Alicia Ayars, Community Programs Coordinator, 509.625.6780
Thursday, June 21, 2018 at 4:20 p.m.
Updated: 07/10/2018
In 2016, the Mayor’s Housing Quality Task Force identified 19 priority recommendations focusing on improving housing quality and affordability in the City of Spokane. One of the recommendations was to define and establish a definition and minimum set of standards for improving housing. The definition and standards would apply to all existing housing within the city.
In 2017 a project team made up of a subset of members from the original task force convened to begin work on this recommendation. The project team consisted of external partners that included representatives from the Center for Justice, Spokane Home Builders, the Community Assembly/Neighborhoods, residential developers from both the for-profit and non-profit sectors, Spokane Housing Venture, Washington Tenants Union, Washington Landlord Association, city council and staff.
The project team concluded their work in July 2017 with a draft of the housing quality definition and Property Maintenance Code (PMC). The effort included a community engagement component which include three community meetings, an online survey and a blog that allowed for community input, feedback and buy-in. Furthermore, educational materials were distributed at the Title 18 Housing Forum on June 29, 2017.
Immediately after the project team concluded their work effort in July 2017 an advisory committee was convened to further refine the PMC and to determine enforcement of the code. The advisory committee is made up of city staff whose departments would be directly impacted by the enforcement of the new PMC.
The advisory committee is finalizing the logistics of enforcing the code through a three pronged approach that would include Code Enforcement, Developer Services Center and the Fire Department. The city will adopt the new PMC before the end of the year 2018 with enforcement to being sometime in 2019. You can view the PMC draft online.
Prior to adopting the code, educational materials are available to the public via the Mayor’s Housing Quality Task Force project page. Stay tuned in for the following engagement opportunities;
