For the past year, Building Changes has worked closely with local governments in Snohomish County to develop recommendations for supporting affordable housing. We are very pleased that on June 17th, Snohomish County Tomorrow unanimously approved our final report and passed a resolution to co-convene a task force to implement our recommendations. The complete report can be accessed here.

During the course of this project, we've spoken with over 75 stakeholders in Snohomish County, including council members, mayors, city and county planning staff, representatives from the private sector, and leaders in the affordable housing field. What we've learned is that while cities understand the huge unmet needs for safe, affordable housing in their communities, most jurisdictions don't have the tools or the expertise to work on finding affordable housing solutions. Many of them were interested in partnering together in a multi-jurisdictional program to support common housing goals.

Building Changes and our partner, Cedar River Group, researched examples of how regional housing programs have successfully allowed neighboring communities to work together to address their shared housing needs and goals. We looked models in several states, including the ARCH program in east King County, and found the common factors that make these programs succeed. We used these success factors to guide our recommendations for Snohomish County.

Based on our research and local input, we believe that an inter-jurisdictional collaboration on affordable housing issues can be successful and help cities meet their housing objectives. We recommend that a new inter-jurisdictional program should be created once four criteria are met:

(1) A critical mass of jurisdictions agree to participate

(2) Funding is committed to support the program for at least two years

(3) A host agency is identified to provide back-office administrative support

(4) The participating jurisdictions agree on the program's goals

What would the new inter-jurisdictional program do? In its initial phase, we recommend that the program have dedicated staff capacity that serves as the go-to staff resource on affordable housing for all the participating jurisdictions. This staff should have expertise on both affordable housing development and local government. Program staff will be able to help cities write and implement ordinances encouraging the development of using affordable at a range of incomes; seek out new funding sources and grant opportunities; develop housing sections of Growth Management Act comprehensive plans; provide education and information to officials and the general public; and other activities as requested by participating jurisdictions.

So what's next? Representatives from several jurisdictions across the county -- including the Snohomish County Council and the Cities of Lake Stevens, Marysville, Snohomish, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood, and Everett -- volunteered to lead a task force that will take this proposal from idea to reality by making sure those four criteria are met and working with the nonprofit Housing Consortium of Everett and Snohomish County. Jurisdictions in Snohomish County are on a path toward better cooperation on housing issues, and we at Building Changes believe the results will be good for people of all incomes in their communities!