Last month, I gave a presentation to the Steering Committee of Snohomish County Tomorrow, which includes elected officials and other representatives from the 19 cities and towns in Snohomish County. As part of our work to research and promote collaboration between jurisdictions on housing issues, I worked with our clients at the County and the City of Lake Stevens to develop a short presentation on (1) what is affordable housing, (2) who needs affordable housing, (3) where is it located in Snohomish County, and (4) how is affordable housing created?

It can be difficult to communicate just how great the need is for housing in our region, and how the benefits of affordable housing spread beyond individual families to the entire community. A key takeaway from this presentation is that all kinds of working families need to balance housing costs with other essentials, such as health care, food, and transportation. When the people who work in our cities - from food service or retail workers to teachers and police officers - cannot afford to live there, the whole community suffers. In Snohomish County alone, more than 55,000 families that earn less than the median income are paying more for housing than they can afford, and that number is growing.

We also wanted to send the message that there is no single solution for meeting these affordable housing needs, but it really does require combined efforts from the private sector, dedicated nonprofit agencies, and local, state, and federal governments. Our goal was to give elected officials a solid grounding in the fundamentals of affordable housing in their communities, and get them to think about new ways they could work together. In late February, we will return to the SCT Steering Committee to continue this conversation on what cities and the County can do together to promote healthy, viable communities that have affordable options for all families.

Note: Our presentation was specifically focused on Snohomish County, but part of our inspiration was the Affordable Housing 101 educational curriculum developed by ARCH, the affordable housing collaboration between 15 Eastside cities and King County. This is a great resource with even more detail on the needs and strategies for affordable housing.