EVERETT
Snohomish County expects to have a louder voice in the debate over how to create more affordable housing here and across the state.
Gov. Christine Gregoire has appointed County Councilman Dave Gossett to the state Affordable Housing Advisory Board, the principal advisory board to the governor on housing related issues.
“This appointment puts Snohomish County in a strong position to advocate for more affordable housing,” said Gossett, a Democrat from Mountlake Terrace.
The affordable housing board includes representatives from counties, cities, housing authorities, homebuilders, for-profit and non-profit developers, lenders, and real estate agents.
“I am keenly aware of the need for affordable housing,” said Gossett. “I particularly want to focus on how we can make housing more affordable to middle-income, working-class households.”
The average home in Snohomish County is worth about $347,000, up from about $300,000 last year, according to the county assessor’s office. The increase is about 16 percent.
Last year, the county helped broker deals to buy apartment buildings for low-income housing for the YWCA. In 2006, the county housing authority bought two mobile home parks in Lynnwood that otherwise would have been redeveloped.
Gossett said he also plans to work with Snohomish County’s Housing and Homelessness Policy Oversight Committee. “I can bring insights from the state to the local level and vice versa,” he said.
Solving homelessness amounts in part to better coordinating the county and non-profit bureaucracies that are trying to help the homeless, County Executive Aaron Reardon said in his state-of-the-county address in January.
Jeff Switzer writes for The Herald of Everett.
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