Seminar Addresses Affordable Housing

Spokane won’t solve its affordable housing shortage without the help of the business community, participants at a seminar decided Thursday.

“Without the support of the business and economic community, we’re not going to be able to create affordable housing,” said Kerri Simmons, a community development specialist with the state Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development.

Simmons was one of the participants at the third annual “A Roof Over my Head” conference sponsored by the Greater Spokane Coalition Against Poverty, the Spokane Council of Ecumenical Ministries and the Spokane Affordable Housing Campaign.

The goal, addressed from many different angles, was to find solutions to the region’s affordable housing shortage.

Participants talked about enlisting media to publicize the problem, influencing government policy at local, state and national levels, and promoting land-use decisions that make housing affordable.

In Simmons’ seminar, participants tried to figure out ways to make affordable housing part of the region’s economic development strategy.

Many Spokane organizations focus on affordable housing, but it’s not an issue embraced by the greater business community, they said.

“The dialogue between the affordable housing developer and the for-profit developer is not happening,” said Lonnie Gallo-Pierce, development director for the Spokane Housing Authority.

The participants planned a campaign to make business and economic development leaders understand that promoting affordable housing is crucial to boosting the region’s economy.

One idea the group endorsed was approaching the Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce about creating an affordable housing committee.

“We have to eliminate the stigma that affordable housing is just a homeless issue,” said Dorothy Lengyel, executive director of HomeSight, a Seattle non-profit community development corporation.

The group also planned to work with economic development organizations about the type of businesses that are recruited to this area.

“We don’t want anymore Wal-Marts,” said Karen Seitze, of Northwest Regional Facilitators. Minimum wage jobs, she said, don’t help people afford homes.

Gallo-Pierce disagreed, saying any type of job was better than unemployment. “I think those $6 per hour jobs are great. They lead to other jobs.”

, DataTimes