"Sometimes you just have a moment that things align, and you can get some great things done."
When then Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward declared a housing emergency in 2021, it wasn't a shock to those hearing it.
Spencer Gardner, AICP, who took over as planning director of Spokane a year later, affirms that it reflected what was being felt in the community at the time.
"We knew there was a crisis because we personally felt it," he says. "I think everybody [saw] rents were rising exponentially and house prices had shot up. Everybody had personally experienced or knew somebody who was struggling to find a place to live — even people with decent jobs, and good wages. It was just increasingly hard for people to find housing.
"We weren't the only community dealing with that, and I think there are a lot of complicated factors that went into why that was happening, but we all could feel it."
Soon after, the city's planners were tasked with crafting an interim ordinance that would spur housing supply.
"My philosophy was this: We declared an emergency about this. If your house is on fire, you don't lazily walk around trying to figure out which exit to take or what items to [take] with you. You get up and run," Gardner says. "We felt similarly about our housing crisis. If this was an emergency, then we needed to act right away — and the elected officials and the mayor agreed with that."
Learn more in my latest blog for the American Planning Association: https://lnkd.in/gm6YQDc8
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2moI appreciate this research and agree with its findings. In addition to securing more funding for home repair programs, we must also address the skilled labor shortage that hampers project completion and quality. Investing in vocational education is crucial to building a capable workforce, which will enhance the effectiveness of repair programs and improve housing conditions. This combined approach will support more resilient communities.