Missing Middle deserves and needs support

In my work looking at our housing affordability crisis, I have become clear that we need both more housing and more diverse housing in our urban areas to even begin to make a difference. After nearly a year of study and process, the city of Olympia’s proposed Missing Middle changes make great sense.

I am hopeful that they will generate creative new small housing options for our fellow community members. I believe that these smaller residential options will create better community connections in neighborhoods and mutually beneficial income and lower cost opportunities for individual property owners and renters alike.

Sharing space with others is a much more wholesome future than higher and higher housing costs and sprawl. Nearly half our local residents rent and I am sad to read the arguments against these missing changes as they sound like NIMBYism, fearful of change in our urban neighborhoods. Let’s come together and create more housing opportunities for all of us!

This story was originally published June 7, 2018 at 2:57 PM with the headline "Missing Middle deserves and needs support."