Washington’s First Pro-Housing Political Action Committee: Fair Housing Washington
Posted by Roger Valdez on Monday, September 17, 2018 · Leave a Comment
Ok. You’re right. There are other political action committees (PAC) out there that support or oppose candidates and issues based on housing issues. But what Fair Housing Washington does is to go beyond the trade association or constituency model of PACs to aim purely at good policy. What I mean is that the Rental Housing Association and the Master Builders Association and others spend money to influence politics, but they do it (and it’s a good thing!) on behalf of members and the interests of people trying to make a living either building or operating housing. Take a look at Fair Housing Washington’s agenda for 2018-2019:
Home Ownership
Current policy and funding priorities are not emphasizing transition to home ownership and asset building for families. Many families now in subsidized rental housing could own with the right structure, something that would free existing rental housing for use by others and create transferable wealth for new homeowners.
Rural Worker Housing
Washington needs a Farmworker and Agricultural Housing Authority that can efficiently build housing for H2A and other workers particularly those who work for small and medium sized farms. There are extreme shortages of housing in areas of rural Washington, including areas where fishing and sea food processing provide many jobs but little housing.
Reforming the Housing Trust Fund
The Housing Trust Fund distributes hundreds of millions of dollars for housing unfairly and inefficiently. The process for accessing state funding for housing is arduous and dominated by insiders, political considerations, and state bureaucracy. This means rural counties get few dollars and urban counties get most of the money. That has to change.
Opposing Rent Control
Currently the state doesn’t allow local governments to impose rent control. We need to keep this preemption. Rent control discourages housing production, makes housing scarcity worse, and means even higher rents. Rent control favors the lucky who get rent controlled units and hurts people with less money to spend on housing.
Reforming Land Use Regulations and the Growth Management Act
Housing production is limited by rules and regulations. When those regulations protects health and safety of users and residents it is worth higher prices. But when land use regulation is political, picking winners and losers, then the resulting scarcity punishes people who have the fewest resources. State and local law is full of needless politically-driven rules and regulations that constrain supply, create scarcity, and punish poor people with higher prices. That has to change.
Reduce the Risk of Developing Condominiums
The Washington Condominium Act was intended to protect consumers but has instead raised risk and liability for builders and developers. This means fewer choices and higher prices for consumers. Condominiums are an important product, encouraging home ownership, reducing housing scarcity, and creating more opportunity for everyone seeking housing.
No other organization or group is raising funds to support candidates and issues on such a wide front from condo liability reform to helping hard working Farmworking families find decent place to live. Hopefully, Fair Housing Washington will make a dent in the discussion in what’s left in 2018 and an even bigger player in important local elections like Seattle’s where there are 9 council seats open in 2019.
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