(The Center Square) – Snohomish County announced it is offering $2 million to applicants working on projects to increase the number of affordable housing units in the region.
Out of the $2 million, $1.2 million stems from federal funds under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program. It is anticipated to be available for the 2024 program year, along with an estimated $833,379 under the Chemical Dependency Mental Health Sales Tax program available for the 2023 program year.
All proposed projects must benefit low-income people in Snohomish County, according to Thursday news release.
Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers said that the county still needs more than 143,000 new housing units by 2044 to meet the need.
The region has seen residents struggle with increasing cost of living and availability of affordable homes. The Snohomish County Housing Authority states that for the last 10 years, the number of new Snohomish County households have exceeded the number of new homes built by roughly 25%.
Other statistics from the housing authority show that 31% of all Snohomish County households pay more than 30% of their income to housing, including fully employed workers. About 30,000 households in the county pay more than 50% of their income to housing, which leads to many sacrificing their spending on food and healthcare.
“We are laser focused on creating more housing that is affordable at all income levels,” Somers said in the news release. “ At the County, we’re committed to using all available tools at our disposal to increase our affordable housing stock.”
Somers added that the county will still need a significant amount of state and federal funding to address the region’s affordable housing crisis.
