SPOKANE, Wash. — A new Washington law helps make affordable housing cheaper to build as utility connection fees have become much more expensive in Spokane over the last few years.
“We know people aren’t going to thrive or be successful if they don’t have a roof over their heads,” said Sen. Marcus Riccelli, who sponsored the legislation.
Utility connection fees make it more difficult to develop affordable housing, but Senate Bill 5662 aims to change that for local nonprofits. The bill was just signed into law and waives the cost of utility connection fees for groups like Habitat for Humanity.
“If you’re building a home, you have to plug into the infrastructure, and that costs money,” said Michelle Girardot, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Spokane.
The cost of plugging a home into local utilities has jumped by about 600% in recent years. Being able to waive those fees will make homes much more affordable.
“With projects and work like Habitat does, we do home ownership. So there’s one hook up per unit and that would explode the cost of a project,” Girardot said.
Senate Bill 5662 saves Habitat for Humanity about $16,000 per home they build, and they can pass those savings onto the families moving into these homes.
“I think it’s going to build more affordable housing and certainly reduce some of the increasing barriers that are being put in front of these developers and these low income families,” Riccelli said.
“For a family that’s low income, $4,000 can really be the difference between being approved for a loan or rejected. We thought that was a win all around,” Girardot said.
“Not only is it going to incentivize more housing providers like Habitat, but really any small developer is going to be able to tap into that and we need to. We need to build as many homes as fast we can,” Girardot said.
Other affordable housing groups estimate the new law could save larger multi-family complexes up to $100,000 in fees.
Senator Riccelli hopes to continue finding solutions to address the housing crisis.
“We have a desperate need and we’re not going to see the cost of home ownership, of rental prices going down unless we have more stock on the market in Washington State and in Spokane,” Riccelli said.
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