About the Authors:
Deb Wilson is an Aberdeen City Councilmember.
Kitty Klitzke is a Spokane City Councilmember.

Our communities are facing a housing shortage and affordability crisis. From Spokane to Aberdeen, middle-class families are struggling to afford modest starter homes and even higher-income families are facing limited options. This shortage falls hardest on our most vulnerable community members: folks experiencing, or on the brink of, homelessness.

When there aren’t enough homes people can afford, it’s those with the fewest resources that are the first ones pushed out on the street. One of us has navigated this firsthand, at the time unable to find shelters that would allow a young couple to stay together—meaning we got stuck sleeping outside or in the car; at one time we packed into our car with three kids. 

Every single family, from Aberdeen to Spokane, deserves a safe place to rest. And we need a range of housing solutions to make sure we’re meeting the real needs of our communities. And as people who’ve been elected to represent the interests of our neighbors at the local level, we are coming together because what happens in Olympia has ramifications for all of us. In the past few years, the Legislature has passed major housing reform to better support city and county officials trying to manage sprawl while urgently building to fill the major gaps in housing that we need to accommodate families and people at all income levels.

Now, it’s time to solve another piece of the housing puzzle by supporting STEP housing options, too.

STEP housing is an umbrella term that captures housing types like: Shelters, Transitional housing, Emergency housing and Permanent supportive housing. STEP housing fills an incredibly important role especially when someone is in crisis, and housing stability is absolutely critical to helping them get back on track. That could include an emergency shelter for a family that has just been evicted, or a small apartment building that also connects residents to health care and employment support so they can stay housed. Often, these buildings are a similar size, shape and style compared to other offices or apartments along the block–but they are treated differently by the local government because of stigma and discrimination. 

State law requires all jurisdictions to develop plans for housing, including STEP housing, that meets local community members’ needs. But some local governments have put up unnecessary barriers, using arcane citing and zoning requirements to circumvent the state law and keep their neighborhoods exclusive. There are expensive design requirements, inconsistent permitting processes, and other subjective and burdensome restrictions that only apply to STEP housing, and reinforce stigma and discrimination against low-income and homeless people.

Local leadership and action

As local leaders, we take seriously our responsibility to keep our communities affordable and safe for people of all walks of life, we are demanding a new solution. 

We’ve started the hard work to support people experiencing homelessness in our communities. In Aberdeen, we’re exploring how safe storage spaces for folks experiencing homelessness could improve their ability to go to work, school, or health appointments that support a stable life—but we still need more options to create shelters.

Spokane is taking an “all of the above” approach. We’ve adopted a new model focused on referring individuals through a navigation center to the over 1,000 beds across specialized shelter sites. Our scattered sites shelter just 20 to 30 people, which provides a more dignified, tailored experience that leads to greater success. Through partnerships with faith communities, hospital systems and nonprofits, we’ve been able to tap into existing infrastructure and deliver services through both subject-matter experts and individuals with lived experience. We’ve overhauled our inclement weather response. Instead of scrambling to open new spaces and hire staff each time the weather turns dangerous, we now activate additional beds at existing shelters using existing staff – making the process faster, more efficient, and far more cost-effective.

Meanwhile, to our east, Spokane Valley has only four shelter beds, and no shelters for inclement weather. We’ll continue to spearhead local solutions, but we can’t solve a statewide housing challenge alone–we need statewide solutions and accountability. We can’t let some local governments shirk their responsibility, leaving other jurisdictions to pick up the slack.

State Action

Legislation to streamline and standardize local housing rules has already been used to create connected communities- last year the Legislature passed one of the most ambitious ‘transit-oriented development’ laws in the nation that will allow more homes, and more affordable homes, near transit hubs. 

We are appreciative of the work of the State Legislature to eliminate the ability of jurisdictions to zone shelters and STEP housing out of existence and requiring them to plan appropriately for all incomes. In order to fully implement this new approach to growth management we also have to prevent them being regulated out of existence in some jurisdictions, overburdening neighboring jurisdictions.

We support legislation like HB 2266 that will create a clear state-level system for managing a statewide crisis. This bill will rein in excessive red tape, and require cities and towns to treat STEP housing the same as other kinds of housing.