About
Accessible metrics and performance measures are key tools for understanding King County’s housing affordability crisis and demonstrating the impact of solutions to address it.
Established by the King County Affordable Housing Committee, this website brings together multiple data sources for the first time to demonstrate the extent of the crisis, establish a baseline towards measuring progress to eliminate housing cost burden among King County’s low-income households by 2040, and provide downloadable resources for policymakers, planners, and researchers.
King County is in the midst of a sustained housing crisis.
In 2018, the Regional Affordable Housing Task Force(RAHTF) adopted a Five Year Action Planto spur action to ensure all low-income households in King County have a safe and healthy home that costs less than 30% of their income by 2040. When households spend more than 30% of their income on housing, they are cost burdened and struggle to afford other necessities. Households are severely cost burdened when they pay more than 50% of their income on housing. Cost burden is only one measure for understanding affordability in King County. Explore the data below for a more complete picture of who is most affected and the remaining gap to meet the affordable housing need.
In 2021, 76% of low-income households in King County spent more than 30% of their income on housing.
Regional progress to implement the action plan
To spur the County and cities into collective action to eliminate housing cost burden among low-income households by 2040, the Regional Affordable Housing Task Force adopted a Five Year Action Plan in December 2018. The plan calls for all levels of government and sectors to come together, scale up efforts, and implement new strategies to equitably address the crisis. The plan includes seven goals, with strategies to achieve the goals, and actions to implement the strategies. Explore this section to learn more about promising solutions and progress made to implement the Action Plan.
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The table below explains the progress for each shaded box visualized below.
See Also
7 States To Live In With The Lowest Income Requirements In 2024How To Get Low Income Housing With No Waiting List 2024Looking for affordable housing? Cities you can easily find a home under $100,000How to Buy a House with Low Income: Tips and Assistance Programs
| Action | Description | Status |
| 1 | AHC to hold regular meetings | Complete or Ongoing |
| 2 | AHC to maintain a website of information and/ or release an annual report that reviews qualitative and quantitative metrics regarding countywide and jurisdictional progress to implement the Action Plan and address Countywide need and/ or cost-burden gap, including a measurement plan that will, at a minimum, track the percentage of housing supply at various levels of AMI and track the region’s progress to meeting the overall goal identified by the Regional Affordable Housing Task Force | Complete or Ongoing |
| 3 | AHC to review and make recommendations to other governing bodies regarding funding/ pursuing new and innovative financing strategies to significantly address the affordable housing need in King County for adoption by jurisdictions and/ or voters in 2020; land use policies; and State legislative agenda items, such as increasing State funding for affordable housing, expanding options for local funding, supporting the creation and preservation of affordable housing, and creating uniform statewide laws for tenant protections | Complete or Ongoing |
| 4 | AHC to recommend policy positions for Puget Sound Regional Council’s (PSRC) Growth Management Policy Board’s consideration and approval | Not Started |
| 5 | AHC to review and provide guidance regarding alignment between the Action Plan and comprehensive plans | Started |
| 6 | AHC to recommend amendments to Countywide Planning Policies including regional goals/ metrics and land use policies | Complete or Ongoing |
| 7 | AHC to coordinate support for increased federal funding for affordable housing | Complete or Ongoing |
| 8 | AHC to work with existing and new subregional collaborations, such as A Regional Coalition for Housing (ARCH) and South King County Housing and Homelessness Partnership (SKHPP) | Complete or Ongoing |
| 9 | AHC to provide incentives for regional solutions which promote strategies that are broader than one jurisdiction at a time | Not Started |
| 10 | AHC to provide technical assistance to the cities and County on affordable housing policy, including identification and sharing of best practices and model legislation | Complete or Ongoing |
| 11 | AHC to review and evaluate existing committee and recommend alternative governance structures needed to accomplish the Action Plan | Started |
| 12 | AHC to be supported by an Interjurisdictional Team (IJT) that builds on but will meet separately from the GMPC IJT | Complete or Ongoing |
| 13 | Cities and County to support the creation of subregional collaborations in all parts of King County, including North and South King County subregional collaborations as opportunities arise | Complete or Ongoing |
| 14 | Cities and County to fund operations of subregional collaborations | Complete or Ongoing |
| 15 | Cities, County, and AHC to encourage the growth and success of existing subregional collaborations, including ARCH in East King County and SKHHP in South King County | Complete or Ongoing |
The table below explains the progress for each shaded box visualized below.
| Action | Description | Status |
| 1 | Cities and County should identify revenue sources available to them sufficient to support the local share of funding 44,000 units over five years (by 2024) | Complete or Ongoing |
| 2 | Cities and County should collectively advocate to maintain and increase Federal resources directed toward affordable housing in King County, which might include increasing expanding the 9% LIHTC or maximizing the bonding capacity of the 4% LIHTC | Complete or Ongoing |
| 3 | Cities and County should collectively advocate for increased State resources to support affordable housing in King County, which might include increasing contributions to the Housing Trust Fund, a sales tax credit, or allowing cities to collect up to a 0.25% Real Estate Excise Tax | Complete or Ongoing |
| 4 | Cities and County should explore unused authority to raise revenue to support the goal of building or preserving 44,000 units over five years. Unused authority might include a countywide property tax, a countywide sales tax, free or discounted publicly owned land. | Complete or Ongoing |
| 5 | Cities and County should work with business and philanthropy to increase and effectively leverage private investments in affordable housing | Significant Progress |
| 6 | Cities and County should pursue strategies to reduce the cost of developing affordable units, which might include the reduction or elimination of impact or connection fees, or a sales tax fee exemption on affordable developments | Started |
| 7 | AHC will monitor County and city progress toward raising funds necessary to produce 44,000 units in the next five years (by 2024) | Started |
| 8 | State, County, and cities to expand coordination to identify, acquire and develop property from State, County, cities, and nonprofit/ faith communities for affordable housing | Complete or Ongoing |
| 9 | AHC will track and report progress on the Regional Equitable Development Initiative fund and Home & Hope | Not Started |
| 10 | Jurisdictions to identify one or more parcels in their boundaries to prioritize for affordable housing (for-profit or nonprofit, new or preserved) | Started |
| 11 | County to develop policies for the sale of County-owned property at reduced or no cost when used for affordable housing, which may be used as a model ordinance by cities | Started |
| 12 | Cities, County and AHC to identify entity to inventory all large (50+ unit) privately owned affordable multifamily properties at risk of redevelopment or rapid rent escalation | Not Started |
| 13 | AHC will measure and monitor progress in preserving privately owned, including those that are subsidized or naturally occurring, affordable housing through nonprofit or public housing authority acquisition or other means | Not Started |
| 14 | Cities and County to partner with existing efforts and organizations and support additional funding to fill gaps in current preservation efforts | Started |
| 15 | "Cities and County to consider dedicating a portion of new funding streams to a short-term acquisition loan fund to enable rapid response to preserve affordable housing developments when they are put on the market for sale" | Not Started |
The table below explains the progress for each shaded box visualized below.
| Action | Description | Status |
| 1 | County or AHC to provide technical assistance in designing inclusionary/ incentive housing programs near existing or planned frequent transit | Not Started |
| 2 | County or AHC to provide website of example inclusionary/ incentive housing ordinances | Not Started |
| 3 | All parties to propose and apply for State planning dollars | Significant Progress |
| 4 | City and County to evaluate and update zoning in transit areas in advance of transit infrastructure investments | Started |
| 5 | Cities and County to evaluate the impact of development fee reductions in transit areas and implement reductions if positive impact | Not Started |
| 6 | AHC to regularly measure implementation against goal, measured using the following region wide metrics: 1) 25% of existing housing remains affordable at 80% AMI and below; 2) 50% of new housing is affordable at 80% AMI and below; and 3) 80% of available public land suitable for housing is prioritized for housing affordable at or below 50% AMI | Started |
| 7 | As one strategy, cities and County to coordinate with local housing authorities to increase the use of project-based rental subsidies in buildings with incentive/ inclusionary housing units in order to achieve deeper affordability | Started |
| 8 | County to consider bonding against future Lodging Tax revenues for Transit Oriented Development (TOD) and use a portion of the funds to incentivize cities to support more affordable housing in their jurisdictions | Significant Progress |
| 9 | County to evaluate potential for the current Transfer of Development Rights program, which preserves rural and resource lands, to incentivize affordability outcomes if a receiving site is within a transit walkshed, among other places | Complete or Ongoing |
| 10 | Cities and County to identify priority “pipeline” of property for acquisition and development near existing and planned frequent transit service | Not Started |
| 11 | Cities and County to evaluate the impact of development fee reductions in transit areas and implement reductions if positive impact | Not Started |
| 12 | "Cities and County to fund land acquisition, aligned with Goal 2, Strategy B (to make available at no cost, at deep discount, or for long term lease, under-utilized property from State, County, cities, and nonprofit/ faith communities) near existing and planned frequent transit service " | Significant Progress |
| 13 | Cities and County to adopt increased zoning to maximize affordable housing on acquired parcels near existing and planned frequent transit service | Started |
| 14 | Cities, County, and AHC to identify entity to purchase and hold land near existing and planned frequent transit service prior to construction | Not Started |
| 15 | Cities and County to fund capital construction and preservation near existing and planned frequent transit service, including private sector investments | Complete or Ongoing |
| 16 | Subject to performance standards for achieving affordable housing, provide equitable footing with TOD housing projects for suburban communities to receive competitive affordable housing funding | Not Started |
The table below explains the progress for each shaded box visualized below.
| Action | Description | Status |
| 1 | Cities, County and AHC to support the development and adoption of statewide legislation and policy related to tenant protections | Significant Progress |
| 2 | County or AHC to review proposed statewide tenant protection policies and legislation | Complete or Ongoing |
| 3 | Cities, County and AHC to develop tools landlords can use to help low-income renters, such as a fund landlords can access to make repairs so costs are not passed on to low-income renters | Not Started |
| 4 | County or AHC to provide model ordinances for source of income discrimination protection; just cause eviction; notice of rent increase; tenant relocation assistance; rental inspection programs; prohibiting discrimination in housing against tenants and potential tenants with arrest records, conviction records, or criminal history | Not Started |
| 5 | Cities and County to pursue a signed inter-local agreement for tenant protection enforcement support | Not Started |
| 6 | County or AHC to identify resources to conduct work | Not Started |
| 7 | County or AHC to increase education for tenants and property owners regarding their respective rights and responsibilities | Not Started |
| 8 | Cities and County to adopt tenant protection ordinances as appropriate | Significant Progress |
| 9 | County to utilize funds from the Veterans, Seniors and Human Services Levy for shallow rent subsidies to help keep people in their homes | Not Started |
| 10 | Cities and County to increase funding for emergency rental assistance | Significant Progress |
| 11 | Cities and County to increase deep subsidies (in addition to shallow) for low-income renters and people with disabilities | Not Started |
| 12 | Cities and County to fund services to address barriers to housing, including tenant screening reports | Significant Progress |
| 13 | Cities and County to expand civil legal aid support for low-income renters and people with disabilities | Started |
| 14 | Cities and County to expand education of tenant and property owner rights and responsibilities | Started |
| 15 | Cities and County to increase funding for services that help people with disabilities stay in their homes and/ or age in place | Significant Progress |
| 16 | Cities and County to adopt and implement proactive rental inspection policies | Started |
| 17 | Cities and County to implement robust, proactive code enforcement programs, in partnership with marginalized communities to avoid inequitable impacts | Not Started |
| 18 | Cities and County to invest in community health workers to promote healthy housing education and housing maintenance for highest risk of adverse health outcomes | Not Started |
| 19 | Cities and County to partner with Aging & Disability organizations to integrate accessibility services | Started |
The table below explains the progress for each shaded box visualized below.
| Action | Description | Status |
| 1 | County to provide capacity grants to small organizations representing communities of color or low-income communities to support their engagement in affordable housing development | Significant Progress |
| 2 | County to contract for a toolkit/ checklist on community engagement in planning discussions | Complete or Ongoing |
| 3 | All jurisdictions to utilize the toolkit and intentionally include and solicit engagement from members of communities of color or low-income households in policy decision-making and committees | Started |
| 4 | Cities and County to use Seattle’s Equitable Development Initiative as a model for how government can invest in under-represented communities to promote community-driven development | Significant Progress |
| 5 | Cities and County to build upon the work of the Communities of Opportunity | Started |
| 6 | Include cities, investors, and community-based organizations in development of certification process and matching dollars for socially responsible, equitable Opportunity Zone investments that prevent displacement | No longer applicable |
| 7 | Cities and County to expand requirements to affirmatively market housing programs and enhance work to align affordable housing strategies with federal requirements to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing | Started |
| 8 | Cities and County to encourage homeownership opportunities as a way to prevent displacement within communities of color while also promoting the growth of intergenerational wealth | Significant Progress |
| 9 | Where appropriate, cities and County to acquire and preserve manufactured housing communities to prevent displacement | Not Started |
The table below explains the progress for each shaded box visualized below.
| Action | Description | Status |
| 1 | County or AHC to provide model ordinances that increase and diversify housing choices | Not Started |
| 2 | County to incentivize cities adopting and implementing strategies that will result in the highest impact towards addressing the affordable housing gap, specifically at the lowest income levels | Not Started |
| 3 | Cities and County to review and update zoning and land use code to increase density | Significant Progress |
| 4 | Cities and County to explore opportunities to pilot innovative housing in industrial zones, with a focus on TOD and industrial buffer zones | Started |
| 5 | Cities and County to update building codes to promote more housing growth and innovative, low-cost development | Started |
| 6 | As part of any updated zoning, cities and County to evaluate feasibility of incorporating affordable housing provisions | Started |
| 7 | Cities and County to promote units that accommodate large households and/ or multiple bedrooms | Started |
| 8 | Cities and County to maximize and expand use of Multifamily Tax Exemption | Significant Progress |
| 9 | County to reduce sewer fees | Complete or Ongoing |
| 10 | Cities to reduce utility, impact and other fees for affordable housing developments and ADUs | Started |
| 11 | Cities and County to streamline permitting process for affordable housing development and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) | Started |
| 12 | Cities, County, and AHC to support condominium liability reform that better balances homeowner protections and developer risk to increase access to affordable homeownership options | Complete or Ongoing |
| 13 | State legislature to exempt affordable housing from sales tax | Complete or Ongoing |
| 14 | County or AHC to explore incentives similar to the Multifamily Tax Exemption for the development of ADUs for low-income households | Not Started |
| 15 | Cities and County to advocate for a strong, equitable financing tool that captures value from development to fund infrastructure and affordable housing investments (aka: value-capture or tax increment financing tools) | Complete or Ongoing |
| 16 | Cities and County to advocate for state public works trust fund investments—connected to local affordable housing outcomes | Not Started |
| 17 | Cities and County to increase educational efforts to ensure maximum use of property tax relief programs to help sustain homeownership for low-income individuals | Complete or Ongoing |
| 18 | Cities and County to support alternative homeownership models that lower barriers to ownership and provide long-term affordability, such as community land trusts, co-ops, and rent to own models | Started |
| 19 | Cities and County to expand targeted foreclosure prevention | Started |
| 20 | Where appropriate, cities and County to preserve existing manufactured housing communities through use-specific zoning or transfer of development rights | Started |
| 21 | Cities and County to encourage programs to help homeowners, particularly low-income homeowners, access financing, technical support or other tools needed to participate in and benefit from infill development opportunities | Not Started |
The table below explains the progress for each shaded box visualized below.
| Action | Description | Status |
| 1 | County or AHC to develop toolkits and strategies to better engage neighborhoods and residents in affordable housing development | Not Started |
| 2 | County or AHC use existing data and tools to greatest extent possible, i.e. PSRC Vision 2050 work | Complete or Ongoing |
| 3 | Cities and County to use community engagement techniques, which may include providing evening meetings, translation services, food, and child care, or travel stipends for low-income individuals and historically marginalized communities to participate, that promote more equitable engagement in zoning and siting decisions | Started |
| 4 | Cities, County, and AHC to create stakeholder partnerships with business, philanthropy, nonprofits, faith-based organizations, the health care sector, and others to encourage investments in affordable housing | Started |
| 5 | Cities, County, and AHC to encourage business, organized labor, and philanthropy to support public dialogue on affordable housing | Started |
Measuring impact
This dashboard can be used to assess the degree to which the collective actions taken to implement the Regional Affordable Housing Task Force’s 2018 recommendations are having their intended impact. Where year-over-year data is unavailable, baseline data is offered. In future years, progress will be measured against these baseline indicators and new indicators to more effectively measure the scale of impact and assess who is leading the way. This includes data to measure progress to increase regional collaboration (Goal 1) and better engage more stakeholders in addressing the need for more affordable housing solutions (Goal 7).
Jurisdictional housing affordability snapshots
Housing affordability conditions vary across jurisdictions in King County and so does progress to implement housing affordability solutions. Please note that the housing policy section does not show the extent to which a policy is implemented within a jurisdiction or how effective it is. It simply reports whether or not the policy is in effect somewhere within the jurisdiction. Explore these snapshots to learn more.
Meetings and membership Find Affordable Housing Committee information about upcoming meetings and committee members.
