Whatcom County agrees to spend more money on affordable housing projects
The Whatcom County Council has unanimously approved a resolution supporting an increase in the amount of funds used for affordable housing projects.
The money would come from the Economic Development Investment (EDI) Fund Program, a countywide program that allows local government to retain a portion of collected sales tax to help build needed facilities, including affordable housing infrastructure.
The goal is improving the economy by stimulating and creating ongoing private sector jobs that would enable economic development opportunities.
The EDI Fund is expected to generate $6.034 million in revenue in 2024, according to the resolution approved last week.
The resolution states that the County Council “supports making housing affordability and homelessness a top legislative priority and working with State Legislators to advocate for any technical fixes or clarification bills necessary to maximize the County’s ability to use EDI funding for housing affordability efforts.”
The resolution recommends the EDI board consider prioritizing affordable and workforce housing projects, up to 120% of area median income, for economic development. It also recommends the board issue a recommendation to the County Council for dedicating a percentage of the EDI Fund balance and a percentage of ongoing revenues toward housing affordability projects as allowed by state law.
Changes and proposed program reconsiderations regarding affordable housing funds and development are expected to be reported by the EDI board to the County Council by Dec. 31, 2024.
Housing costs are rising
As of October 2023, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Bellingham is $1,500. This is a 13% increase compared to the previous year.
Less than about 30 % of Whatcom County housing is affordable to a household earning the median family income, according to the city of Bellingham.
In order to be considered affordable, housing costs can’t exceed 30% of a family’s gross income and must serve families making 80% or less of the area median income.
Bellingham’s median household income in 2021 was $59,163, according to data provided by the U.S. Census.
By 2044, Whatcom County is estimated to need almost 35,000 new housing units to meet growth demand. About 22,000 of those units, more than 60%, need to be affordable, according to Blake Lyon, Bellingham’s director of planning & community development.
Bellingham makes up about 48% of the housing production in the county. So the city will need to produce almost 17,000 total housing units to help meet the goal. More than 10,000 of those need to be affordable. To stay on track, the city needs to build more than 500 affordable housing units every year.
Washington State needs to develop more than one million homes over the next two decades to keep up with population growth, according to the Washington State Department of Commerce. More than half of them need to be affordable for residents at the lowest income levels.
This story was originally published October 31, 2023 at 8:08 AM.
