2016/07/13 Council Agenda Packet

Housing Consortium of Everett& Snohomish County 411.1h,y PO Box 1326 Everett,WA 98037 425-339-1015 HOUSING housingsnohomish@gmail.com CONSORTIUM Of NM Ti AND www.housingsnohomish.org SNOWMAN COUNTY July 12,2016 Everett City Council 2930 Wetmore Avenue Suite 9-A Everett, WA 98201 To: Council President Murphy, Councilmembers Roberts, Stonecipher, Bader, Moore,Tuohy and Franklin From: Mark Smith, Executive Director, Housing Consortium of Everett& Snohomish County RE: CB 1607-29 Impact Fee Deferral & Waiver There is tremendous need in the City of Everett for affordable housing that serves low income households. Affordable housing is defined as not paying more than 30% of a household's income for rent&utilities.At 30%, households have enough to put food on the table, pay medical bills, have appropriate levels of home, medical, dental, car & life insurance, own &maintain a car, and perhaps have enough left over at the end of the year for Christmas presents. These are all things most of us take for granted yet are too often out of reach to low income households due in part to the high cost of housing. According to The Department of Housing&Urban Development, 2015 fair market rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in Everett was $1,523 mo. The Housing Wage necessary for that apartment to be affordable was $29.29 or just less than $61K per year. The estimated renter median household income in Everett was $43,660.A household earning at this level spends almost 42%of their income on housing often leaving them hideous choices each month: Pay the doctor bill or the dentist, but not both; refill a prescription or buy food, but not both; buy shoes for our kids or back-to-school supplies, but not both. Real choices being made by real people in our city. At the Consortium, we believe that safe, stable, affordable housing is the foundation upon which better lives are built. We applaud the City of Everett for their recent steps in making Everett an affordable place for all its residents. '1 he City Streets Initiative, forward movement on a Housing First facility, and the keenly felt elevated interest in affordable housing: These are all positive developments welcomed by the affordable housing community. Passage of an impact fee waiver for affordable housing would be another tremendous step forward. Nonprofit affordable housing developers and public housing authorities are in the business of housing people who for a variety of reasons the private housing market is hard pressed to serve. Low income, physically disabled, the B ai i elderly,the mentally ill, homeless veterans, homeless youth: these are just some of the populations eye serve. A measure such as an impact fee waiver lowers the cost of development and allows for even deeper rent reductions or additional units to be built.