AHAB Puts Housing
Issues in Focus
One
of the great supporters of affordable housing in Washington State is my
friend Hugh Spitzer. As most of you know, he is the Chair of the
Affordable Housing Advisory Board (AHAB), which provides housing policy
guidance to CTED’s Director. AHAB recently released its five-year
housing plan and I thought it would be interesting to get Hugh’s “take”
on AHAB’s work.
Hugh Spitzer, Chair
Affordable Housing Advisory Board
AHAB has considerable impact on everyone’s efforts to promote
affordable housing across the state. If you turn to page 35 of
AHAB’s Housing Advisory Plan 2005-2010 (you can download it at
www.cted.wa.gov), you’ll find their progress report for the five
year period just ending. A quick scan of just the top three bullets
will give you some sense of how closely intertwined AHAB’s
accomplishments are with our ability to pursue housing that families
can afford.
Specifically, over the last five years, the state has increased:
-
The Housing Trust
Fund from $70.5 million to $80 million, despite a cash-strapped
budget environment
-
Low-Income
Housing Tax Credits by 40 percent
-
Housing’s share
of Private Activity Bond Cap from 25 percent to 32 percent
These accomplishments notwithstanding, AHAB points out that
Washington’s housing needs clearly exceed our resources in the
coming five-year period. Priorities need to be established and,
inevitably, there will be trade-offs.
Within AHAB, Hugh tells us, there were intense discussions on how to
allocate Housing Trust Fund resources. "Some advocated focusing
almost exclusively on the poorest citizens, the homeless and those
living at or below the poverty line, which is defined as 17% of the
median income. Others believe that resources should be spent to
assist those along a broader continuum, reaching families up to 80%
of median income."
While these discussions are ongoing, AHAB’s five-year plan captures
the current consensus. Asked to highlight what he thinks are a few
of the big picture issues, Hugh pinpointed housing for the homeless
and very-low-income people, as well as the need to address the high cost of
housing in general.
Hugh observes that we have thousands of homeless people, statewide.
"Many have substance abuse problems and there is not an adequate
supply of housing for them. In addition, there are many low-income
people who require extra social services or medical support. The
need for low income housing in general, with a focus on 'supportive
housing,' is immense. That’s why it is one of AHAB’s top
priorities."
Hugh says the other big concern is the general affordability of
housing in Washington state. "We have many working people whose jobs
have allowed them to accumulate some savings, but the rising price
of housing keeps homeownership beyond their reach. AHAB recommends
that the government modify the present approach, which loads nearly
all of the costs of developing infrastructure onto the construction
costs for new housing. Inevitably, these costs get passed directly
to the residents, so the units are often priced out of reach of the
intended population."
Finally, Hugh reminds us that AHAB feels strongly that we need to
let people develop housing without so many regulatory burdens.
AHAB
recommends that local governments simplify zoning and building
standards—don’t drop them, just make them easier to use. "We could
move back to the model that prevailed in the‘50s and ‘60s, when the
costs of transportation and core infrastructure development were
paid for by the community as a whole."
*
One great thing about working with Hugh Spitzer is the big-picture,
historical perspective he brings to issues. For instance, in a
recent discussion of the different growth management strategies in
Seattle and Portland, Hugh pointed out that Oregon was settled by an
earlier generation of pioneers than Washington. "The Oregonians came
in prairie schooners to build family farms in the Willamette Valley;
Washingtonians came via the railroads to build industrial-scale
farms to grow wheat for export. Interestingly, these differences are reflected
in the state constitutions and our current approaches to growth
management."
That ability to put things in a useful perspective is in evidence in
a diagram, which we have reproduced above. It shows “the continuum
of housing services” with private sector activities and the
participation of federal, state and local government agencies. As
Hugh observes, “Although many different organizations and sectors
are positioned to address affordability in the same income areas,
this is due to the complexity of the needs of the income
category—not a redundancy of service. For example, a multi-family
low-income housing project in downtown Seattle typically requires
assistance from at least five sources: tax credits (requiring
private sector participation), public funding from the city’s local
housing program, public funding from the state’s Housing Trust Fund,
federal capital assistance, and social service subsidies paid to
occupants which generate the rent for operation and maintenance.”
So
many of us work as partners on different projects, I thought you’d
be interested in seeing this diagram which does such a good job of
explaining it!
Mike
Lowry Getting Homes Built in Ephrata
The Commission’s Proud Partner Award acknowledges Governor Lowry’s
vision and commitment to homeownership for Washington’s agricultural
workers.
On October 21, 2004, at a ceremony in
Ephrata, the Commission recognized Governor Lowry’s efforts on behalf of Washington’s agricultural workers with a
Proud Partner Award. The award was presented by
Commissioner Isabel Bedolla Roos.
Former Governor and Congressman Mike Lowry approaches retirement a
bit differently from the rest of us. Since completing his tenure in
Olympia and Washington D.C., he’s focused his legendary energy and
good will on farm workers’ housing and other quality-of-life issues
that are personally important to him. In Governor Lowry,
Washington’s agricultural families have found an able and
hard-working advocate, springing from his rural Eastern Washington
upbringing.
The Ephrata homes are a virtual textbook case on how government and
community organizations can successfully partner to help make homes
that people can afford a reality. The Housing Authority of Grant
County, CTED’s Housing Services Division, the
Federal Home Loan Bank
and the Commission all played important roles. The Commission’s
House Key loan program, which provides a below-market interest rate,
was made available to the borrowers through Washington Mutual.
In addition,
Lowry is quick to credit the AmeriCorps*Vista program, which
has subsidized the three full-time VISTA volunteers who support
WAFA’s operational efforts. He also credits Ephrata’s receptivity
to affordable homes for farm workers from the area.
Mike Lowry,
former Washington State Governor and Congressman, Executive Director, Washington Agricultural Families Assistance
Ephrata is the site of all
eleven
farm worker homes that have been financed through
Washington Agricultural Families Assistance (WAFA), a nonprofit
corporation which Lowry founded and directs.
The first five homes
were completed this fall.
But it’s no exaggeration to say that it was Governor Lowry’s
in-the-trenches participation that got the lots secured, and the homes
started and will see all 11 through to completion. He
formally established WAFA about 18 months ago; although the shortage of
housing in Washington for families who work in agriculture has been
on the front burner for him for much longer than that. Mike Lowry grew up in the Palouse in Eastern Washington, in farming
country. In fact, he still manages his family’s small ranch in
Kettle Falls. He remembers when seasonal farm workers
first started coming into the state. He saw firsthand how
poorly they were housed.
If
you know the Governor, you know he doesn’t fit the figurehead mold.
He’s reached out to people from his days in government and put
together a small but very effective organization in WAFA. “People
actually laugh at how small our operating budget is,” Lowry says.
“We want all the funds to go into having the houses available.”
He’s been making the trips to Eastern Washington to find the land
for these homes, organize volunteers and secure funding. This is
truly a labor of love.
For Governor Lowry and those working alongside him, their broad
mission, delivered through WAFA, is to advance the quality of life
for agricultural workers in our state. He makes a point of placing
these efforts in the context of how important agriculture, and its
workers, are to Washington state. He observes that agriculture
employs more people in Washington than any other industry, a number
that includes seasonal workers. It’s an annual $2 billion-plus
industry—and our state leads the rest of the nation in at least 10
agricultural products.
There are many committed organizations and individuals around the
state who know how tough it has been, historically, for farm workers
to get access to good housing they can afford—and who are
contributing to change this landscape. One of the things that makes
WAFA so special is that it’s only the second formal effort in the
state that is focused on home ownership for farm workers.
The farm worker clinic, La Clinica, based in the Tri-Cities area, is
the first. La Clinica has developed a self-help housing program,
which provides supervision for farm workers to help build their own
homes. Thus far, they’ve been able to help these families complete
more than 100 homes. With five homes completed, WAFA is working on
a much smaller scale. But La Clinica got its start with five or six
homes, too. Each completed home matters. I look forward to working
in partnership with Governor Lowry and WAFA in the coming years to
ensure that homeownership can be an achievable dream for
Washington’s farm workers and their families.
Open Window School Accomplishes the
‘Impossible’
   
Vision and determination helped Open Window persevere through a
challenging approval process to serve more students in their new
facility. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak at the open house of a
wonderful school my son Scott attended for two years when he was
younger. The expansion of their facility was achieved with some
difficulty, but the outcome is well worth the effort.
The completed campus of Open Window School is a testimony to the
vision of its supporters. It’s a beautifully conceived and
constructed school, sited on 7½ acres on the slope of Cougar
Mountain in Bellevue, with views overlooking Bellevue, Lake
Washington and Seattle. Much thought has gone into providing a
facility that reflects and supports the school’s mission and
programs. This fall, it opened its doors to 248 students.
The new facilities have enabled the school to expand its student
body by 60%—“one of the strongest reasons we were motivated to keep
this process going,” says Wilder Dominick, Open Window’s Head of
School. During the past half-decade, hundreds of students who
could have benefited from the programs of the school were turned
away for lack of space. These are kids that are difficult to serve
in other school settings.
The school’s philosophy, ‘children first, gifted second,’
underscores the faculty’s approach to working with highly capable
kids. Working to meet the social and emotional needs of their
students, alongside academic and creative objectives, is a strong
aspect of Open Window School’s core values. The school works with
pre-kindergarden through fifth-grade students from Woodinville to
Renton.
Open Window School had more than its share of roadblocks in building
its brand-new campus. The process was a challenging one, ranging
from securing funding to a prolonged neighborhood approval process
over traffic and parking issues that required three trips to
Superior Court. When the school’s Strategic Plan for the new campus
was adopted in late 1997, the school was still in rented facilities
at a local YMCA. The number of students it could hold and the
programs it could support were severely restricted.
“We knew we wanted to have our own home,” Dominick observes, “and we
began to inquire of other local schools: How did you accomplish the
impossible?” Dominick and the school’s board of trustees listened,
did their research, took heart and ultimately coordinated with the
Commission, which approved a $6 million bond issue for partial
financing of the new campus.
Open Window is one of ten or twelve private schools the Commission
has funded to meet the wide-ranging educational needs of the
students in Washington. Schools for the gifted are a strong case in
point. They’re frequently mischaracterized, but in reality, they
serve kids from the entire socio-economic spectrum. Their students
need specialized attention to keep them engaged, which they
frequently can’t get from their local public schools. Open Window
School has been very successful in providing a challenging
curriculum and diversity for residents in Eastern King County. The
positive reception from the community has been tremendous.
Mark
Flynn is Impact Capital’s New Executive Director
The right man for an important role, Mark led the Commission’s
Compliance and Preservation Division to many unsung successes over
the past nine years.
There has been much anticipation over who would be selected by
Impact Capital to be its new Executive Director. Impact Capital is
a $20 million-plus predevelopment loan and technical assistance
organization that promotes affordable housing and community
development in Washington state. Last month, Impact Capital’s Board
of Directors named Mark Flynn to the post. Mark has directed the
Commission’s Compliance and Preservation Division for the past nine
years.
Mark Flynn,
Executive Director
Impact Capital
Mark will replace Tom Lattimore, who was Impact Capital’s Executive
Director for the past decade. This is an extremely important
position and we can think of no one more qualified to fill it. Compliance and Preservation is one of those unsung areas that
doesn’t grab headlines like brand-new homes and multifamily housing
properties, but the work Mark’s division accomplished during his
tenure here has been far-reaching. Under his directorship, the
division was responsible for keeping hundreds of residential
communities in compliance, helping to maintain their long-term
viability. Included in his team’s efforts has been preserving and
extending the affordability of multifamily properties most at risk
of converting to market rates. He
also led an expansion of the Compliance Division’s responsibilities,
taking on preservation programs for low-income apartment properties
that included HUD Section 8 projects.
The Commission and Impact Capital share many causes in common—and
have a long history of working together. Close to five years ago,
the Commission made an investment in Impact Capital, and it fell to
Mark to monitor that relationship. As part of his responsibilities,
he represented the Commission on Impact Capital’s Investment
Committee and regional credit committees, helping advise on loan
decisions. Mark has worked very closely with Impact Capital’s
staff. In fact, Tom Lattimore used to joke that thanks to Mark’s
services, Impact Capital got the benefit of a free, unpaid staff
member.
Mark tells us that he welcomes the opportunity Impact Capital is
giving him to be on the front side of deals again. He began his
career in grassroots neighborhood development; he also spent eight
years with the FDIC making deals on behalf of taxpayers. He clearly
relishes that kind of work. “There’s a lot of capacity building
that goes along with lending activity,” he says. “You really see
results.”
Mark Flynn has the vision, the expertise and experience to see
Impact Capital’s many important efforts through to completion, and
to direct its focus as it moves forward. I look forward to
partnering with Mark and Impact Capital on housing and community
development issues in the years ahead.
About Us
The Washington State Housing Finance Commission is a self-supporting
agency that provides below-market financing to buy, build or
preserve affordable housing and nonprofit capital facilities. The
Commission builds partnerships with the private sector to raise
capital needed to further these social and economic objectives at no
cost to the taxpayers of Washington State. For more
information about the Commission and its work, visit
www.wshfc.org or call
206-464-7139 or 1-800-767-HOME (4663) toll free in Washington State.
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