The start of the 2021 session showed an interesting dynamic around housing policy. For the first time in several years, AWC saw more attention to bills aimed at incentivizing cities to take regulatory reform action to support housing affordability in their communities. Previously, many discussions have started with the premise that cities must be mandated to take certain actions, usually without distinction between size and situation of city or whether those actions were the most important for a particular community.

AWC is disappointed that these incentive-based bills did not make it across the finish line. However, we are encouraged by the Legislature’s change in perspective, as indicated by their shift from dictating mandates to looking for ways to partner on these policies. We are hopeful that some of the policies, such as HB 1157, which made it all the way to Senate Ways & Means Committee, will come back next year and be passed into law.

Our biggest win in this space was assisted by legislators’ change of perspective. For several years, cities have looked to improve one of our key voluntary tools to help promote housing development – the multi-family tax exemption (MFTE) program. With the help of dynamic sponsors and an organized and effective coalition, we were able to expand the program to allow for the preservation of existing affordable units that were created by the program, create a new home ownership tax incentive, and provide for greater tenant protections for the residents of these units. We didn’t get everything we wanted, and a workgroup will follow to make recommendations on the next steps; nevertheless, SB 5287 represents a major step forward for the MFTE program.