This presentation was made at the Spring 2017 meeting of the Urban Land Institute in Seattle.

2. “Uncoordinated and unplanned
growth, together with a lack of
common goals...pose a threat to the
environment, sustainable economic
development, and the health, safety,
and high quality of life enjoyed by
residents of this state. It is in the
public interest that citizens,
communities, local governments, and
the private sector cooperate and
coordinate with one another in
comprehensive land use planning.”
(RCW 36.70A.010)

3. "I believe this (a comprehensive
plan) is the most important thing
we're undertaking in this city for
the next 20 years”
Norm Rice
Seattle City Mayor
1994

7. High Prices: Price is a
quantitative measure of
supply and demand
“Housing is not
affordable!” By taking
average wages of certain
jobs and comparing to
average housing prices,
this conclusion is reached.
“Cost burdened
households.” A count of
how many households in
the city are paying some
amount over 30% of their
gross income on housing.
“We need units!” This
process leads inevitably to
a mandate to create
subsidized units equal to
the number of existing
cost burdened
households.

8. Solutions
 Use better measures of the problem using data from market studies, not census
data;
 Affordability is defined arbitrarily (30 percent standard) and we need a better
measure;
 We need to understand why housing costs what it does to produce and how to
reduce those costs and barriers to the market (e.g. ULI’s Bending the Cost Curve
study);
 Households struggling with housing costs are usually struggling with many other
expenses as well;
 Producing subsidized units is necessary, but it doesn’t address the critical issues
of price and current need;
 We need to consider broader and thinner tax models that are based on
inefficient use of land (e.g. tax large lot single-family, land value taxes);
 Use direct cash payments to ameliorate housing and other costs, save unit
construction for the poorest and neediest; and
 Explore financing tools like Tax Increment Financing (TIF)

10. Discussion Questions
• Is your community facing a housing “crisis?”
When did it start? How will you know it’s
over?
• Is there a better way to measure
affordability?
• Wouldn’t direct payments to cost burdened
households be more efficient than buying
land and building units?