New poll finds huge support for affordability-focused solutions to Bellevue’s housing crisis

An over­whelm­ing major­i­ty of res­i­dents in Wash­ing­ton State’s fifth largest city feel that the hous­ing mar­ket is fail­ing to meet the needs of the com­mu­ni­ty and agree that a stronger “hands-on” approach is urgent­ly need­ed to deliv­er afford­abil­i­ty-focused solu­tions for Belle­vue, a new ground­break­ing poll con­duct­ed for the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute and its part­ners has found.

NPI, Com­plete Streets Belle­vue, the Sight­line Insti­tute, East­side For All, and the Hous­ing Devel­op­ment Con­sor­tium (HDC) teamed up this sum­mer to ask Belle­vue res­i­dents about their views on the hous­ing mar­ket and hous­ing policy.

Our sur­vey, which our col­leagues at Change Research field­ed for us from August 15th — 19th, found wide­spread agree­ment that the sta­tus quo in Belle­vue sim­ply isn’t work­ing for res­i­dents or prospec­tive res­i­dents, along with a great deal of enthu­si­asm for promis­ing new poli­cies that could begin to change that.

One of the first ques­tions we asked was Do you agree or dis­agree that the hous­ing mar­ket in Belle­vue is cur­rent­ly meet­ing the needs of the com­mu­ni­ty?

A whop­ping 68% of the 475 res­i­dents sur­veyed said they dis­agreed, while only 27% said they agreed. Just 6% over­all expressed strong agree­ment, a fig­ure that real­ly stood out to us. Only 5% said they were not sure.

We next asked respon­dents to tell us about their hous­ing experience.

• 51% said they know some­one who works in Belle­vue but must com­mute from far away to be able to afford rent or housing.
• 46% said that hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty in Belle­vue is a prob­lem that has impact­ed them per­son­al­ly — and many took the time to share their stories.
• 42% said that hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty in Belle­vue is a prob­lem that is impact­ing mem­bers of their fam­i­ly (chil­dren, grand­chil­dren, par­ents, grand­par­ents, sib­lings, oth­er close relatives).
• 24% (near­ly a quar­ter) said they know a senior who can’t find suit­able hous­ing to down­size and remain in the Belle­vue community.

Just 16% said that it has been easy for them to find hous­ing in Belle­vue that meets their needs and is afford­able. 12% told us they know a Belle­vue res­i­dent fac­ing fore­clo­sure, evic­tion, or an unsta­ble hous­ing situation.

Giv­en the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion and a sig­nif­i­cant amount of antic­i­pat­ed pop­u­la­tion growth in the next twen­ty years, we asked respon­dents whether they want to see a “hands-on” man­age­ment approach from the city, or a “hands-off” approach.

Once again, we saw a huge divide. 65% of res­i­dents expressed sup­port for a hands-on approach, while only 19% pre­ferred a hands-off, lais­sez faire approach.

What form should that hands-on approach take? One of the most pop­u­lar ideas that we test­ed was a manda­to­ry hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty (MHA) require­ment, some­thing that many neigh­bor­ing cities are already doing.

A total of 78% of res­i­dents agreed that Belle­vue should require devel­op­ers con­struct­ing new hous­ing in Belle­vue to reserve a per­cent­age of units with­in their projects as afford­able hous­ing, like adjoin­ing cities such as Red­mond and Kirk­land already do. Just 18% expressed dis­agree­ment with this idea. 4% were not sure.

We also asked res­i­dents for their views on a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of addi­tion­al pol­i­cy ideas. We’ll share the results of those ques­tions in the com­ing days.

With 151,854 res­i­dents accord­ing to the 2020 cen­sus, Belle­vue is the sec­ond most pop­u­lous city in King Coun­ty and the fifth most pop­u­lous in the state, as not­ed at the begin­ning of this post. The city’s land area spans 86.7 square kilo­me­ters / 33.48 square miles, and expe­ri­enced pop­u­la­tion growth of 24.10% between the 2010 and 2020 cen­sus­es. Seat­tle, Belle­vue’s larg­er sib­ling across Lake Wash­ing­ton, expe­ri­enced growth of 21.09% dur­ing that same time period.

Though Belle­vue is a very afflu­ent city — 60% of our respon­dents said they make $100,000 or more per year, with near­ly a quar­ter mak­ing over $250,000 per year — the city’s hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty cri­sis has got­ten so bad that all but the very wealth­i­est fam­i­lies are feel­ing it. Even fam­i­lies with mul­ti­ple adults who are work­ing full time expressed frus­tra­tion with the city’s hous­ing market.

“Even though me and my hus­band are work­ing pro­fes­sion­als and make well over $215k/year, we could not afford to buy a home in Belle­vue at this point,” said one respon­dent, who iden­ti­fied as an Asian Amer­i­can / Pacif­ic Islander female home­own­er between the ages of thir­ty-five to forty-nine.

She added: “We do have some con­cerns that with the rapid­ly ris­ing prop­er­ty tax­es, we may get priced out of the home we cur­rent­ly own.”

“I cur­rent­ly rent an apart­ment which has recent­ly increased rent by 17% for renew­ing my lease,” said a male Asian Amer­i­can / Pacif­ic Islander res­i­dent who is between the ages of eigh­teen to thir­ty-four. “Even with the increase, we have no choice but to stay because every­thing else is way more expen­sive. My wife and I would’ve liked to buy a home and start a fam­i­ly but home prices are too expen­sive and there are not enough options that fit our needs.”

“I grew up in Belle­vue and cur­rent­ly rent,” said a male white respon­dent who is between the ages of thir­ty-five to forty-nine. “I make good mon­ey but still can’t afford even a starter home in Belle­vue. Hous­ing prices are going up faster then my abil­i­ty to make more mon­ey and save for a down pay­ment. Even though I am mak­ing more mon­ey every year. I feel shut out of the city I grew up in.”

“My fam­i­ly is blessed to have an income into the $100,000+ and we strict­ly bud­get,” said a New­port female res­i­dent between the ages of thir­ty-five and forty-nine who did not state an eth­nic­i­ty. “I have lived here my whole life, born at Over­lake. We have not been able to com­pete with the Wall Street firms, pay­ing 100k+ over ask­ing for an already over­priced house. We have the income and sta­bil­i­ty and by all account[s] we should have been able to buy a house years ago. Instead we spend over $40k a year in rent. My gen­er­a­tion alone has faced two eco­nom­ic col­laps­es, a dead­ly pan­dem­ic and out­ra­geous cost of liv­ing rise, col­lege expens­es and out­ra­geous housing/ food/ transportation.”

“I’m a stan­dard tech Yup­pie who has rent­ed in DT for ~4 years,” said anoth­er respon­dent, who iden­ti­fies as a white male between the ages of eigh­teen and thir­ty-four, and lives in the city’s down­town [DT] core. “I do want to buy, but I don’t need a sin­gle fam­i­ly detached home as a sin­gle per­son. Find­ing a con­do or even a town­house that isn’t priced like a Man­hat­tan apart­ment is rare, and what does become avail­able dis­ap­pears quick­ly for well over ask­ing price.”

“Had to move out — am in shared hous­ing arrange­ment now, but do not expect I will or able to stay. Need afford­able senior hous­ing option!” said a white female res­i­dent old­er than six­ty-five years of age. Anoth­er woman in the same age brack­et told us: “Would like to down­size to a one floor home, but would cost the same or more than the home I have now with no sav­ings for retirement.”

The above are just a sam­pling of the sto­ries that we heard from our respon­dents. They span every age and income brack­et. Peo­ple of many dif­fer­ent back­grounds in Belle­vue are in strong agree­ment: the hous­ing mar­ket is fail­ing and City Hall must take action to ensure that Belle­vue remains inclu­sive and welcoming.

Here’s the text of all the ques­tions we’re releas­ing today, and their responses:

QUESTION: Do you agree or dis­agree that the hous­ing mar­ket in Belle­vue is cur­rent­ly meet­ing the needs of the community?

ANSWERS:

• Agree: 27%
  • Strong­ly agree: 6%
  • Some­what agree: 21%
• Dis­agree: 68% 
  • Some­what dis­agree: 29%
  • Strong­ly dis­agree: 39%
• Not sure: 5%

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QUESTION: Please tell us about your hous­ing expe­ri­ence as a res­i­dent of Belle­vue, and that of the peo­ple you know (fam­i­ly, friends, col­leagues, or employ­ees). Check any of the fol­low­ing state­ments that apply.

ANSWERS:

• 51%: I know some­one who works in Belle­vue but must com­mute from far away to be able to afford rent or housing
• 46%: Hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty in Belle­vue is a prob­lem that has impact­ed me personally
• 42%: Hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty in Belle­vue is a prob­lem that is impact­ing mem­bers of my fam­i­ly (chil­dren, grand­chil­dren, par­ents, grand­par­ents, sib­lings, oth­er close relatives)
• 24%: I know a senior who can’t find suit­able hous­ing to down­size and remain in our community
• 16%: It has been easy for me to find hous­ing in Belle­vue that meets my needs and is affordable
• 12%: I know a Belle­vue res­i­dent fac­ing fore­clo­sure, evic­tion, or an unsta­ble hous­ing situation
• 16%: Oth­er (please specify)

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QUESTION: The City of Belle­vue has com­mit­ted to adding 35,000 new house­holds with­in the next two decades as its con­tri­bu­tion to the Puget Sound region’s expect­ed growth. Which approach to man­ag­ing this growth do you agree with the most?

ANSWERS:

• 65%: Belle­vue should take a stronger “hands-on” approach to hous­ing and adopt more poli­cies that encour­age or require the devel­op­ment of homes that peo­ple can afford to buy or rent.
• 19%: Belle­vue should take a “hands-off” approach to hous­ing, reduc­ing reg­u­la­tions and zon­ing require­ments, and let the pri­vate mar­ket deter­mine what type of hous­ing is built in the city.
• 16%: Not sure

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QUESTION: Do you agree or dis­agree with the fol­low­ing approach­es for invest­ing in afford­able hous­ing in Bellevue?

Idea: Requir­ing devel­op­ers con­struct­ing new hous­ing in Belle­vue to reserve a per­cent­age of units with­in their projects as afford­able hous­ing, like adjoin­ing cities such as Red­mond and Kirk­land already do

ANSWERS:

• Agree: 78%
  • Strong­ly agree: 50%
  • Some­what agree: 28%
• Dis­agree: 18% 
  • Some­what dis­agree: 7%
  • Strong­ly dis­agree: 10%
• Not sure: 4%

Our hous­ing-focused sur­vey of 475 Belle­vue city res­i­dents was in the field from Mon­day, August 15th, through Fri­day, August 19th, 2022.

The poll was con­duct­ed entire­ly online for the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute and its part­ners by Change Research. It has a mod­eled mar­gin of error of 5.2%.

Fol­low this link if you’re inter­est­ed in a detailed primer on the survey’s method­ol­o­gy along with infor­ma­tion about who took the poll.

Like its north­ern neigh­bor Kirk­land, Belle­vue has a coun­cil-man­ag­er form of city gov­ern­ment and is gov­erned by a sev­en-mem­ber city coun­cil. The cur­rent Coun­cil con­sists of Con­rad Lee, Jen­nifer Robert­son, Jared Nieuwen­huis, May­or Lynne Robin­son, Jan­ice Zahn, John Stokes, and Jere­my Barks­dale. All but Barks­dale have been elect­ed to mul­ti­ple terms; Barks­dale is serv­ing his first term.

How­ev­er, unlike Kirk­land and oth­er neigh­bor­ing cities, Belle­vue has yet to embrace many of the ideas gain­ing pop­u­lar­i­ty in our region for keep­ing peo­ple in their homes and increas­ing the avail­abil­i­ty and afford­abil­i­ty of housing.

Staff and con­sul­tants have been study­ing ideas for tack­ling the hous­ing cri­sis and col­lect­ing feed­back from the pub­lic, but the Coun­cil has yet to take deci­sive action and imple­ment the kinds of poli­cies that res­i­dents told us they want in Bellevue.

As men­tioned, near­ly two-thirds of respon­dents said they want­ed Belle­vue to take a stronger “hands-on” approach to hous­ing and adopt more poli­cies that encour­age or require the devel­op­ment of homes that peo­ple can afford to buy or rent. And 78% — yes, that’s near­ly eight out of ten res­i­dents in the city! — favor requir­ing devel­op­ers con­struct­ing new hous­ing in Belle­vue to reserve a per­cent­age of units with­in their projects as afford­able hous­ing, like adjoin­ing cities such as Red­mond and Kirk­land already do.

Sur­pris­ing­ly, even half of Repub­li­can res­i­dents sur­veyed (49%) sup­port manda­to­ry hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty, which was strik­ing to us.

Repub­li­can res­i­dents were more divid­ed on the philo­soph­i­cal ques­tion of whether the city should adopt a “hands-on” approach to man­ag­ing growth ver­sus a “hands-off” approach. 38% of Repub­li­can res­i­dents of Belle­vue favored a hands-on approach to 41% who favored a “hands-off” approach.

Still, it’s impres­sive that so many res­i­dents who iden­ti­fy with a par­ty that has tra­di­tion­al­ly cham­pi­oned dereg­u­la­tion and lais­sez-faire eco­nom­ics think the city needs to be inter­ven­ing to address a sig­nif­i­cant mar­ket failure.

Once con­sid­ered a Repub­li­can bas­tion, Belle­vue is now indis­putably a Demo­c­ra­t­ic city. In our poll, 68% of res­i­dents who are vot­ers and par­tic­i­pat­ed in the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion said they vot­ed for the Biden-Har­ris tick­et, while 59% iden­ti­fied as Democ­rats to some degree. Only 23% iden­ti­fied as Republicans.

Demo­c­ra­t­ic res­i­dents, as you might expect, are in favor of deci­sive action and afford­abil­i­ty-focused solu­tions by mas­sive mar­gins. 77% of Demo­c­ra­t­ic res­i­dents want to see a “hands-on” approach, ver­sus 10% who want a “hands-off” approach to man­ag­ing growth. And 88% of Demo­c­ra­t­ic res­i­dents sup­port manda­to­ry hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty, while 10% are opposed. Inde­pen­dent res­i­dents are only slight­ly less enthu­si­as­tic: 81% of them also sup­port an MHA policy.

Lat­er this month, we’ll be shar­ing addi­tion­al find­ings from this poll that will nice­ly illus­trate the extent of Belle­vue res­i­dents’ enthu­si­asm for poli­cies that could get us clos­er to a future of hous­ing for all. If you’d like to watch the press con­fer­ence where we rolled out the find­ings dis­cussed in this post, that’s avail­able on NPI’s In Brief. We wel­come your ques­tions and thoughts on this research: you can get in touch with us through our con­tact form or leave a com­ment below.