Pierce County announced today it has been selected for the second national cohort of Counties for Housing Solutions (C4HS), a program from the National Association of Counties (NACo) and Smart Growth America, designed to increase housing supply in urban counties.
“Pierce County is excited to be just one of six counties selected to participate in this national program,” said Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello. “The scale of our housing shortage requires us to do things differently. We’re bringing folks together from multiple departments to tackle housing affordability and speed the pace of development, particularly among our high-density transit corridors.”
NACo launched C4HS to help counties implement recommendations from NACo’s 2023 Housing Task Force, convened with the goal of addressing America’s housing crisis. By implementing strategies to increase housing supply, counties will bring down rents and create a pathway to upward economic mobility for American families.
Over a 12-week period, representatives from the Pierce County Council, Human Services, and Facilities will work to develop underutilized, county-owned land as affordable housing, following a plan that runs from identifying available land and evaluating sites, to planning community engagement and partnering with potential developers. The process will also include identifying financing to support the planned housing development.
“I am excited to lead the Pierce County team and find our underutilized public lands for affordable housing,” said Pierce County Councilmember Rosie Ayala, District 4. “Housing affordability is a crisis that spans across our region, and we need as many tools in our toolbox as possible to support a basic need for all neighbors across the county.”
C4HS is part of NACo’s larger Counties for Economic Mobility initiative, which advances practices for equitable upward economic mobility to move individuals and families out of poverty. The initiative is funded through a grant from the Gates Foundation.
The Housing Action Strategy estimates we need to build 110,000 new units in Pierce County by 2044 to meet the housing needs of residents. This program is a good example of Pierce County building its skills across multiple departments to address housing affordability and bring innovative solutions to our market.
For more information about affordable housing in Pierce County, visit www.piercecountywa.gov/AH.
And what will all these subsidized housing “residents” be doing besides voting democrat?
Can one become a “resident” if they are undocumented from for instance, Venezuela or Iran?
If they can, will they be given a driver’s license and/ or state I. D.?
What other entitlement programs will be piled on to this massive entitlement program?
What economic drivers are you focusing on to create non-government jobs to expand the tax base so that the existing tax base can stop being milked to death for the sake of government expansion?
Seems the cart remains well ahead of the horse around here.