Northwest affordable housing providers say it’s a volatile time for them as federal programs that have long fueled Clark County development are threatened.
“There’s a lot of concern that the programs that we rely upon to move projects to the finish line or break ground are endangered,” said Margaret Salazar, CEO of Portland-based REACH Community Development. “A lot of the dollars that we rely upon flow through the local governments. It will be one of those things that you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.”
She was among four panelists who spoke during Tuesday’s “Columbian Conversations: Innovative Housing Solutions” event at Kiggins Theatre in downtown Vancouver.
Local development and housing experts discussed the growing challenges of increasing housing supply in Clark County amid rising demand. Panelists explored potential impacts on local and national housing markets, highlighting shifts in regulations and funding priorities.
Innovative solutions — such as a focus on higher-density housing and collaborative partnerships — offer the most hope for meeting Clark County’s rising need, according to the panel.
To meet the statewide goal of building 1.1 million new homes by 2044, Clark County would need to boost development by more than 100,000 houses, apartments or other dwellings over the next 20 years, according to projections.
Challenges
The panelists said rising construction costs, shrinking available land and zoning continue to throw wrenches in agencies’ ability to build more housing.
Sierk Braam, CEO of Housing Initiative, a subsidiary of Council for the Homeless, said wages have not kept up with rising development expenses.
Salazar said skyrocketing insurance costs, inflation and other operating costs have created a barrier unique to this moment.
“It’s getting harder and harder to get financial support for affordable housing development,” Salazar said. “This barrier is causing real capacity constraints for affordable housing developers to be able to finance our next project.”
There isn’t enough public funding to build projects locally and meet the need, according to Patrick Quinton, economic development director for the city of Vancouver.
Andy Silver, CEO of the Vancouver Housing Authority, said affordable housing projects rely on the same market conditions as market-rate housing, so when the market is strong it creates a crowded race.
“When the market is hot, it’s hard to do affordable housing because you’re competing against all the other developers for the same land,” Silver said.
Unknown impacts
The panelists also talked about how the current presidential administration impacts housing development. The Trump administration is looking to slash half of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development staff, which panelists said will directly impact how federal funding is streamed to local projects.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration shuttered a $1 billion affordable housing project. The funding cut directly impacts Smith Tower in downtown Vancouver, which was counting on $10 million from the federal government to help fund building upgrades.
Patrick Ginn, CEO of development company Ginn Group, said tariffs set by the Trump White House and Canada will have a direct impact on lumber costs and other materials needed to build housing.
“It could be that you’re planning a project, and all of a sudden the cost of lumber or availability of steel, changes the numbers where markets are already tight,” Ginn said. “It may just make a project, whether private or subsidizing some capacity, not feasible.”
These policies will affect the pipeline of housing, Salazar said.
“I think folks won’t realize it right away, and then you’ll start seeing projects get stalled, you’ll start seeing projects that have funding gaps, and you’ll start seeing more projects have to go to private funders in other places,” Salazar said.
Silver said the Vancouver Housing Authority administers 3,500 federally funded housing vouchers for low-income households in Clark County, with most affordable housing development relying on project-based vouchers.
Silver said developers cannot rely on securing project-based vouchers for future affordable housing projects planned over the next few years.
“Now developers face the choice of: ‘Do I move forward and hope for the best?’ ” Silver said.
Solutions
Clark County developers and agencies are thinking big but building small. By focusing on accessory dwelling units, cottage clusters, condominiums and garden apartments, builders can fit more housing units on less land with a smaller price tag.
Instead of placing a single-family home on a property, developers are now developing 15 smaller homes, which can be more cost-efficient than a giant apartment complex, Quinton said.
Silver noted that higher-density housing neighborhoods are not a new concept in Vancouver. He pointed to Uptown Village, which is zoned for middle-housing options, unlike other neighborhoods that were later zoned solely for single-family homes.
“It’s not a radical concept. It’s just going back to the way that we used to build communities,” Silver said.
Panelists also discussed the rise of tiny-home communities. Vancouver nonprofit Community Roots recently built two such communities for families, veterans and others facing housing instability.
Ginn said that higher-density housing is the next step for Vancouver.
“The next stage of Vancouver is to get … more housing in closer areas. The last thing we want to do is push people outside of Clark County,” Ginn said. “We need people that have access to employment, to mass transit, to services.”
Braam said 20 years ago, Vancouver’s development innovation was driven by a city council and staff willing to take risks, citing the waterfront development and vibrant neighborhoods with amenities as key factors in the area’s population growth.
Braam said local housing agencies are turning to greater collaboration.
“We all know each other, we all get along but now we are forced to partner and share both our intellectual resources … but also try to be as creative as possible and as innovative as possible,” Braam said.
As Vancouver’s population continues to grow, panelists agreed that they will keep adapting.
“When we talk about addressing the housing crisis, the city says that we want to pull every single level,” Quinton said. “There’s no one single solution.”
