but not a dollar to his own district. So where did all the money go? Looks like a lot went to King County and Seattle.