8/24/2022
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KREM
KHQ
Bloomberg
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KREM
Spokane’s population is continuing to grow and city officials want housing options to keep pace.
SPOKANE, Wash —
City leaders have deemed Spokane's housing supply an emergency crisis.
“Housing effects everybody," Spokane City Planning Director Spencer Gardner said. "Somebody has a child, a brother or sister, a parent who is concerned about their housing situation.”
Through a July council-approved ordinance, city planners have created the 'Building Opportunity and Choices for All' pilot program.
“Working through a lot of the code problems we knew builders were running into we discovered that our regular process was just too slow," Gardner explained. "But in an emergency, we need to make fast action in order to address the problem. So this interim ordinance allows us to make some of those changes immediately.”
Tuesday, the city hosted an open house at the Central Library for people wanting to learn more about the housing program.
In the audience were realtors, architects and prospective property owners.
When considering the project’s one year timeline, some raised an eyebrow to the possibility of seeing actual builds within the year.
“At the architecture firm that I work at, almost every project we work on his was in the works for at least two years, sometimes five years, some of them have been in the works for over 10 years," Saul Hansen, a revit technician with Bernardo Wills Architects said. "And so to get something turned around in a year, is pretty tricky. That's a tall order. And so everyone that was sitting there kind of spoke to that, like, 'how is this going to work? Is there going to be streamlined approval processes to help get a bigger window?'”
Gardner said over the next year, there might not be a lot of shovels going into the ground, but one of the goals of the program is to lay down the foundation towards more permanent housing codes that include multi-family options.
“At the end of the one-year period, in July of 2023, we will have done the necessary work through community outreach, through talking with builders through going through the process that set out in city code to then make those permanent changes,” Gardner said
Currently, the ordinance and program are set to expire at the end of next July with potential to extend an additional year.
The city will be hosting two more open house meetings. Wednesday at 5:30 p.m at The Hive. and Thursday at 5:30 p.m. over Zoom.
The city has also created tax-exemption incentives to encourage more multi-family home developers. Eligibility requires certain location, pricing and four or more units of housing, which would include fourplexes.
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KHQ
SPOKANE, Wash. - Beginning Oct. 1, Spokane Transit Authority (STA) will have a new fare collection system on its fixed route buses and paratransit vans. The 'Connect' fare system is an account-based system that allows customers to pay their fare using a Connect smartcard or an STA mobile app on their smartphone.
Connect cards and virtual 'eConnect' cards, which are created on the new STA Connect mobile app, will allow customers to register their account online, add or autoload funds, view ride history and check their current balance.
Connect cards will be available online at the STA website, in person at the customer service counter at the STA plaza and at participating retail locations beginning Oct. 1.
To replace monthly passes, Connect cards will automatically cap the total monthly fares at $60, the same price as the current passes. That means riders will have unlimited free rides after they spend their first $60 dollars for the month. There will also be a daily fare cap of $4.
STA will also introduce new and expanded reduced and zero-fare options alongside the new fare collection system.
Any rider 60-years-old and older or individuals with disabilities will qualify as 'Honored Riders' and will be eligible for a 50% fare discount. Active-duty military personnel and veterans will also qualify for 50% fare through the 'Stars and Stripes' category. Students enrolled in eligible post-high school education programs.
STA will also introduce a new 'Rider's License,' a zero-fare option for all children ages 6-18, which offers unlimited free rides. Riders 5-years-old and under will continue to ride free if accompanied by an adult.
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Bloomberg
New housing vouchers build on efforts by the Biden administration to focus on unsheltered and rural homelessness and drive aid to people suffering domestic violence.
Kriston CappsAugust 24, 2022, 7:34 AM PDT
With rents and evictions on the rise nationwide, the specter of homelessness haunts a growing number of U.S. families.
A new federal fund aims to bolster those who are most vulnerable, and at the same time, get local authorities talking to each other. On Aug. 24, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development detailed a new category of housing vouchers for people who sleep outdoors or in their cars, or face severe risk of homelessness. These “stability” vouchers will provide permanent supportive housing for unsheltered families.
The communities who are first in line for the $43 million stability voucher fund are those who can demonstrate that their public housing agencies and homeless authorities are working together to coordinate relief.
“We’re learning a lot about the flexibility that’s needed in the voucher program, particularly for those who are homeless or fleeing domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking,” says Richard Cho, senior adviser for housing and services at HUD.
The crisis is acute for communities on the West Coast, but the pandemic has seen homeless encampments spread across the nation. Facing pressure to clear out these tent cities, many local leaders have responded with expensive and counterproductive sweeps.
The new vouchers follow HUD’s announcement, in June, of some $322 million in grants for Communities of Care, the local or regional planning bodies that coordinate services for homeless people. That notice of funding opportunity — in federal parlance, a NOFO — asked these CoCs to show how they could reduce unsheltered or rural homelessness, without resorting to punitive strategies. HUD outlined a number of factors for applicants to consider, among them engagement with public housing agencies (PHAs), which administer vouchers and other housing aid.
It’s easy to lose a spoon in federal alphabet soup (a NOFO from HUD asks for CoCs to show their work with PHAs). Still, making grants contingent to some degree on cooperation seeks to address a major gap in the social safety net, one that the pandemic has made apparent again and again. Agencies responsible for social care in the U.S. don’t always work well together, or work together at all. With the June grant announcement, HUD encouraged CoCs to enlist help from their local PHAs. Those PHAs that answer the call will in turn be first in line for the new stability vouchers.
Federal housing officials also sought, and received, flexibility from Congress in how the new vouchers will be administered, namely waivers for eligibility screening and payment limits that apply to normal housing vouchers.
“The stability vouchers will enable communities to partner with health and housing agencies to coordinate their efforts to reduce homelessness and help thousands of people move off the streets into permanent housing,” Housing Secretary Marcia Fudge said in a statement. “These vouchers also offer housing agencies more flexibility to maximize families’ ability to find housing of their choosing.”
The $43 million fund for stability vouchers is enough to provide permanent housing for 4,000 households. It’s not a hugely significant figure, given the need. Rather than sprinkling them out across the country, with most housing agencies receiving only a handful, HUD decided to strategically link these vouchers to the much larger pool of grants for unsheltered or rural homelessness. That way, CoCs would have more incentive to connect with their local PHAs, and vice versa.
The alternative, too often, is various agencies and authorities taking different actions that address the same problem, but less effectively than if they worked together, or worse, counterproductively. CoCs and PHAs may share overlapping missions without having the same stakeholders or using the same data. HUD is offering a carrot to get providers, agencies and authorities on the same page.
“It’s that kind of coordination of resources and activities that is key to addressing homelessness and the larger affordable housing crisis,” HUD senior adviser Cho says.