Jefferson County and the City of Port Townsend will tweak a draft resolution on the state of affordable housing before voting on whether to declare an emergency.

Jefferson County Commissioner John Austin of Port Ludlow started to make a motion May 1 during a joint meeting of the two governments, in which there seemed to be a consensus that there is a problem, but Austin was told a decision wasn't on the agenda.

Councilors and commissioners did offer their own perceptions of the issue, and both governments have written letters to Sen. Patty Murray urging her to support the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007 (S2523), which would provide funding for construction, rehabilitation, acquisition and preservation of 1.5 million affordable housing units nationwide over the next decade.

The county's letter notes that housing prices have increased "about 104 percent between 2001 and 2006," while the average median income is lower than the state average.

Members of both governments also indicated general support for declaring an affordable housing emergency, which could make it easier for groups to qualify for grant money. An emergency declaration also could allow either entity to call for a levy election to help finance affordable housing, but that option was seen as unlikely in light of the economy.

Jefferson County has been ranking second to San Juan County on an index indicating the least affordable counties in Washington state. King County briefly was second in line last winter, but that changed, and now Jefferson is back in second place, officials said.

Median prices

The Housing Affordability Index, produced by the Washington Center for Real Estate Research through Washington State University, measures the median price of a home and the ability of a middle-income family to carry the mortgage payments on that home. In the third quarter of 2007, the median price of a home in the San Juan Islands was $585,000, with a monthly payment of $3,035 needed. The median household income in the San Juans was $47,201.

In Jefferson County, the median price of a home was $320,000 and a monthly payment of $1,629 was needed. The median household income was $44,285.

In 2000, it was estimated that between 17.9 percent and 23 percent of households in Jefferson County needed housing assistance in some form, and officials said that need likely is growing, not shrinking.

Declaring that an emergency exists in Jefferson County could make it easier for groups that are trying to help with affordable housing to obtain grants, officials said.

Past projects built with federal support such as Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding - including the Garden Court Apartments in Hadlock - now risk being taken out of the affordable housing market pool and sold on the open market.

No deal has been signed yet to save the Garden Court Apartments as affordable housing, although it has been discussed and efforts have been made, officials were told.

David Rymph of the Jefferson Housing Authority illustrated the need with other numbers, noting there are 200 people on a waiting list for Section 8 housing vouchers that assist low-income residents with paying rent.

The problem is, there are fewer and fewer places for those people to rent.

"We have people turning vouchers in because they can't find housing," Rymph said.

City Councilor Catharine Robinson said it is much more difficult to add new housing units than it is to keep the units that are affordable. She voiced support for saving the existing pool of affordable housing.

Property inventory

In the meantime, city and county officials say they have done inventories of properties where affordable housing could be built and found there is little available suitable for such housing projects.

City Mayor Michelle Sandoval said the city looked at all properties it owns, not just those it considered "surplus."
County Commissioner Phil Johnson said there is property near the county's Department of Community Development that could be looked at for future affordable housing.

Councilor Brent Butler noted that Jefferson is not alone in facing an affordable housing problem. Butler, who was a long-range planner for the county and moved to a similar but higher-paying job on Bainbridge Island, supported declaring an emergency in Jefferson County and then deciding on a course of action.

Deputy Mayor George Randels also urged the governments to act.

County Commissioner David Sullivan said he approaches the issue from the perspective of a nurse, and he questioned whether the lack of affordable housing was an emergency or a "chronic condition."

"I really look at the housing situation as a chronic problem. It's been going on for years," Sullivan said. Sullivan said it seems to him that the city and county should lobby the state for more tools to solve the problems. He questioned whether declaring an emergency would be sufficient.

The Housing Action Plan Network (HAPN) met April 21 and voted unanimously to recommend that the city and county adopt a declaration of a housing emergency for low- and moderate-income households in Jefferson County and the City of Port Townsend.

"The housing emergency declaration formally recognizes that Jefferson County is in a housing crisis - as one of the three least affordable counties in the state - and that our community needs to take action now to address the crisis," wrote Rymph, chairman of the Housing Authority of Jefferson County and a HAPN member, in an April 23 letter to the two groups.

Homelessness vs. affordable housing

How homelessness fit in with affordable housing concerns also was raised.

Sandoval said she saw the two as different issues. She said it is the duty of the two governments to take some real steps to get people into housing. "I want to see something in the ground," she said.

And deForest Walker of Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP) urged support for an emergency declaration. "The cure for homelessness is affordable housing. These issues are related," she said. She urged the groups to come up with a roadmap and a coordinated strategy.

Sheriff Mike Brasfield told the groups that it was important to have a homeless shelter central to employment, medical care, shopping and transportation. And those requirements suggest Port Townsend as the place to site a homeless shelter, he said.

The American Legion was thanked for its efforts with other groups to serve the homeless community. There was talk of the shelter ultimately needing a conditional-use permit.

Finally, there also was talk of not advertising that Port Townsend is an easy place for homeless people to come, so as to discourage people wanted by the law. It was noted that a homeless man found dead March 17 in Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park was a convicted child molester who was considered armed and dangerous.

"We don't want to advertise it in Seattle," Johnson said of the possibility that the shelter could become inundated.
Told there were problems at the Legion this past winter, Walker said there are rules that people who go to the shelter must follow and she was aware that toward the end of the service this winter there was "activity that was unsavory." But Walker said that the majority of the time, things went well. She also said people who smell of alcohol aren't turned away on a freezing night because they are especially vulnerable to suffering in cold weather.

There also was discussion about allowing people to camp in parks in Port Townsend.

Sandoval said the city can't allow citizens who think the park is for strolling or bird watching to inadvertently come in contact with people using the parks to live in unsanitary conditions. Photos of such a camping situation were passed around that prompted one person to question whether the health department was called to investigate.