Last Saturday I travelled to Wenatchee to attend a dinner with Douglas County Republicans. The topic? Creating a 51st state made of up of Eastern Washington Counties. The proposed name of the new state? Liberty. The presentation by Representative Matthew Shea was provocative, highlighting the stark differences between Seattle and the rest of Washington. After the dinner I went back to my hotel where a group of combat veteran bikers gathered for their annual ride mingled with cowboys in town for a rodeo. The Red Lion bar even had a mechanical bull set up to go along with all the motorcycles in the parking lot. It is a different world beyond the passes. On my way back I stopped at Los Hernandez’ and ate three tamales. The small restaurant has made national news, just winning a James Beard award. I’m heading out again to talk housing and working to build a coalition to reform the way we subsidize housing in our state.

My trip will start in Spokane where I’ll attend the Washington Policy Institute Solutions Summit. Then I’ll head to Granger where we’ll gather to take a tour of Farmworker housing and then to Zillah for lunch at El Porton. Along the way I’ll try to fill in the time with other meetings and visits. The purpose of all this is to keep building support for changing the Housing Trust Fund. Here’s the proposal as it stands today:

Housing Trust Fund Reform Proposal for the 2019 Legislative Session

— Change the name to the Housing Supply Fund (HSF)
— Block grant funds to county housing authorities
— Base grant allocation based on need demonstrated by,

• Income levels
• Poverty levels
• Vacancy rates
• Age of existing housing stock
• Health status
• Education attainment and literacy

— Funding can be used for the following outside of King County,

• Direct cash rental assistance
• Construction of new housing
• Homeownership assistance
• Rehabilitation of existing, older housing
• H2A housing for Farmworkers
• Teacher housing
• Other worker housing
• Manufactured housing for long or short term use
• Reimbursement for portable vouchers used in King County

— In King County funding may be used only for,

• Direct cash rental assistance
• Assistance for people whose primary residence is a vehicle
• Homeownership assistance
• Manufactured housing for long or short term use
• Support for people transitioning out of jail or prison
• No funds may be used for capital or operating costs

— Statewide funds for

• Expansion of the Earned Release Housing Voucher program
• A risk reduction pool for the benefit of renters leaving the criminal justice system (e.g. deposit insurance, replacement costs, lost rent)
• Creation of a program administered by the Department of Corrections for housing transition for people leaving the all levels (federal, state, and local) of the criminal justice system
• Clean up and remediation of sites with soil or other toxic contamination (New!)
• Permanent ongoing quantitative review and audit of the HSF by the Joint Legislative Review and Audit Committee (JLARC)

— Establish and Fund a Farm Labor Housing Authority

• Support a small farmer program to permit and build housing for workers
• Provide technical support for housing financing
• Allocate more tax credits for farm labor housing
• Provide authority to issue bonds
• Develop and build housing for aquacultural workers (e.g. oysters, fishing)

A new addition to this proposal is funding for clean up and remediation of contaminated sites. The economics of land is pretty simple. If you can build something on the land that will create a return on investment to pay back investors and create cash flow something will get built. If that’s not possible, the land will maintain its existing use. When land is contaminated with toxins, say an old oil tank that leaked, the clean up is usually too expensive for new construction — that is, until rents get high enough to rationalize the clean up.

The Department of Ecology has a new program that is looking for ways to help offset those costs so that rents can stay lower after clean up of a site. Paying for the clean up could open up land that currently might just be a parking lot for housing. Many properties in rural and urban areas are great spots for housing, but the clean up is just too expensive. One example of a program is a clean up in the Mount Baker neighborhood that will open up 5 new lots for housing.

There is still lots of work ahead for this proposal, but almost every visit I make out in the community generates a new idea or new approach to using Housing Trust Fund dollars in ways beyond the assembly of capital for bricks and mortal construction. More updates to come.