Representatives of Homes First and South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity, two Thurston County nonprofit housing providers, are appearing before city councils in Thurston County to urge elected officials to change the development process.
What change are they seeking? A streamlined process and fees that will reduce costs for them to provide affordable housing. The challenge, at least for Homes First, is that a recent home-building effort in Lacey hasn’t been affordable at all, said Evette Temple, board president of Homes First.
“We are here to provide housing, but we are being charged like large developers,” she told the Lacey City Council. “And we want to continue doing what we’ve been doing. At Homes First, we’ve been doing this for over 30 years, and you know, everyone is at risk. We provide (housing) for veterans, adults with disabilities, victims of domestic violence and seniors. So unless there’s some changes in how we are being charged, (along with) other nonprofits, we are not going to be able to do what we’ve been doing.”
Homes First typically buys homes and rents them out to qualifying residents. Recently, though, they branched out to develop two accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, in the Ruddell Road area of Lacey, only to discover the 600-square-foot units are going to cost $485,000 apiece, said Trudy Soucoup, chief executive officer of Homes First.
Because public money is involved — the ADUs have been funded by money from the state Department of Commerce, Thurston County, Olympia, Olympia Federal Savings and there’s a $50,000 ask from the city of Lacey — the nonprofit was required to pay a prevailing wage — the wage set by the state for union labor — that raised their costs significantly, she said.
Soucoup said she supports unions and believes in people being paid a fair wage, but Homes First needs some relief in that area as well as in other areas.
For example, Homes First is seeking:
▪ A sales tax exemption on building materials.
▪ Freedom to use materials they have in stock rather than being required to buy certain products.
▪ An expedited building development process. “If you’re doing affordable housing, you should be at the head of the line, not the back of it,” Soucoup said. “Time is money.”
Elizabeth Walker, the new CEO of Olympia-based South Puget Sound Habitat for Humanity, echoed some of those same concerns, particularly because her organization spends millions on building materials, she said.
Walker believes affordable housing providers need an altogether separate development and building review track that could be more permissive to expedite their projects.
Walker and Soucoup also addressed Olympia City Council about their concerns, and both are set to appear before the Thurston County Commissioners. A Homes First board member is also planning to visit Tumwater City Council, Soucoup said.
Walker said elected officials have been supportive of their concerns, so now it’s a question of figuring out how to address those concerns.
Lacey City Council members typically do not respond to public comment, but Mayor Andy Ryder did after hearing board President Temple speak.
“I’m happy to sit down with you and go over a couple of your concerns and set up a meeting so we can dive deeper into this and see if we have solutions,” Ryder said.
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