Drafter

Clerk 02/28/2019

Title

A MOTION accepting the final report and recommendations of the regional affordable housing task force and declaring the recommendations contained therein represents the policy of the council.

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                     WHEREAS, between 2012 and 2017 average home purchase prices rose fifty three percent and average rents increased forty-seven percent in King County, and

                     WHEREAS, average household income has not kept pace with housing costs in King County, increasing by only thirty percent between 2012 and 2017, and

                     WHEREAS, the stock of rental homes affordable to households at or below eighty percent of area median income decreased by 36,470 units between 2007 and 2016, and

                     WHEREAS, a household is considered cost burdened when it pays thirty percent or more of its income toward housing and is considered severely cost burdened when it pays fifty percent or more of its income toward housing, and

                     WHEREAS, 124,000 households in King County are severely cost burdened, and

                     WHEREAS, eighty-eight percent of severely cost burdened households earn fifty percent or less of area median income, and

                     WHEREAS, cost burden disproportionately affects households of color, with fifty-six percent of black households and almost half of Latinx households experiencing cost burden, and

                     WHEREAS, twenty-two percent of renters and eleven percent of home owners are cost burdened, and

                     WHEREAS, ensuring that no household earning eighty percent area median income and below is cost burdened today would require an estimated 156,000 new affordable units, and

                     WHEREAS, an estimated 244,000 new, preserved or subsidized affordable units are needed by 2040 to ensure that no household earning eighty percent area median income is cost burdened, and

                     WHEREAS, the council and executive acknowledge that despite the ongoing regional efforts, the magnitude of the affordable housing crisis requires a more intensive and coordinated approach, and

                     WHEREAS, the council passed Motion 14754 on November 15, 2016, requesting that the executive and council coordinate in convening a regional planning effort including the county, cities, nonprofit agencies and private partners to develop a regional plan for affordable housing in 2017, and

                     WHEREAS, the council passed Motion 14873 on May 30, 2017, which established the King County regional affordable housing task force comprised of thirteen members of which twelve were elected officials representing the county and the cities, and

                     WHEREAS, the task force met fourteen times between July 2017 and December 2018, to understand the causes and scale of the regional affordable housing crisis, its different impacts on King County communities and to develop strategies and recommendations to address those impacts, and

                     WHEREAS, the regional affordable housing task force voted on December 7, 2018, to unanimously to adopt a five-year action plan, and

                     WHEREAS, the Sound Cities Association voted on December 19, 2018, to support the regional affordable housing task force five-year action plan and recommend its approval by the King County council, and

                     WHEREAS, Motion 14873 directs that the regional affordable housing task force to deliver a recommended regional affordable housing strategy to the executive and council, including recommendations for action, no later than December 2018;

                     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT MOVED by the council of King County:

                     The council accepts the December 2018 final report and recommendations of the

regional affordable housing task force, which is Attachment A to this motion, and declares that the recommendations contained therein represent the policy of the council.