Tumwater’s new housing element requirements now localized to effectively support low-income households

Washington State Department of Commerce Senior Planner Laura Hodgson briefed the Tumwater Planning Commission on new housing elements that support low-income households during a meeting last night, September 26.

Hodgson reviewed new housing element requirements, land capacity and adequate provisions guidance, racially disparate impacts, development code revisions, and resources to the commission.

New housing element requirements

In 2021, the legislature adopted House Bill 1220, which changed the Growth Management Act (GMA) goal from “encouraging the availability of affordable housing” to “planning for and accommodating housing affordable to all economic segments.”

“With that, they intended for the local governments to play a larger role in planning for housing in their communities. In doing so, they wanted to specify what those that [are] more involved in planning would entail,” Hodgson said.

“They've included a direction for the Department of Commerce to provide projected housing needs to local governments,” added Hodgson. “These would be broken down by income bracket, based on area median income, and it would also include a breakdown of permanent supportive housing, emergency housing, and emergency shelter needs.

Hodgson said that these are things that local governments haven't traditionally planned for, and the current processes would involve not only the national and state governing bodies but also the county-wide authorities.

“We know that counties have the best understanding of where their local growth should go, so we provide them at a county-wide level, and then local governments, [or] counties in coordination with their cities, decide where that growth goes, and they may detail that in our comprehensive plans,” said Hodgson.

The latest housing regulation code changes direct the department to provide projected housing needs to local governments for permanent supportive housing, emergency housing, and emergency shelters for moderate to extremely low-income households.

Local housing elements are utilized to:

• Identify local housing needs based on Commerce’s county-wide numbers
• Identify sufficient land capacity for all housing needs
• Document barriers to housing availability & actions needed to address needs
• Identify local policies and regulations that result in racially disparate impacts
• Displacement, and exclusion in housing and begin to undo them
• Identify areas at risk of displacement and establish anti-displacement policies

Community members can learn more on Commerce’s main Housing webpage and Updating the Housing Element webpage.