You're planning out your bills
every month and then you know,
your rent bumps up and your
groceries bump up and you're,
you know, gas prices increase
and so now it's not enough.
Rebecca Mason and her family moved to
Spokane six years ago from Los Angeles
with the intention of saving up to buy
a home in a cheaper housing market.
Now, with having to pay higher
amounts for rent, we don't have
as much to put aside to save.
And I I feasibly, I don't know
that I can see purchasing.
Home in my near future anymore
now, Rebecca says she and her wife have
to pay hundreds of dollars more next
month to stay in their current home.
A $600.00 if we do not sign the
year lease and $400.00 if we do.
We are not planning on signing that year
lease and are hoping to find other housing.
And that'll be a $600.00 increase.
That was supposed to happen in February 1st,
and we got three weeks notice
and a survey conducted in
November by the zone at the
Northeast Community Center,
852 people in the city.
Spokane were asked about the
cost of living expenses.
59% said their rent went up in the
last six months and 43% said they
saw an increase of up to $500.
I could have afforded a 7% increase,
but I couldn't afford a 50% increase.
The numbers are similar for
people living in Spokane County,
like Shannon Korrik who lives in Cheney.
We rented a house in Cheney and
we had lived there for years.
Very stable housing situation.
My landlord was really great.
And then uh. Last year he said
he was going to raise the rent.
If we signed a lease,
it would be a 30% increase.
If we did not sign a lease,
it was going to be a 50% increase
and we could not find anywhere to
move that was at all affordable.
That same survey conducted by the
zone asked 133 people who live in
Spokane County about their rent.
54% said they had an increase in
the past six months of up to $1000.
When you have a 40 hour week job.
When you have kids, a family.
Housing is a number one concern and I've
noticed just in the past couple of years.
Homelessness has skyrocketed.
People are living in their vans and their
cars because they've got nowhere else
to go and know where they can afford,
even if they're working a full time job.
Many local leaders, including
Spokane City Councilman Zack Zappone,
believe one solution to the
rising rent prices is building
more affordable multifamily
housing in and around the city.
Last year we passed the Boca,
which is a building opportunity
and choices for all acts,
and that changed to allow more
middle missing middle housing.
So that's up to four.
Flexes citywide,
often in vacant lands,
or changing the the zoning so
they can convert buildings
into up to four plexes.
Zappone recently spoke to the state
legislature in favor of passing a
similar law statewide that would
allow for more multifamily housing
units to be built in places that have
been zoned for single family homes.
Spokane alone cannot build enough
units within city boundaries,
so we need adjacent cities and the
county to increase their density
to we can't solve the problem our.
Alone, and that takes a regional approach.
Right now, he's working on a proposal
that would turn some of the empty
parking lots in downtown Spokane
into multifamily housing units.
There's a lot of land downtown
that is just not being utilized,
and we have this great need
for housing in our community.
So the legislature is allowing the
city and the state to defer taxes
on those properties if they build
housing and build affordable housing.
So there's a requirement that
50% of the used units.
Have to meet the affordability threshold.
But for now, Rebecca Shannon and
hundreds of other local residents are
being forced to make tough decisions.
So at this point in time,
I'm taking that rent increase
and taking time to look around.
And even though that is such a huge increase,
when I look at the cost of
applications and those pet deposits
and that cost of moving along with
paying another deposit on a place,
right and having the time that
perfectly with moving out from
an apartment into another place.
That is not the best option
for for us at this time.