Port Townsend Deputy Mayor Amy Howard and Laura Hodgson from the Department of Commerce hosted a well-attended and well-regarded session at the AWC Annual Conference in June. Laura has been leading the team at Commerce providing guidance to cities on how best to plan for and accommodate affordable housing and emergency shelters in your communities. Deputy Mayor Howard provided contemporary examples of how Port Townsend has already implemented some of these new strategies.

A few key takeaways from their presentations:

1. Washington state needs over 1.1 million new homes over the next twenty years.  And over half of those need to be affordable to people making less than 50% of the area median income.
2. Learn from your peers. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel—take a look at what approaches are working in neighboring cities.
3. When providing temporary emergency shelter, find a place to do so at least semi-permanently. Moving locations every six months becomes untenable.
4. There is no silver bullet. It takes a variety of policy interventions and targeted investments to facilitate affordable housing locating in your city.
5. Partner with your local service providers when updating your codes. They will need to be able to operate within them so get their feedback early.