Olympia mayor criticizes Lacey for lack of support on housing; Lacey mayor defends city
Olympia City Council met this week with an agenda full of housing initiatives to benefit people across Thurston County.
But one upcoming project raised concerns for Mayor Cheryl Selby and the council members. Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder chalked up the concern to poor communication.
Two Accessory Dwelling Units, a tiny home-like residence, are planned to be built on two single-family, low-income home lots through Homes First, a local rental housing nonprofit. It’s part of a larger project that includes purchasing five single-family homes across the county, funded by Home Fund tax dollars.
The problem is with the two ADUs: they’re both located in Lacey, and Lacey hasn’t put any money into the Home Fund program, said Selby. Her statement was confirmed by Darian Lightfoot, the city’s home fund manager.
The Home Fund award allocation was approved by the council during its meeting, but not without criticism.
Selby said she’s “saddened” by financial choices Lacey has made as of late, and she plans to have more conversations regarding the amount Olympia is committing to something that doesn’t benefit the city.
The project in total will cost about $3 million, Selby said, and Olympia is planning to allocate $400,000 of its Home Fund tax dollars to it. She said she learned the average cost of one ADU is $450,000.
“That’s a big investment in Lacey that we’re putting Olympia Home Fund dollars in that our community has taxed themselves to do,” Selby said.
Selby said she recently learned staff in Lacey recommended they pull dollars that were supposed to go toward possibly purchasing a hotel for housing, and instead fund a new police station.
Selby said when the Home Fund was approved earlier this year, the city had an “unsigned commitment” from Lacey to help fund housing projects with some of their American Rescue Plan Act funds. She said it would’ve been a commitment of millions of dollars to match the millions Olympia was already putting into the fund.
“It’s really difficult for me to hear what we’re doing, and then that shift has been hard,” Selby said. “I’m really saddened by that choice, and I hope they can make a different decision; they haven’t approved that yet, but I hope they can at least help with housing in their community as well.”
Home fund manager Lightfoot said Homes First and her team would have liked for the ADUs to be built in Olympia, but there aren’t any in the city that would work in this scenario and time frame.
With the two ADUs in Lacey and five homes still to come, Selby said she’s hoping Homes First will choose Olympia area real estate locations. She said the community has always been generous with trying to provide permanent supportive housing across the county.
Several council members voiced their agreement with the mayor, including Lisa Parshley, Dani Madrone and Yến Huỳnh. Council member Dontae Payne agreed, too, and said the lack of commitment from Lacey still benefits Olympia in some ways.
“It’s no secret this has been the case for years, but I do think it’s worth the investment,” Payne said. “Often the lack of resources in Lacey brings people to our city to seek services and find shelter. It does still benefit us in a way.”
Mayor Selby challenged Payne on that statement and said Lacey does have the resources to take care of people, “they just do not provide them.”
Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder responds
Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder responded to Mayor Selby and the Olympia council’s remarks in an interview with The Olympian Thursday. He said it can all be chalked up to miscommunication, or a lack of any communication at all.
“This is somewhat typical of Lacey being criticized for something we’re not even aware of,” he said. “We’ve always been a supporter of the countywide home fund.”
Ryder said he was the one to suggest the cities and the county pool their ARPA dollars to alleviate homelessness throughout Thurston County in the first place, citing a letter he sent to the Regional Housing Council in April 2021. Instead, he said the county, Olympia and Tumwater all spent their ARPA dollars on their own projects.
He said Lacey held onto its emergency funds because an opportunity to purchase a hotel to slowly turn into permanent supportive housing was in the near future. Talks began with the county to partner and pool together funds to make it happen, but things changed again. Through the state’s rights-of-way initiative to clear homeless encampments, the Department of Commerce plans to purchase the hotel and work with the city.
With their proposed housing project being handled by someone else, Ryder said the city has proposed using their ARPA funds, alongside reserves and potential council-approved bonds, to fund a new $40-million police station. He said the city manager recommended using ARPA dollars rather than having to raise property taxes on citizens.
Ryder said Olympia officials allegedly had plans to use all of Lacey’s ARPA dollars, alongside some of its home fund tax dollars and other countywide funds, for proposed ADUs in Olympia. But no official from Lacey was at the table for the discussion; they were unaware of it.
Still, he has no hard feelings and would like for Lacey to contribute funds to the current housing project, possibly with reserves.
Ryder said he’s reached out to Mayor Selby in hopes of discussing things further.
“It would’ve been nice to be part of the conversation all along,” he said.
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