Homes are not affordable. Rent is rising rapidly, and so the federal definition of low, very low, and extremely low income households is rising quickly. The result is that each year, more and more households are below the legal definition of “Very Low Income.” In Snohomish County, for a household of 3 people (the County average), that number is $53,750 a year from all sources of income. (Source)
In 2020, per the American Communities Survey from the US Census Bureau, that meant 77,355 households are estimated to have been Very Low Income. Now, knowing the available vouchers and income-restricted units from various Snohomish County-based housing providers, we can compare available resources to qualifying households, in this graph:
The takeaway is that there is a 3:1 mismatch between Very Low Income households, who, as shown (in the market rental article), will likely incur significant cost burden if they are not assisted with some form of housing assistance.
The result is that at least 55,862 households have, for the last two years, been severely cost-burdened, doubling-up in apartments or houses, living in tents on private property through necessary arrangements, living in cars, or living as the unsheltered, visible homeless. It is important to stress that the number of visible unsheltered homeless is reliably well below the true number. For example, in the case of Edmonds, the 2018 Point in Time Count found 4 individuals who were unsheltered homeless. A more in-depth study commissioned by the City, conducted by Kone Consulting, found 230 individuals. The point here: just because the impacts of this mismatch of assistance to households is not seen, does not mean it does not exist.
This data is compiled from requests the Housing Authority of Snohomish County and Everett Housing Authority for their housing choice voucher allocations, as well as the income restricted housing survey being compiled by the Puget Sound Regional Council, which is at present the best and most comprehensive survey of income restricted units available.
This is the last stop on the housing affordability spectrum before homelessness (and indeed likely captures some households that are currently homeless, but employed and unable to find a place to live). It is a graph and circumstance that is at the mercy of more market-driven forces in housing affordability, absent a massive, politically untenable, infusion of public dollars for the creation of more income restricted housing. The work in this space is worthwhile, noble, and critically, immediately, needed. However, it cannot be the sole focus of our efforts, as the output of a much larger systems failure.