Housing What?

So what about this Regional Affordable Housing Task Force? Bet you’ve never heard of it. The only reason I have is that I’m on it. Not a very good start for an idea that came about a year ago when almost 200 low income residents were forced to move from their mostly decrepit downtown Spokane apartments and the City said that a housing crisis was on us and that something must be done.

Here’s the scoop: It’s taken seven months for local governments to put the task force together; 19 of us are finally set to develop a comprehensive plan and implementation strategy that we hope will address among the more urgent issues that face the Inland Northwest---the need for abundant and affordable low income and workforce housing.

Task force members run the gamut: Representatives from non-profit housing agencies, developers, decision makers and generally interested folks who might have some skills to make things happen will meet six times between now and October to create something that I hope can be a model for the rest of the country. My role is twofold. I’ll represent the City of Spokane’s Community Development Board; my communications skills will also likely be called on. A recent magazine piece I wrote for Spokane Coeur d’Alene Living and my role as a downtown resident, community advocate and communications consultant should also help establish my bona fides.

We’ll have staff help from the City of Spokane and Spokane County but there will still be several challenges. Among the larger ones will be to create what Task Force members are being told is a Public Education Program. A couple of points on this---first of all we’ll have to decide what we’re going to educate the public about and then we’ll have to find the money to make it happen. Governments are notorious for creating committees and then ignoring the innovations that come from them. What I don’t want to see is just another thick report with lots of great ideas get sucked into a black hole never to be seen again.

It’ll be an interesting process---I’ll keep you posted.