City of Snohomish must ensure incentive aids low-income

On Feb. 20, the Snohomish City Council agreed to a draft set of incentives for developers to build more multi-family apartments. The incentives include waiving impact fees for parks and traffic and handing out $600,000 to pay for water and sewer meter connection fees. (The $600,000 will come from the 0.1 percent sales tax already collected and dedicated to low-income folks.)

In reality, the council is leaving those very low-income folks out in the cold. Here’s an illustrative example:

A developer builds on Avenue D-Bickford a five-story, 100-unit mid-rise. If he designates only 10 units for “affordable” housing, he qualifies for all the incentives. But here’s the unfairness to lower-income folks. The council defines the threshold for “affordable” units as for those folks earning $60,919 a ear or less. So when the landlord developer gets dozens of applicants for those 10 units, guess whom he will select? Those earning $55,000 to $60,000 a year or those earning $20,000 to $40,000 a year?

The city just reported the average apartment market rate rent in Snohomish is $1,500 a month. So someone earning $60,000 a year and renting a $1,500 a month apartment is not “rent cost-burdened”; defined as paying more than 30 percent of income for rent.

In the final public hearing on March 5, the council still has the option to lower the threshold from $60,919 to $40,865 to increase the opportunity for low-income folks to gain one of those “affordable” units. Otherwise the council is only enriching for-profit developers with no benefit for truly low-income folks.

Morgan Davis

Snohomish

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