Fixing our Housing Crisis

  • A table ranking small cities (population under 150,000) by their 2024 median home price-to-income ratio. Cities listed include Newport Beach, Palo Alto, Bellingham, and others in CA and WA. Table shows % change in median home price, home prices, median household income, and rank. Bellingham, WA, has a 127.9% increase in median home price, with a price of $655,758 and a ratio of 11.95, ranked 13th in the table. Newport Beach, CA, tops the list with a ratio of 21.24.

    Unaffordable housing is THE #1 Issue

    The housing shortage is the root cause of our most pressing crises — from rising inequality and homelessness to unsustainable city budgets and climate change. To fix this we must stop costly sprawl and invest in infill housing that increases affordability, supports transit, and reduces carbon emissions.

    Skyrocketing Housing Costs Are Squeezing Families. We must remove counterproductive regulatory barriers to construction of more affordable infill housing. This will also allow us to build more permanently affordable housing.

    Here’s why new construction benefits everyone: “Can luxury housing do anything for homelessness?”

    The Wealth Gap Is Widening. Research shows housing costs are the single biggest driver of rising inequality.

    Housing Shortages Are Fueling Homelessness. This humanitarian crisis is also a fiscal disaster, straining emergency services, public spaces, and local businesses.

    Housing Policy Is Climate Policy. Restrictive zoning forces sprawl, increasing reliance on cars — one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

    Stronger Public Transit Needs Smarter Growth. Transit systems thrive on density.

    Rising Utility Costs Hurt Everyone. Sprawl drives up the per-person cost of essential services like sewer, water, waste disposal, and electricity.

    Fiscal Responsibility Demands Smarter Housing Policy. Sprawl forces cities to spend more on roads, emergency services, and utilities, deepening deficits and draining reserves. Without action, we face higher taxes or service cuts — neither of which is acceptable.

  • Modern house with orange and gray exterior, featuring large windows and a balcony, surrounded by a landscaped garden.

    I’m running to bring real solutions — not more delays and half-measures

    For 16 years, my opponent has slowed housing reform – advocating for extended public process, for limiting reforms to pilot projects, for exempting most of the city – while housing costs skyrocketed.

    Between 2014 and 2024, Bellingham’s median home price more than doubled, and we are now the 13th most unaffordable small city in the U.S. (see spreadsheet graphic).

    My opponent’s collaboration with the NIMBY group that has historically dominated public comment contributed to this outcome.

    Now, he’s asking for a fifth term while families struggle to find affordable homes or rents.

    If you’re ready for action instead of excuses, vote for change.

    I will fight alongside Mayor Kim Lund and my fellow council members to enact citywide housing reforms.

    Bellingham’s expanded public engagement with over 10,000 inputs found preferences for:

    * changing zoning in all neighborhoods for greater housing choice including more affordable small-scale housing

    * neighborhood businesses such as coffee shops and groceries.

    * increasing residential densities to meet climate action goals

    Unlike my opponent, I’m a doer, not a talker.

    Where he has acted as a brake on reform, I will be an accelerator, supporting 1) immediate reforms wherever possible through interim ordinances, and 2) citywide reforms residents have asked for through public engagement.

  • Diagram depicting six types of urban zones from natural to urban core.

    Replace our land use-based zoning with a form-based code to cut housing costs, homelessness, sprawl, auto-dependence, and emissions

    Bellingham’s old zoning laws create sprawl, raise housing costs, and prevent walkable neighborhoods by keeping homes and businesses separate. 

    Form-based codes control building exteriors and public space interactions, maintaining neighborhood character while allowing flexible internal uses. This promotes higher density, supports local businesses, and reduces sprawl.

    Implementing a version of the SmartCode — an adaptable, open-source zoning system — could streamline regulations, cut permitting delays, and enable more affordable infill housing while preserving natural and agricultural areas. 

    · Bellingham currently has 25 zoning tables with 430 unique subareas, a complexity requiring hired consultants to navigate. The SmartCode would cut that number to six zones and a few special districts.

    · Long permitting times increase costs to individuals, builders, and businesses. The SmartCode would enable people to build by right within the range of forms allowed in each zone.

    · Current zoning restricts half of Bellingham to the most expensive housing: single detached, often with large minimum lot sizes. Originally intended to separate people by income and race, it clusters multifamily housing in north Bellingham, where public schools now serve a majority-minority population.

    · Current zoning more than doubles the cost of infill housing.

    · If adopted regionally by Whatcom County and other municipalities, the SmartCode could simplify and coordinate regional planning.

  • Modern multi-story building with large windows and small balconies, part of a mixed-use development.

    Develop mixed-income housing and community land trusts to address lower-income residents’ housing needs

    I’m proposing we pursue a mixed income housing model already delivering benefits for low-income residents of Montgomery County, MD. By using a revolving fund instead of tax money, Montgomery County is building high-quality (“luxury”) apartments and townhomes that are publicly owned.

    · 65% of units are rented at competitive market rates, and profits enable the other 35% to be kept permanently affordable to lower-income households.

    · Unlike tax-subsidized housing, this public housing is mixed income, which guarantees better housing and educational outcomes for low-income families. 

    · It’s less expensive and time- and staff-consuming than tax-subsidized housing relying on grants from multiple agencies – including a now unreliable federal government – and that is limited to the lowest incomes. 

    · By expanding the supply of quality public housing, this mixed housing model helps control rents in the private sector as well, as in Vienna, Austria.

    · King County and Seattle are working on similar concepts. 

    We should go beyond the Maryland model by extending revolving loan fund support to community land trusts. Kulshan CLT, for example, already has 142 permanently affordable homes. Let’s scale up that model!

    Our county treasurer advocates using part of the half billion dollars in county funds for a revolving fund for housing. We should partner with our state legislators to enable local public revolving funds for housing here as in Maryland.

    We should also partner with community foundations and other NGOs on revolving funds for loans and loan guarantees. In New Jersey the nonprofit I co-founded partnered with churches to establish a revolving loan fund for CLTs.

  • Graphic discussing landlords using technology to keep rent high, with news headlines about tech firms and rent-setting algorithms.

    Supporting Renters

    Most Bellingham residents are renters but only one out of seven of our council members is a renter.

    If elected, I would double the number of renters on council.

    I support:

    · Requiring clear disclosure of fees.

    · Enforcing compliance with rental inspection findings.

    · Banning algorithmic rent setting which allows landlords to engage in anticompetitive behavior.

    Fundamentally the best renter protection is to expand the supply at all price points to ensure a healthy market.

    But renters also need clear and predictable guarantees to discourage price gouging and bad behavior.

  • Two portable classroom buildings, one blue and one green, with wheelchair-accessible ramps, situated outdoors against a backdrop of trees.

    Homelessness

    Research shows homelessness is a housing problem. The most important thing we can do is address the housing and affordability crisis overall.

    Tiny homes have better outcomes than congregate shelters. They offer privacy, enable inhabitants to join in managing their housing arrangements, with much higher rates of transition into regular housing.

    We should collaborate with Whatcom County to establish safe parking and supervised camping as safe alternatives to unauthorized encampments.

    We must support first responders and nonprofit services to meet growing needs and mitigate the crisis in the short-term.