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Eastside Housing Roundtable

The Eastside Housing Roundtable (“EHR”) is a broad coalition comprised of employers, non-profits, business organizations, housing advocates, and private and non-profit housing developers. We unite to support the creation of more affordable housing and diverse housing types at all income levels on the Eastside as a shared response to rapid growth.

Vision and Mission

We envision an Eastside where everyone who lives and works here can benefit from a more affordable, accessible, and opportunity-rich region. Despite our diverse perspectives, we share in the belief that our affordable housing challenges are too complex, urgent, and important for any one sector or organization to solve alone.

➤ Our collective work is targeted and unique to this moment in time. Rapid job growth and imminent new transit investments present the Eastside with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to set the table for sustainable, economically vibrant, and inclusive transit-oriented communities. If we truly do our job, the need for our work together will eventually end.

➤ EHR is action oriented; our mission is to create and advance feasible solutions that can comprehensively accelerate and increase affordable housing options and access for Eastside residents. We believe that strategies should be grounded in housing yield goals based on existing need and anticipated growth at each income tier.

Values

➤ We believe that solutions should center equity and inclusion; all those who live and work in the Eastside should be able to share in the benefits of growth.

➤ EHR representatives center collaboration, transparency, analysis, and trust-building to reach agreement.

➤ Within areas of agreement, we combine our individual advocacy voices to form a unified chorus of support for solutions to address the Eastside’s affordable housing needs.

Objectives

In our work together, we will seek to:

➤ Advocate for timely zoning and land use changes to enable targeted increases in residential capacity and choice, especially in urban core areas and high-capacity transit hubs near job centers. Ideally, any zoning changes would be complemented by other incentives to encourage certain development types and income ranges.

➤ Leverage the technical expertise of our members to support the ability of local leaders to make thoughtful and evidence-based decisions, match their goals to the scope of the problem, turn local plans into timely results, and identify additional tools to strengthen local strategies.

➤ Through partnership, find solutions to increase staff capacity according to the scale and urgency of the challenges we face.

➤ Expand and support resources to support low, very low, and extremely low-income housing, which may include an Eastside Housing Levy or other revenue tools agreed upon by EHR members.

➤ Build political and grassroots support for programs and policies.

Examples of Recent Work

The Eastside Housing Roundtable began dialogue in late 2020, with the first convenings in early 2021. Since then, we have undertaken some of the following actions:

  • Proposed technical modifications and successfully advocated for reform to the Multifamily Tax Exemption Program in Bellevue.
  • Advocated for a denser land use alternative with more affordable housing in Bellevue’s East Main neighborhood.
  • Pushed for a stronger affordable housing incentive program on faith, non-profit, and publicly owned land.
  • Supported maximizing the opportunity in Kirkland’s NE 85th Street Station Area Plan for much-needed affordable housing near future transit, jobs, open space, and mobility improvements.
  • Advocated to raise Bellevue’s King Countywide Planning Policies residential and employment growth targets (2019-2044) from 27k residential units and 54k jobs to 35k units and 70k jobs.
  • Supported reduced parking requirements near frequent transit and the removal of barriers to ADU production.