Ordinance 4101-25 - Laserfiche WebLink

Page 40 Everett 2044 Housing Element Appendix Category 2: Sensitfve informatfon At the tfme, the City’s Diversity Board shared concerns about the wealth disparitfes in the community and the importance of supportfng homeownership in a diverse community. Using community owned propertfes to provide good affordable housing and to promote community connectfons could be a way to accomplish these goals. Staff conducted outreach with service providers and families in the light rail statfon areas near Casino Road. These marginalized communitfes have experienced an ample increase in rent hikes brought by various factors, which have both effected living conditfons, and efforts to own homes. Many of these families are made up of two adults, and anywhere between one to five kids. Some families would occasionally be joined by an older adult, making these households comprised of three to eight individuals. These residents experienced disparate impacts from conditfons out of their control, with the initfal rent struggles caused by the COVID19 pandemic. Most of these residents work jobs in retail, food industry, constructfon, and general service jobs. These occupatfons were among the hardest hit by the pandemic restrictfons, which limited household income and the ability to afford rents. The result of these limited income opportunitfes and recent layoffs has brought a high stress living situatfon, with at least one of the parents’ losing income, forcing their partner to take on additfonal jobs or request other members of their families to work to make rent payments. In the Casino Road community, the upcoming constructfon of the Sound Transit Light Rail has brought additfonal rent increases, with renters reportfng a $200-300 increase in rents as ‘adjustments’ due to the expected constructfon. An 850 SF, two- bedroom, one bath apartment can have a startfng cost of $1,500 in this area, affordable to residents earning 20% more than the average income in these census tracts. The recent inflatfon and impacts on the cost of resources have also made it difficult for these communitfes to adjust to rent increases. Families have leaned on food bank services and public community health events to reserve their income solely for rents. These struggles have made it very difficult for families to afford their current rents or set money into a savings account to afford a down payment on a home in a region where homes cost between $425K up to a million. Through outreach and discussions with other service providers, including the Everett Housing Authority, Housing Hope, Domestfc Violence Services and the Housing Consortfum of Everett and Snohomish County, the limitatfons on housing choice was noted as a challenge. Traditfonal residentfal neighborhoods generally have opportunitfes such as built out transportatfon networks, parks and access to schools. When these neighborhoods have limited housing choice and optfons, disparately impacted One of our community service providers shared a story about a family who had recently immigrated and faced a multftude of challenges. This mother has seven kids, with the oldest approximately 12. The family struggles to put food on the table. The husband works, but the mother cannot because of a lack of childcare availability outside of school hours. She walks everywhere, pushing her stroller with her three younger kids. She gets an Orca card when available from Connect Casino Road. Another struggle this mom faces is a very difficult language barrier. This individual is from a small town in Oaxaca, where her dialect is more common than Spanish. She understands Spanish, but it’s not her natfve language. She is working hard to learn English, but it has created a new barrier for her to communicate simple messages. In partfcular, she had recently received a letter from her kids' school, and she had no idea what it said, so she went to the Village to get assistance with this. The lack of income has created stress in her life, but she gets food assistance, transportatfon assistance (when available), and when possible, educatfon assistance to learn English, on top of becoming more familiar with Spanish. She has gotten some financial assistance from the Village, and they do what they can, but they are seeing a huge increase of these type of situatfons.