Housing study shows  higher displacement risk for protected groups that face discrimination

People of color, people with disabilities, transgender, and single mothers are at a higher risk of displacement and more likely to experience homelessness in Thurston County and face continuing gaps in homeownership.

Olympia Housing Program Specialist Christa Lenssen cited the Fair Housing assessment findings based on a survey with more than 600 participants and one-on-one interviews with local organizations.

On Tuesday, Lenssen gave a briefing at the Olympia City Council on the Fair Housing assessment, which they assembled in the winter of last year.

The city council opened the public hearing for the Fair Housing Assessment plan, but no one participated in the public process. 

Lenssen said Thurston County residents are most likely to experience and report discrimination based on the source of income, disability, race, and family status.

Other findings include the following:

• Thurston County lacks accessible and affordable units to meet the needs of residents with disabilities
• Infrastructure and improved access to transit are important for the disability community
• Mold, high hearing, and high cooling costs are top environmental health concerns in housing
• Native American households face greater difficulty in accessing opportunities based on where they live
• Substandard housing or overcrowding issues are likely underreported
• Affordable housing should be a priority, according to the respondents who participated in the survey

Olympia and other jurisdictions that are recipients of the Housing Urban Development funding are required to do Fair Housing planning to ensure no discrimination or disparities for protected classes in the projects or housing efforts.

Lenssen said jurisdictions do the Fair Housing analysis every five years.

"For this cycle, the City of Olympia, Thurston County, and the Housing Authority of Thurston County opted to do a joint assessment," Lenssen explained.

The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination and housing for the protected classes - race, color, national origin, religion, disability, sex (including gender orientation), and family status.

According to Lenssen, Washington State law included in the protected classes the honorably discharged veteran or military status, marital status, immigration, or citizenship status.

Citing the community survey, Lenssen said most people reported that they had experienced discrimination based on their source of income, but only 12% of survey respondents reported or filed a complaint.

About 63% of the respondents did not pursue filing a complaint because they did not think it would make a difference, while 68% did not file a complaint because they did know whom to contact.

Of the 600 respondents, she added that 38% believe that they or someone they know experienced housing discrimination in Thurston County.

Lenssen discussed the goals resulting from the Fair Housing assessment, noting that not all these are specific only to Olympia and some might be undertaken by the Regional Housing Council or are in the work plan for Housing Action Team.

• Increase affordable housing and provide financial assistance for housing for low-income individuals and families. That includes prioritizing funding for the development or acquisition of affordable housing units for low-income households, locating additional funding for rental assistance, and creating a resource page to inform developers of affordable housing incentives.
• Increase access to homeownership. Lenssen said that among the priorities is to provide funding for homeownership activities such as credit counseling or down payment assistance, review options for non-traditional and affordable homeownership, and create web-based information regarding homeownership support focusing on community groups with less access to homeownership opportunities.
• Increase housing in various types and sizes to meet family needs. Among the priorities is to create a pre-approved accessory dwelling unit (ADU) with design and construction features accessible to persons with disabilities and explore the feasibility of offering impact fee waivers or other incentives to meet affordability standards.
• Reduce barriers to accessing housing. This includes exploring the cost of contracting with a third-party organization to educate landlords and tenants on fair housing and source of income discrimination laws and reviewing program models and policy options from other jurisdictions.
• Increase housing and source of income discrimination education, outreach, and enforcement. Lenssen added that among the priorities include creating web-based and print publications about fair housing and how to file a complaint, offering housing-related training to landlords, tenants and housing advocates, and exploring the cost to contract with a third-party organization to enforce statewide source of income discrimination protection and provide training on fair housing and source of income discrimination laws.
• Improve environmental health in housing units by funding rental property owners and low-income homeowners for energy efficiency upgrades. This includes Reviewing best practices and codes in other jurisdictions that address mold prevention.

Clarity on numbers

Olympia Mayor Pro Tem Clark Gilman wanted more clarity regarding how many residential units would need to be created or improved to address the housing insecurity issues in the city.

"I'm trying to get my head around how many houses, how many residential units would need to be created, to address the affordability access, how many would need to be improved to address the environmental health. Without those numbers, I don't know whether improving 25 units is impactful or simply eclipsed by the growth of our community here," Gilman commented. "I don't see the connection between the actions and the dire picture that your study painted."

"These are not numbers that will meet the needs of all the people who have these needs in our community but based more on the funding we have available at this time," Lenssen replied.

Lenssen added that they would get more data from the Department of Commerce about the housing that needs to develop every year to meet the needs of households who are in low-income levels.