Title
A MOTION declaring the criticality of regional planning, coordination and funding efforts to address the challenges of housing affordability in King County and establishing the regional affordable housing task force and associated standing advisory panel to develop a recommended countywide affordable housing strategy.
Body
WHEREAS, at the end of February 2017, the median single-family home price in King County was five hundred sixty thousand dollars, more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars above the national median, and
WHEREAS, the King County median home price increased more than fourteen percent between February 2016 and 2017, and
WHEREAS, at the end of September 2016, the median monthly rental price in King County was two thousand two hundred fifty dollars, more than seven hundred dollars above the national median, and
WHEREAS, those housing price levels have resulted in nearly three hundred thousand households in King County spending more than thirty percent of their incomes on housing, and
WHEREAS, far too many people have been unable to afford any type of housing, with nearly ten thousand people experiencing homelessness on any given day during 2016, and
WHEREAS, in November 2015, the King County executive declared homelessness to be in a state of emergency, and
WHEREAS, during the third quarter of 2016, one thousand one hundred seventy- two homeless families applied to King County for permanent housing, and
WHEREAS, the lack of affordable housing and the crisis of homelessness are being felt in every community in the county, and
WHEREAS, King County, local jurisdictions, private and nonprofit partners and philanthropic organizations have come together to address the challenges of homelessness and housing affordability through: the efforts of All Home to make homelessness rare, brief and one-time; the work of the King County consortium to assess community development and housing needs countywide and to allocate state and federal fundi...

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