I’ve written about it before, but this article goes back 20 years. Today’s shortage of farm labor (see: Washington growers struggle with a labor shortage) is made worse by lack of housing in rural Washington. Meanwhile the Housing Trust Fund pours more and more cash into pricey projects in Seattle, projects that are made more expensive by self-inflicted regulatory overreach. When I wrote this article, the issue facing the state was what to do with a crisis in Eastern Washington. Today, the housing problems created by the Seattle City Council mean more and more state resources are consumed here; that means fewer dollars for Farmworker housing and all housing in rural Washington. Washington’s agricultural economy needs labor, and without housing that labor can be hard to find. And when farmers can’t find workers it means food gets more expensive. Seattle drives the state’s policy, and unless and until Seattle legislators hold the City Council accountable, this problem will keep getting worse.