Washington to award more than $200 million for affordable rental housing units

The state of Washington is accepting applications to award more than $200 million in funding for affordable multifamily rental housing units, Gov. Bob Ferguson announced Tuesday.

According to the governor’s office, the $212 million in funding could help build more than 2,500 new housing units across the state in the coming years.

The funds will be allocated to developers by the Washington Department of Commerce in January through an application process that closes in October. It is part of a $419 million package the Legislature allocated earlier this year for affordable housing in the next two years.

Projects that receive funds typically break ground between six and 18 months after the award, and residents can typically move in within two years of work on the project beginning, according to the governor’s office.

Money will be allocated to three areas: King County, urban areas outside King County and rural areas outside of King County. Commerce is aiming to divide the funds evenly among the three groups.

“Affordable rental housing is one of the smartest investments we can make in our state’s future,” Commerce Director Joe Nguyen said in a statement. “When we invest in housing that people can actually afford, we’re strengthening entire communities, supporting local economies and creating a better future for everyone.”

Washington’s lack of affordable housing has been among Ferguson’s top priorities during his first months in office, and the governor has set a goal of adding 200,000 units of housing during his first term.

The Department of Commerce previously estimated that the state will need to build 1.1 million units over the next 20 years, with at least half designated as affordable housing. During a panel discussion at the Pacific Northwest Economic Region conference in Bellevue last month, Lt. Gov. Denny Heck said half of Washington’s renters, and a quarter of its homeowners, spend more than a third of their income on housing, a group that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development classifies as “rent-burdened.”

Nicholas Carr, a senior policy adviser focused on housing for the office of the governor, said during the panel that the state could also look to increase the amount of modular and manufactured housing units built off-site to meet the state’s needs.

“We can do all of the subsidies in the world, we can just get all of the regulations out of the way. And if we are still, in 20 years, building stick frames on -site, we will never, I repeat never, hit the goals of the homes we need,” Carr said. “The number will not exist that we need, without doing off-site.”