The governor referenced his own proposal to put a $4 billion bond measure on next year’s ballot to provide money to build more affordable housing units in the next six years. “We have probably 25,000 people who are homeless in the state of Washington, and for them to get housing we need a substantial investment to build that housing and provide the supportive services for those who need it.” “But we also have to finance this housing, and we know that the private market cannot totally finance low-income housing, and we need to provide for people who are today homeless,” Inslee said. We’ve only built 350,000 units and we’re going to have a homeless crisis unless we build more housing.” We’ve had a million people move into our state. “And right now we have good discussions underway to increase the places we can build housing by changing some of our onerous restrictions, government regulations and zoning that today is preventing us from building the housing we need,” Inslee said. Washington has a housing deficit that the Legislature is attempting to deal with, according to the governor. It remains to be seen whether those good feelings lasted beyond Friday’s cutoff date to pass bills out of committee and read them into the record on the floor in the chamber of origin, except for House fiscal committees and Senate Ways & Means and Transportation committees. And all our efforts are still very vibrant and moving forward, so I’m real happy about it.” When you talk to legislators, they’re telling me there seems to be better bipartisan communication going on, which is really a positive thing. “And there is a really positive kind of vibe around the session this year,” Inslee added. Those bills are on track for major progress, the governor said. “Almost all of the bills that I’ve proposed are still alive and kicking, so that’s good.” “Well, I feel very positive about it,” he said of the legislative session so far, which is on day 39 of 105 days. Jay Inslee addressed a number of topics during a Thursday afternoon press conference from the Capitol Campus in Olympia.
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