“The Senate’s capital budget proposal would take us backwards on housing. It’s less than what we approved last biennium. In the middle of a housing crisis, less is unacceptable. We need to go big, so people can go home. In the past two years we were able to make historic investments to scale up and speed up construction of housing and shelters. The problem is growing, not shrinking, so our response must match the moment.

"I appreciate the work of legislators to address the many urgent priorities in our capital budget, including a new behavioral health hospital and housing. I look forward to seeing the House proposal next week.”

Background:

    In December, Inslee released a housing proposal that included a referendum that will allow legislators to front-load $4 billion of housing construction over the next six years. The underlying capital budget will fund approximately 2,200 housing units in 2023–25. The $4 billion referendum would add approximately 5,300 units additional units during that time, and 19,000 in the following three biennia.

    The 2021-23 capital budget included about $290 million for the Housing Trust Fund and $419 million for a new type of housing called Rapid Capital Acquisition. In 2021-23, federal funding significantly boosted overall funding to more than $800 million. The Senate proposal doesn't include funding for RCA and reduces overall funding for housing unit investments back to $542 million.