Coordinating Low-income Housing Planning Survey

Background: Commerce has identified that Washington state will need 1.1 million more housing units by 2044 to meet our future housing needs, with half of the statewide housing need being for the lowest income housing segments (those earning below 50% of area median income or AMI). In addition, there is a projected need of 91,000 emergency housing beds in 2044. (By comparison, we have approximately 3 million homes in Washington today and about 15,150 emergency housing beds in the Washington Housing Inventory Count.) To meet these housing needs, significant planning and coordination across sectors and disciplines is needed.


Given the scale of need and the fact that local jurisdiction planners will for the first time need to plan for housing for all income levels, permanent supportive housing and emergency housing as they update their comprehensive plans through 2027, it is important they engage with emergency housing professionals. Similarly, emergency housing professionals will be updating their Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Consolidated Plans and/or their 5-year homelessness plans by 2025, and coordination with land use planning will be beneficial.


Objectives: The objectives of this $500,000 grant program are to:

  • Support coordination of land use planning and homeless service planning to better plan for our state’s housing needs as both disciplines update their planning documents for the future over the next two years.
  • Support counties and cities to work together to plan for lowest income housing needs through their upcoming comprehensive plans and coordination of resources.
  • Incentivize jurisdictions to develop policies and regulations that allow and encourage housing that supports our lowest income households.

At this time, our proposed grant would provide up to $25,000 in services or grant funds to eligible applicants to perform actions from a pre-approved action list or custom approved actions.


Eligible applicants would be:

  • Counties in coordination with one of the two biggest cities,
  • A city in coordination with the county, or
  • Non-profits in coordination with both entities (county and city).

Those who could apply on behalf of the county or a city would be the planning department or the homeless housing lead or similar designated official or department. We would award no more than one grant per county, so applicants are encouraged to work together.


At this time, the list of potential eligible actions for this funding include the following:

  1. For counties that have a HUD Consolidated Plan (5 counties) - coordinate HUD Consolidated Plans and 5-year homelessness plans with Growth Management Act (GMA) comprehensive plans so they have consistent policies and data, as all are updated in the next few years.
  2. For Balance of State jurisdictions – coordinate planning of 5-year homelessness plans with GMA comprehensive plans so they have consistent policies and data.
  3. Develop countywide planning policies that include planning for the lowest income housing needs and a framework for allocating the countywide housing needs for the lowest income segments, including emergency housing and permanent supportive housing (PSH).
  4. Coordinating conversations and resource sharing between counties and cities on homelessness planning.
  5. Technical assistance with updating development regulations to allow emergency housing and shelters, PSH and transitional housing in more areas. (This would be after Commerce develops our model ordinance, which will be developed by June 2024.)
  6. Community planning and implementation of land use incentives and regulatory changes to encourage development of more affordable housing types, particularly those for households below 80% of area median income.


Our proposed timeline is as follows:

  • November 2023: Gather feedback on grant funding from stakeholders.
  • December 2023: Incorporate public feedback and post grant application.
  • February 2024: Award grants to applicants.
  • June 2025: Awardees complete all grant work.


We appreciate your time to answer the following questions about this grant proposal. We expect this survey will take less than 10 minutes.

 

Tell us a little bit about yourself

 
 
 

In which county or counties do you work or provide services

 

What is your role in planning for housing:

 

Grant program

 

Which format for this grant would be most beneficial to the organization leading the grant:

 

Grant activities

This grant would fund the following grant activities. Please rate these as high, medium, or low priority considering what is most important to support your county in planning for the lowest income housing needs.

 

For counties that have a HUD Consolidated Plan (5 counties) - coordinate HUD Consolidated Plans and 5-year homelessness plans with Growth Management Act (GMA) comprehensive plans so they have consistent policies and data, as all are updated in the next few years.

 

For Balance of State jurisdictions – coordinate planning of 5-year homelessness plans with GMA comprehensive plans so they have consistent policies and data.

 

Develop countywide planning policies that include planning for the lowest income housing needs and a framework for allocating the countywide housing needs for the lowest income segments, including emergency housing and permanent supportive housing (PSH).

 

Coordinating conversations and resource sharing between counties and cities on homelessness planning.

 

Technical assistance with updating development regulations to allow emergency housing and shelters, PSH and transitional housing in more areas. (This would be after Commerce develops our model ordinance, which will be developed by June 2024.)

 

Community planning and implementation of land use incentives and regulatory changes to encourage development of more affordable housing types, particularly those for households below 80% of area median income.

 

What other planning and coordination activities to support the grant objectives would you like to see this grant support?

 
 

Grant criteria

 

Eligible applicants would be:

  • Counties in coordination with one of the two biggest cities,
  • A city in coordination with the county, or
  • non-profits in coordination with both entities (county and city).


Those who could apply on behalf of the county or a city would be the planning department or the homeless housing lead or similar designated official or department. We would award no more than one grant per county, so applicants are encouraged to work together.


Please provide any feedback you have on eligible groups for the grant.

 
 

We propose to provide grants of $25,000. Does this grant funding provide enough funding to support the grant objectives?

 

The application would require:

  • Information from each partner of the eligible group (county, city, and/or non-profit),
  • Proposed activities to fund in the form of a scope of work and budget, and
  • Letter from an elected authority (chair of the county commission or equivalent) and letter from local homelessness coalition to show that they have support of leadership and coordinating parties to do this work.


Given these application requirements, would you be applying for this grant?

 

We plan to prioritize these grant funds (one per county), based on the following criteria, which are illustrated in this Excel file.

  • The counties with the highest overall percentage of people whose income is below poverty level.
  • The counties with the highest overall percentage of future housing needs below 80% of Area Median Income (see Planning for Housing in Washington, page 3).


Is there any other criteria we should consider when choosing grantees? Should any of these criteria be changed?

 
 

Please provide any other input you have on this grant proposal (e.g., feedback on eligible entities, what is included in the application, etc.).

 
 

Thank you for your time in completing this survey!