GUEST OPINION Steps local governments can take to improve home-ownership rates

Homeownership is a key determinant in increasing economic mobility and building generational wealth.

Families are more financially secure when they are living in a home they own. But as homeownership becomes further out of reach for a greater number of families, achieving the American Dream can seem a distant fantasy to many.

California is a paradise for parasites and thieves!

The state of California is spending us into oblivion to end homelessness.

To be exact, the state is set to spend some $12 billion over a two-year cycle — the largest investment in state history. Most of the money is aimed at various types of housing projects, including buying motels and hotels, and converting them to housing, along with the conversion of empty retail spaces, and erecting a slew of mini houses that are not much bigger than a backyard storage shed.

Meanwhile, Santa Barbara County has set aside some $90 million to move people into some sort of housing, even if it is just a hut, and to offer various services the homeless are free to reject.

Will any of this work? In Santa Barbara County, as it turns out, the more services they offer the homeless, the number of homeless seems to only increase. How could this be?

We need to realize that upward of 50% of all homeless people are formerly incarcerated people. California has been emptying our state prisons for more than a decade, and Gov. Gavin Newsom is set to release another 70,000 prisoners to our streets, including 20,000 people that were serving life sentences. That explains how this problem is only going to get bigger and much worse.

The ugly truth? Whereas some people are simply poor and homeless through no fault of their own, the vast majority of the people living on the streets belong in some type of institution because of their inability or unwillingness to live in a civil society. We closed nearly all mental institutions decades ago, and now we are emptying and closing our prisons. Is it any wonder why our streets are filled with criminals, scoundrels, addicts and derelicts?

Unfortunately, society is paying a much higher price than most are willing to admit for this modern-day phenomenon.

That price includes criminal acts against people, including brutal murders, because some of these mentally ill people are ticking time bombs. Other crimes are committed against properties. Just ask any business owner, including business owners on State Street in Santa Barbara and farmers in the Santa Maria Valley about the damage done to their property. But by far the most constant crime against business has to do with the theft of billions of dollars’ worth of inventory and equipment that is putting some businesses out of business, including scores of retail shops.

Years ago, I was a volunteer in the county probation department. The caseload I helped work on included dozens of drug addicts and alcoholics who lived a life of crime to fund their bad habits.

Since then, the California Legislature has handed every single one of these criminals an official laminated free get-out-of-jail card, meaning they can continuously steal upward of $950 per robbery and absolutely nothing is going to happen to them.

Thereby, California has become a thief’s paradise. How bad is this problem?

We recently discussed a phenomenal article by James Walsh in Curbed on my radio show on KZSB-AM 1290, the News-Press radio station.

The article detailed the fact that the Prosecutors Alliance of California estimated that $500 billion worth of stolen or counterfeit goods changes hands online annually. Of course, not all these goods are stolen by the homeless, as there are organized theft rings contributing to the demise of our once civil society. But most of the thieves highlighted in the story were addicts and/or unhoused.

It is kind of ironic, isn’t it? The homeless people who rob a retail establishment blind until it goes out of business are then offered a place to stay after the retail establishment is converted to a lodging facility for the homeless!

It reminds me of the saying that socialism only works until you run out of other people’s money.

In 2022, the Snohomish County Council passed three pieces of legislation aimed at increasing the availability of housing and lowering the cost of new homes.

Nate Nehring

The author is a housing policy expert in Washington state

The homeownership rate in the United States has not fully recovered from the Great Recession. Between 2007 (just before the recession) and 2019, homeownership overall in the United States fell 4.2%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau Current Population Survey/Housing Vacancy Survey.

Younger adults have been impacted more significantly than the population at-large. During that same 12-year period, homeownership rates for individuals under the age of 35 dropped 6.3%.

In Washington state, we are likely to see a more profound impact on homeownership rates as home prices continue to increase faster in our state compared to nationwide trends. Just between 2019 and 2021, the medium home sale price in Washington grew 40%, compared to 30% nationwide. While the issue of homeownership and housing market trends are bigger than any one community, county or state, there are steps we can take at the local government level to improve conditions close to home. Here in Snohomish County in Washington, we have taken a number of proactive steps to address housing affordability and availability.

The first of these ordinances encourages the production of more “missing middle” housing (Ordinance 22016). “Missing Middle” housing refers to townhomes and other housing that is denser than traditional singlefamily developments but less dense than mid-rise apartments. Townhome style housing can be a good option for first time homebuyers looking to enter homeownership when other options are less affordable. It also provides a valuable ownership alternative to rental apartments.

We have also taken steps to reduce bureaucratic red tape and streamline regulatory processes. Ordinance 22-037 allows for categorical exemptions to the State Environmental Policy Act in situations where the proposed development is roughly equal to what is called for in the comprehensive plan. This reform reduces the timeline and cost for new development reviews by county planning staff.

One of the significant drivers of housing costs are the time and expense on the part of home builders to get development applications approved. Those increased costs are ultimately passed down to the home buyer, so any steps we can take at the local level to reduce bureaucracy will have a direct impact on residents’ ability to purchase a home.

Another factor impacting housing availability for younger homebuyers is that aging homeowners are not downsizing.

Lack of affordable options for aging residents results in many of them keeping larger houses that they may no longer want or need. One option to address this issue is accessory dwelling units.

In Snohomish County, we have passed multiple ordinances to allow for attached and detached accessory dwelling units in unincorporated areas of the county. These ADUs and DADUs can be a great option for aging parents or grandparents who want to downsize but don’t want to live in the same house as their children or grandchildren. By creating more options for aging homeowners to downsize, more of the existing supply of homes can come on the market for new homebuyers.

The steps we’ve taken at the local level here in Snohomish County may be relatively small in the grand scheme of such a significant nationwide issue, but they represent positive steps in the right direction that work to make home ownership more attainable for residents of all ages and income levels.

Local government has an important role to play in setting the tone for the conversation around how we can address housing affordability in our communities.

Nate Nehring is the vice chair of the Snohomish County Council in Washington state, representing District 1. He chairs the County Council’s Planning and Community Development Committee and was recognized by the Snohomish County-Camano Association of Realtors as “Citizen of the Year” in 2022 for his work on local housing policy. This commentary was provided to the News-Press by The Center Square, a nonprofit dedicated to journalism.