Proposal to create state Housing Department heads to House floor for debate
Washington state would create a new statewide Department of Housing under a proposal making its way through the Legislature.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Melanie Morgan, D-Spanaway, with the co-sponsorship of every Democrat in the Washington House of Representatives.
The idea for the legislation came from Morgan’s own experience with homelessness, and how she struggled to find housing despite having a housing voucher, she told McClatchy in an interview.
Morgan said she believes it is necessary to create the department to tackle not just homelessness, but also to handle evictions, keep seniors housed and promote homeownership for younger generations.
The biggest challenge overall, she said, is supplying the additional 1.1 million homes needed in the next two decades to keep people housed in Washington state.
“I’m not sold on the idea that we’re going to get that accomplished…,” Morgan said, stating that current programs can’t keep up.
Ideally creating a Housing Department would allow the state to take a more holistic approach to the housing crisis by pulling all housing programs into one place so agencies to have a “bird’s eye view” of the issue. Resources could then be used more efficiently, Morgan said.
While Morgan thinks more can be done in the housing realm, she doesn’t believe the issue is about which agencies have “dropped the ball,” she said.
“I think every department did their due diligence in trying to service my constituents, myself,” she said. “The reality is there are outside entities that play into this that we don’t have any control over — like rent stabilization, like setting standards for section 8 vouchers — we don’t have any control of that so what I’m saying is, could we put all the programs together, view them, find out what is the data and statistics on them actually working and then shore up anything else that needs to be added.”
Under the bill, the Office of Financial Management along with an external consultant are tasked with identifying gaps in current state housing programs as well as studying the transition of current housing programs to the statewide housing agency.
Studies must review and provide recommendations to the Legislature and governor regarding issues such as: “any gaps in existing rental, transitional housing, senior housing, homelessness, homeownership, and manufactured housing programs provided by the state,” and “estimated costs for the reorganization and creation of a new housing agency, including indirect costs, change management, training, and community outreach.”
The review also requires the external consultant to seek recommendations from state agencies such as the Governor’s Office, the Attorney General’s Office, and the Health Care Authority.
The first report must be submitted by the external consultant to the Legislature and governor by July 1, 2025.
The bill passed from executive session in the House Appropriations Committee on Monday with no Republican support, and will now go to the House floor for debate. If passed from the House chamber, the Senate would then consider the measure.
Rep. April Connors, R-Kennewick, is the Assistant Ranking Minority Member on the House Appropriations Committee and House Housing Committee.
During the executive session for the legislation, Connors said that the House Republican caucus was not in support of the measure due to concerns that it could add more red tape to the existing process and would just add another agency to the long list of existing housing agencies. Currently the Department of Commerce runs most of the housing programs, she said.
“I’m concerned with some of our agencies already having major issues that this is going to have increased regulations and increased delays to creating housing in Washington state,” Connors said.
A similar version of the bill was first introduced by Morgan in 2022, but that bill did not go further than a public hearing in the House Housing, Human Services and Veterans Committee.
This story was originally published February 6, 2024 at 2:12 PM.
