Please contact your Senators to ask for their support to pass and fund HB 2437. This proposal creates a landmark partnership between the state and local governments on affordable housing investments. Share your local circumstances and challenges with affordable housing, and tell them how these investments could help.
Please use the link below that compiles funding data within a map. Once there, click “Explore” on the bottom right of the screen and then select your area in the drop-down box to show your Senators how much money this bill would raise for your community.
HB 2437: Match, Revenue and Bonding Capacity projections
More information
The bill allows counties to provide a local match to access a portion of state sales tax for affordable housing acquisition, construction, operations or rental vouchers. Local matching funds must be used, but document recording fees are an eligible source. The bill includes several tiers of match/resources depending on community need. If counties do not avail themselves of this tool, cities then gain access.
At full utilization this could provide $100 million per biennium to local governments, which could be bonded up to $633 million. This is funded in the House budget, at a level of $65 million over the rest of the 4-year outlook. The Senate currently is at $0.
How to use the app
This web app is optimized for phone use so that you can quickly show your legislators what this could mean in your region. Click “Explore” in the lower right screen so that you can choose a county from the drop-down box, and see several data points associated with this bill. It shows how much the average two-bedroom apartment rental cost has increased since 2010. It also shows how much money could be raised at the various matching tiers in the bill, and how much that revenue could be bonded against to generate a lump sum for capital projects.
Use this list to find your Senator(s). Please let me know if you have questions.
Thank you,
Carl Schroeder
Government Relations Advocate
Association of Washington Cities
carls@awcnet.org
(360) 753-4137 (office)
Association of Washington Cities • 1076 Franklin St SE • Olympia, WA 98501
