New study proposes thousands of market-rate housing units for downtown Spokane

SPOKANE, Wash. — A new study suggests Spokane’s housing crisis could be alleviated by adding more market-rate housing options to downtown Spokane.

The Downtown Spokane Partnership recently released a housing action plan that calls for adding 3,200 market-rate housing units to downtown Spokane over the next 10 years.

The city contracted with the Downtown Spokane Partnership nearly a year ago to conduct the research, which was presented at City Hall on Monday. The study compared Spokane to other cities with similar population sizes and demographics to develop recommendations for downtown housing development.

“We want more people living and working and coming downtown,” said Rae-Lynn Barden, director of policy and membership for the Downtown Spokane Partnership.

The study recommends achieving a housing density ratio of 80% market-rate units to 20% affordable housing units to meet economic development goals.

“They are recommending that we get to a density of 80/20, to hit some economic goals with that increased residential population,” Barden said. “We are about 44% affordable units and then about 56% market-rate. So, their recommendation is to add 3,200 units at that market rate.”

The research found that compared to peer cities in the study, Spokane has considerably less housing at market-level value. The proposed 3,200 new units would help diversify income levels in downtown Spokane by targeting middle-income workers.

“We’re talking about your sales associate at Nordstrom or a bartender at Twiggs. So that mixed, middle-income housing is the need for downtown Spokane,” Barden said.

Barden noted that low vacancy rates for existing housing units reflect growing demand to live and work in downtown Spokane.

“The current units we have downtown have really low vacancy rates. So we are seeing high demand for that, especially with young professionals,” she said.

She said she is optimistic about reaching the new housing target, saying approximately 400 units are already in development.

“We can build from the ground up or do some conversion,” Barden said.