Resolution 7700 - Laserfiche WebLink

Appendix B: Community Input Summary Everett Housing Action Plan B-10 • City Council needs to muster the courage to allow for greater infill in Everett's existing single-family neighborhoods. It can be done right, but we must stop letting NIMBYS block good and needed projects. • I lived in a newer construction apartment building in the Downtown area and it was a dump. Poor quality, poor materials, and will not outlast many older buildings. Housing Affordability • Support financial incentives for the development of affordable housing- maybe. But the landlord/developer needs to keep it up to code. • Financial incentives for affordable housing brings the likelihood for unacceptable tax increases on the middle class. • Home ownership and affordability are key strategic goals. They will drive civic engagement. Affordability is a combination of land price, cost of regulations/compliance, construction and what the market will bear. Speed of permits needs to be improved. • What is currently considered "affordable housing" is not affordable for most. • The biggest area I find personally is not making enough money to afford the cheapest apartment in town, but too much to get any help. So much focus is on the homeless, and not enough on affordability to keep families from becoming homeless. • I think variety & affordability are key to future development. In general much more emphasis should be made to accommodate folks with disabilities who have multigenerational families. • We need to provide/build more low-income housing so folks don't have to drive far to work; can reasonably commute from home to work. • The "affordable" housing incentives seem to add up to a bigger benefit for developers than to actual families or people. Whenever there is a good idea it seems certain neighborhoods have problems with the idea. (Housing Hope with the School District). Another thing to keep in mind not all homeless people are on drugs or have mental issues and not enough is going on to help them they are offered a shelter space among and with the people on drugs or with mental issues but no permanent solution that works for them. • People want to live in neighborhoods that are well kept so maybe having some standards to any housing development or incentives to fix up existing structures would also help. The rent in the Everett area is extremely high. Perhaps rent controlled developments should be looked into. • Everett has a growing lack of affordable housing, especially for affordable single-family homes and apartments. Building more luxury townhomes or apartments will not fix this and displaces normal folks looking to buy or rent.