Put people, values, at center of housing policy

We are all better off when everyone who lives and works in Skagit County has a safe, affordable place to call home.

Healthy neighborhoods need healthy schools. Healthy schools need kids and families. Kids and families need housing they can afford.

Seniors should be able to downsize in the same community where they owned a home and still afford to buy medicine and groceries.

Employers and communities thrive when workers on our waterfronts, art galleries and restaurants can afford to live near where they are employed. From first responders, to teachers, to janitors: Everyone who works here should be able to live here.

These are values Community Action of Skagit County shares with most of our neighbors. For example, the Population Health Trust, an advisory group to the County Board of Health, released a report showing that housing is an essential part of health.

Recently Community Action collaborated with the Economic Development Alliance of Skagit County (EDASC), city and county governments and nonprofit and for-profit housing developers to launch the Skagit Housing Consortium. This group is working collaboratively to find creative solutions to the housing shortage and to encourage local people to support the variety of housing types needed for a healthy housing ecosystem.

These and other partners believe in the creativity of Skagitonians to come up with solutions that help us preserve the character and history of the places we live, while also making sure we are welcoming, inclusive and accessible for everyone our communities rely upon to prosper.

The housing crisis is a puzzle, but together we have all the needed pieces. A healthy housing ecosystem includes home ownership for all incomes. We applaud nonprofit friends like Habitat for Humanity and Home Trust of Skagit for building these important pieces of the puzzle and we need more of it.

Every town and city also needs apartments for singles, workers and young families. Skagit County has the lowest apartment vacancy rate in the state, an indication that we have far too few. Seniors may be on a limited income but have an asset in their home. If they can’t afford to downsize, where will those workers and families go when they can afford a larger home to own?

City, county and state government have a role setting policy and funding priorities for homes everyone can afford. Nonprofit and for-profit developers have a role in ensuring a variety of home types are available in every town and city.

For example, Anacortes City Council has a subcommittee devoted to housing and human services. Mount Vernon has made “missing middle” housing for workers easier to develop in their downtown core. La Conner is engaging the community in visioning for the future. Burlington has been a helpful partner in the Cascade Landing Apartment Homes redevelopment, a creative pilot project by Community Action and a private developer/investor. All of this is good work and we need more good people to get involved.

If past policies have not worked or are not enough, we can do more and do differently. Lawmakers can build flexibility in policy and funding to allow new, creative approaches and partnerships, including between nonprofits and private developers and socially minded investors.

Neighbors have a role, too: Put the real people and local values at the center of solutions. Ask workers, families and seniors what they need. Go to where they are. Listen. Come up with solutions that work for all. Saying YES to a variety of home types is saying yes to a healthy community for all of us.

Jennings is Community Action of Skagit County’s director of community engagement.