Inslee: More housing, subsidies and services needed to solve Washington’s homelessness crisis

Governor Inslee said the state must build more housing to address homelessness, calling it “fundamentally a housing crisis” and urging a combination of increased supply, subsidies and supportive services. The governor opened a public performance review where Commerce officials laid out data on shortages, spending and recent program results.

Ted Kelleher, housing policy director at the Washington State Department of Commerce, told the panel Washington is “short about 100,000 units of housing” and currently adds roughly 37,000 units a year—below an estimated annual target of 55,000. Kelleher said that alone will not fix affordability: "At scale, housing subsidies are needed in any scenario," he said.

Kelleher noted one conservative measure showing 316,000 very‑low‑income households pay more than half their income for housing, and he warned that rising interest rates have increased mortgage payments even where prices remain stable. He recommended combining land‑use reforms to increase buildable capacity with increased subsidized production and supportive services for people with behavioral‑health or substance‑use needs.

Nate Lichtty, managing director of the Commerce housing division, described recent capital rounds and said state investments through the Housing Trust Fund since 1986 have supported efforts to create or preserve affordable units. "We were able to produce 3,400 units, which is 13% of the total," he said when comparing production to the projected annual need for very low‑income households.

Officials across the panel credited coordinated outreach and wrap‑around services for higher-than‑average housing acceptance rates in targeted programs. But they cautioned the state’s ability to expand successful pilots depends on sustained funding and local leadership to site projects.

The session ended with Inslee reiterating that scaling what works—building more units, layering subsidies and providing services—remains the clearest path to reducing homelessness in Washington. The next public performance review was announced for April 26.