Senator Murray Continues Push for All Hands On Deck Effort to Increase Affordable Housing and Address Crisis In Washington State

Washington state faces a shortage of nearly 172,000 affordable homes

Murray has made increasing federal funding to boost housing supply a top priority as Senate Appropriations Chair

Murray: "The housing crisis is hitting everyone, I hear about this from folks back in Washington state all of the time. We've got a long way to go, and a lot of people to help, but to me-the bottom line is more affordable housing."

***WATCH: SENATOR MURRAY'S QUESTIONINGHERE***

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, spoke at a Budget Committee hearing focused on steps to increase the supply of affordable housing and address the housing crisis. Senator Murray spoke about the work she has done to bring more affordable housing to Washington state, and emphasized that she is continuing to push additional progress-including through her role as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"The housing crisis is hitting everyone, I hear about this from folks back in Washington state all of the time. We've got a long way to go, and a lot of people to help, but to me-the bottom line is more affordable housing," said Senator Murray. "So I really believe this is an all-hands-on-deck crisis that requires every level of government to step up to do their part."

"On the Senate Appropriations Committee, I was really proud to help create the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing program-or the Yes-In-My-Back Yard program as we originally referred to it-to help identify and remove barriers to producing and preserving affordable housing," continued Senator Murray. "And we were able to provide $100 million for that program in Fiscal Year 2024-even under the very difficult Fiscal Responsibility Act caps. That is in addition to other important investments the federal government is making to boost supply-the HOME program, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. But clearly, the current levels of investment are not sufficient-and not moving quickly enough-to meet, really, the urgency of this crisis.

During her questioning, Senator Murray discussed her long history working to help families get affordable housing, which includes steps like helping create the Pathways to Removing Obstacles program (also known as the "Yes-In-My-Back Yard" grant program), funding the HOME Investment Partnerships program, supporting the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, and bringing Congressionally Directed Spending back to Washington state for affordable housing efforts. As Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Murray fought hard against Republican efforts to cut housing investments, and ultimately succeeded in protecting affordable housing programs in Fiscal Year 2024, even securing $100 million for the "Yes-In-My-Back Yard" grant program, a $15 million increase over the year prior.

In the Fiscal Year 2025 housing funding bill Murray passed out of committee this summer, she protected the existing funding level for the "Yes-In-My-Back Yard" grant program and secured a $175 million increase for the HOME Investment Partnerships program to help construct more than 8,400 new affordable homebuyer and rental units-Murray is currently working to pass this bill into law.

Washington state is facing a housing crisis due to the shortage of affordable housing. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Washington state has a shortage of nearly 172,000 affordable homes, meaning for every 10 extremely low-income Washington state families, there are only about 3 affordable homes.

In her questions to the witnesses, Senator Murray asked about the most effective steps the federal government can take to support increasing the affordable housing supply, what some of the biggest challenges have been over the last ten years, and how progress made in Democrats' American Rescue Plan contrasts with Republican proposal for a second Trump Administration, like the drastic housing cuts proposed in Project 2025.

The full transcript of Senator Murray's questioning is below:

MURRAY: The housing crisis is hitting everyone. I'm from Washington state, I hear about it all the time. We've got a long way to go, a lot of people to help. But to me-the bottom line is more affordable housing.

In Washington state we face a shortage of almost 172,000 affordable homes, meaning that for every 10 extremely low-income Washington state families, there's only 3 affordable homes. So I really believe that this is an all-hands-on-deck crisis that requires every level of government to step up and do their part.

On the Senate Appropriations Committee, I was really proud to help create the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing program-or the Yes-In-My-Back Yard program as we originally referred to it-to help identify and remove barriers to producing and preserving affordable housing. And we were able to provide $100 million for that program in Fiscal Year 2024-even under the very difficult Fiscal Responsibility Act caps.

That is in addition to other important investments the federal government is making to boost supply-the HOME program, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. But clearly, the current levels of investment are not sufficient-and not moving quickly enough-to meet, really, the urgency of this crisis.

So Mr. Williams-let me start with you-what have been some of the most effective federal interventions to address our housing shortage?

WILLIAMS: Thank you, Senator. I think the best way to measure our most effective programs is by looking at the number of units of supply that they've brought online. So I think in recent decades, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program is responsible for the most production of new supply of affordable housing. In the very recent past, I'm also very optimistic about the Pathways to Removing Obstacles program, as it's kind of addressing the issue from a different angle which is encouraging municipalities to remove some of the zoning and permitting obstacles that prevent new housing supply, affordable and market rate housing, from being able to come online. I understand that, I believe Seattle in your state received a Pathways to Removing Obstacles award, and so I'm optimistic that will result in some changes in your state as well.

MURRAY: Very good, thank you very much.

And Ms. Harris, I'm curious what have you seen in building additional housing over the last decade. You've seen a lot, how could the federal government better support the kind of work that the Better Housing Coalition is doing?

HARRIS: Well, thank you Senator. And Mr. Williams is correct, the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program has been extremely effective in allowing us to produce more housing units and also preserve existing affordable housing units. You know the cost of a unit of housing, whether its market rate or affordable, is almost identical and the only way we are able to offer rents at 50, 60, 70 percent off of market rate rents is the capital stack we use by holding our debt down to about 30 percent of the overall development cost versus a market rate development that is somewhere between 70 and 90 percent. The Low Income Housing Tax Credit Equity allows us to do that, and then there's usually 15 to 20 percent left of gap financing that is needed.

We've used creative things like Capitol Magnet Funds from the CDFI fund, ARPA dollars, in some cases CDBG, and philanthropy to be able to fill those holes and deliver quality housing options for families. The one thing I would say while we're cobbling together sometimes 12, 13, 14 sources of financing-that adds another 12 to 24 months to the delivery time. And the demand is so high every time we open up a new community, we have four, five times the amount of applications that we have units to help families find quality housing.

MURRAY: Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker it is an honor to have you here, thank you very much for joining us. I'm curious to ask you because we have heard Donald Trump's Project 2025 agenda proposes leaving HUD's responsibilities to states and localities without any federal funding or oversight, and proposes selling off the nation's public housing stock, which is a critical piece of our country's affordable housing priorities.

Here in Congress, we also saw the House Republicans put forward a 2025 budget that would slash HUD funding. So as you're watching all this from your seat, can you talk a little bit about those kinds of proposals would affect your state's housing efforts?

SHEKARCHI: Thank you, Senator. It would have a disastrous effect, not only on Rhode Island but on the rest of the country. Look, there are clearly some things we can all agree on which is we need some local zoning reform. But to privatize the public housing sector would exasperate an already existing crisis we have and a shortage. Where are the people who are living in these homes going to go? How are they going to afford to rent them or buy them? It is a very short-sighted solution to a very complex problem. We need both-we need federal subsidies and we need land use reform on a local level, and we need the federal government to step in because the states and the local communities cannot do it alone, Senator.

So it's a combination of an effort that would work and you'll see sustainable progress in affordable housing. Clearly the biggest solution, how we get there we can differ, but is to create more housing. We need more housing at every single level: the market level of housing, the workforce housing, the low income housing, and even homelessness needs more shelters. So you can take your pick as to which one you want to fund or to what degree, but all of them need attention from the federal government and they need to use local reforms to make it easier.

The private sector will step up and the private sector is ready, willing, and able to build in Rhode Island and probably throughout all 50 states. This is not a red state issue or a blue state issue, this is an every state issue. The private sector will do its part, but we need the federal government as well-we need both to partner, if you will.

MURRAY: Thank you very much, I've heard the same from my governor and local officials so I really appreciate that.

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