City of Washougal partners with Vancouver Housing Authority to help give renters ‘a hand up’

The Vancouver Housing Authority (VHA) and the city of Washougal are working to finalize an interlocal agreement that will create a rental subsidy program for low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) properties in Washougal.

“We just aren’t staffed right to set up a rental assistance program,” Washougal City Manager David Scott said during a Council workshop on Monday, Jan. 23. “(The VHA is) the expert. There are other assistance programs out there leveraging other streams, but VHA has got great visibility into this dynamic, and they’re a perfect partner for a small community.”

In 2019, Washington state legislators approved a bill that created the Encouraging Investments in Affordable and Supportive Housing Act, which allows jurisdictions to collect state-shared local taxes to be used for investments in affordable and supportive housing.

The city of Washougal opted into the program in 2020 and has received 0.0073% of collected sales tax for local retail sales — $14,454 per year — for the past two years.

The bill stipulates that jurisdictions must use the funds for the acquisition, rehabilitation or construction of existing affordable housing, the operation and maintenance of new affordable housing, or the provision of rental assistance to tenants, and that the program will expire 20 years after its implementation.

“The main challenge with these funds is determining how the most meaningful difference can be made with a pretty limited resource of $14,000 a year, so we explored options to leverage these funds without adding on to the workload of city staff,” Tristan Haberstich, the City’s management analyst intern, said during the Jan. 23 workshop. “We want to use these funds to help keep people in their homes, and as part of that (effort), we reached out to the Vancouver Housing Authority with this idea, with no particular expectations in mind, and actually found some really great support.”

The VHA created a “rent buy-down” program several years ago to establish rent subsidies at multi-family locations based on qualifying rent subsidy amounts “outside of the traditional Section 8 program,” according to VHA executive director Roy Johnson.

“In many cases the subsidy is lower than what the VHA would pay for the subsidy as a Section 8 voucher,” Johnson said. “The motivation is to assist more households, albeit at a lower subsidy amount. VHA has included LIHTC projects in the program in addition to market rate complexes. LIHTC projects restrict household incomes at 60% or lower area median income; this creates more affordable rents, but the rent levels may still be a challenge for the lower-income households. Therefore, VHA’s rent buy-down program provides some rental relief to the household.”

The program would provide $200 per month of rental assistance to Washougal residents who are paying more than $300 or 35% of their monthly income for rent. Tenants must have an income below 50% of the area’s median income at the time of initial leasing to qualify, according to the proposal.

The VHA would provide up to $60,000 per fiscal year inclusive of the city’s annual contribution, providing for 300 assistance payments, or 25 households, per year.

“The amount that the Vancouver Housing Authority is putting in exceeds what Washougal would put in every year,” Johnson said during the Jan. 23 meeting. “But it’s definitely worthwhile when you’re working with very, very low income (residents) who are having difficulty in affording rents, even in developments that were developed as lower income.”

Three Washougal properties, including Rockwood Terrace Apartments, would qualify for the VHA program, according to Johnson. Several Rockwood Terrace residents in 2022, publicly expressed their frustration about large rent increases, saying they couldn’t afford such increases with their limited incomes.

“LIHTC properties are their target,” Scott said. “There is more than one (of those properties) in our community. If you are living in a random rental somewhere, and you meet the eligibility criteria, you might not be eligible. The property (has to) qualify, (but) the individual (also) has to qualify. This is what VHA thinks will be a reasonable criteria in order to leverage these funds in the community to make a difference.”

The VHA will present the finalized agreement to the Washougal City Council in its final form at an upcoming Council workshop.

“I’m excited about this,” Mayor David Stuebe said during the Jan. 23 workshop. “We want to do something for these folks. This isn’t the end-all solution. But like (Councilman) Ernie (Suggs) said earlier, it’s a hand-up, not a handout. The partnership with VHA was a pleasant surprise. I think this is a good start, and that we have something to look forward to.”

Councilwoman Molly Coston said she believes the proposed agreement is “a great strategy (to pursue) with just a small amount of money that we collect for this purpose.”

“This is definitely something that we need in our community,” Suggs added.