See the city's Housing report on its website here.
SNOHOMISH — Community housing was the focus of the late February City Council meeting, and for good reason as most people working in Snohomish cannot afford to live here. The solution discussed is “middle housing” — small apartment buildings and townhomes that fit among single-family homes. Affordable housing has the potential to alleviate problems with housing costs, homelessness and commuting.
The council discussed the city’s recent Housing Assessment and Gap Analysis (HAGA) during the meeting, with the goal of making housing more affordable.
Housing is considered affordable when costs do not exceed 30% of a household's income. Nearly a third of Snohomish homeowners and almost 40% of renters are cost-burdened or severely cost-burdened, according to the HAGA report. With the leading employment industries in Snohomish being education, accommodation and food services, and retail trade, city leaders are concerned that the average income that these jobs provide are not in alignment with current housing costs. Due to the lack of affordable housing Snohomish is not a self-sustaining city — a large number of people who live in town work outside Snohomish to afford living in Snohomish.
The median salary in Snohomish is under $40,000, but the annual income necessary to rent a studio apartment in the city is $46,000, according to Census data. Additionally, HAGA reports, studio apartments comprise only 19% of all units.
HAGA suggests an increase in affordable housing would solve the issue of cost-burdened individuals saying: “lower income households are at a greater risk of cost burden or living in poor quality housing due to their limited resources and the shortage of available housing that is affordable at their income level.”
The state’s Growth Management Act (GMA) works to assess housing needs, coordinate the development of cities, and navigate county-wide policies. Despite this land regulation being an advocate for middle housing, it struggles to incorporate middle housing due to land use regulations.
“The overwriting cultural norm of housing is a single-family detached house, which takes up an awful amount of space,” Chris Collier of the Housing Authority of Snohomish County said. “And so as we run out of space the GMA says ‘No, you can’t go further.’ So, when zoning says you can’t go higher, you can't go higher and you can’t go out — what's the price going to do? Price is going to go up and people will drive further and further to get to work, so that’s the push-pull that the GMA opened up.”
Middle housing is single family attached homes such as townhouses, cottages, and courtyard buildings that are comparable in size to single family detached homes and are much cheaper. The HAGA report supports middle housing and says middle housing will be a big factor in Snohomish housing becoming more affordable because middle housing offers versatility for people of all different ages and backgrounds.
“Housing costs and homelessness emerged as the top two issues people said we need to deal with as a state,” said Joe Tovar, policy analyst for the Washington State Department of Commerce, rebounding off Collier’s presentation. “Twenty years from now, the need will be 1.2 million households.” With population increases and aging, Washington will need roughly 308,000 more housing units to sustain and shelter citizens by the year 2044, according to Collier.
An increase in courtyard apartments, townhomes and duplexes would work to remedy the lack of housing units and provide a frugal alternative. Especially when considering population projection impacts on housing demand, Collier said.
Washington has changed GMA’s housing goal from “encourage the availability of affordable housing to all economic segments,” to “plan for and accommodate housing [affordability] to all economic segments,” said Tovar. As part of this change the state Department of Commerce said they will begin to include moderate and very low-income households in housing-need projections going forward.
