As housing crisis ravages Washington, a state agency says it needs $1.2 billion to address the problem

A worker must make $40.32 an hour to afford a “modest” two-bedroom apartment in Washington, according to a new report released by the state.

This means a person working a minimum-wage job must work more than 80 hours a week to afford a home for their family.

As rising rental prices continue to contribute to homelessness across Washington, a state agency on Tuesday announced a new five-year plan to address the homelessness crisis. 

The state Department of Commerce released its Homeless Housing Strategic Plan to the public this week. One of its goals is the construction of 18,000 new shelter beds over the next four years across Washington.

When asked how the massive plan would be funded, commerce department spokesperson Penny Thomas said the state agency has requested $1.2 billion be carved out of the governor’s capital budget for affordable housing construction.

“Building more affordable units as part of meeting the target of 1.1 million units would free up space in existing emergency housing, allowing more throughput so our existing shelter capacity could serve more people per year,” Thomas wrote in an email. “And emergency housing is an eligible use of the capital funds, which would help address the need for 90,000 (shelter) housing units.”

Growth projections estimate Washington will need to build 1.1 million new homes along with 91,000 new shelter beds over the next 20 years to house all its residents, according to the new plan.

“While other issues such as mental illness, substance use disorder, and domestic violence can exacerbate the problem and make it harder to find and maintain housing, basic economics are driving the problem,” the 44-page plan reads. “Our elders, on fixed Social Security-based incomes, are particularly vulnerable to rising rents.”

As part of its five-year plan, the commerce department will establish a way to audit state housing grant recipients to ensure they show “racial equity performance.” The state also plans to create an online resource guide for grant recipients to access training materials.

The commerce department also plans to ask the state Legislature for the housing money needed to stay on track with Washington’s projected population growth over the next 20 years. The state agency will send its first request to lawmakers in early 2025, according to the plan, and make an annual request thereafter.

Another stated goal in the state’s homelessness plan is to teach people about the housing crisis.

“Commerce will provide education on the rising rent increases,” the report reads, “and the correlation with increasing rates of homelessness.”

State lawmakers earlier this year killed a bill that would have capped annual rent increases at 7%. This week, the city of Spokane announced it will only pay existing shelters enough to house an additional 100 homeless people during extreme cold or heat for up to 38 nights over the entire next fiscal year. Some city officials, however, say they hope to add more money to boost those services when next year’s budget is approved.

More than 200,000 Washingtonians are currently homeless or facing housing instability, a July 2023 report found. And rent in the state has increased by an average of 50% over the last decade.

In Washington, the homelessness crisis affects Black and Native American people at much higher rates than white people. The stated plan acknowledged this in its homelessness plan and wrote it included perspectives from marginalized groups and people with lived experience on the streets.

“To mitigate the harms that homelessness inflicts upon individuals effectively, particularly those with multiple marginalized identities, Washington needs to take bold action in addressing both its symptoms and the underlying causes,” reads the plan.

Renters across the state have grown increasingly frustrated with what they see as a lack of action by the state government to keep affordable roofs over their heads.

Spokane residents this year have reported receiving monthly rent increase notices from their landlords as high as $900. A near-decade record of evictions filed in Spokane County in 2023 – a number nearly 50% higher than the rate in 2019.

In a phone interview Tuesday evening, state Rep. Leonard Christian, R-Spokane Valley, said he had not yet read the five-year plan due to time constraints but planned to. That being said, Christian reported he was “not impressed” with Washington’s current approach to the homelessness crisis.

“I think a lot of organizations are getting money with no accountability,” Christian said. “Anyone who is given help – we need to have some kind of an expectation of where they’re going to be in six months to a year down the road, instead of just helping folks over and over again just to make it through another night.”

Being homeless is not a crime, Christian said, adding that he wants the state to hold homeless people who commit crimes accountable.

State Rep. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, had also yet to have a chance to read the commerce report Tuesday. But he said affordable housing is top-of-mind for lawmakers and communities across the state.

“We’re looking at ways we can provide wraparound services,” Riccelli said, pointing specifically to the Family Promise emergency shelter in Spokane as a model he thinks is working.

“The bottom line is we need more housing stock and we need more investments,” Riccelli said. “We also need to make sure we are addressing affordability for people who are one paycheck away from being homeless. Like medical debt or car maintenance relief programs. Because we know it’s much more costly for the state once people become homeless.”