Liz Revord

In carpentry, sistering is the process of joining two or more structural members together to act as one unified unit. 

When builders need to add strength to damaged structures, they will add support by means of sistering joists. Doing so strengthens the structure they are supporting, like load-bearing walls, giving stability to the building.

In the larger sense, sistering is the act of community. I often find myself saying well-known phrases like, “It takes a village,” or “Many hands make light work,” and the act of sistering embodies this sentiment — spreading the burden of a heavy lift and bringing more support, and stability, to the task at hand.

In the coming weeks, the planning commission, city council, city staff, and our greater community, will continue in the process of the Tactical Infill Zoning Project, offering insight and refining options to help strengthen and support our city’s zoning policies. The city wants to “eliminate barriers and incentivize unit development … To ensure an element of permanent affordability for our workforce.”

Housing Solutions Network is composed of community members who are advocating for affordable workforce housing for households earning 80 percent to 150 percent of area median income. This sector of the workforce doesn’t typically qualify for housing subsidies, but often doesn’t make enough to purchase or rent most market rate housing. We support increasing density in the context of a comprehensive, affordable housing strategy for our community.

HSN calls on the city of Port Townsend to ensure that any code changes that facilitate increased density will, above all, produce affordable housing now and in the future. Before the city passes code changes, we ask for documentation that the city has done the research necessary to clearly demonstrate that any legislation enacted would not significantly increase the average value or purchase price of local property or risk endangering future efforts to foster affordability for local working families.

To achieve this, HSN believes the city of Port Townsend should consider the following recommendations and concerns:

1. Allow for the increase in housing developments of five or more units of housing and include a requirement for construction of one or more workforce units for every five units built.

2. Allow housing units to be built in R3, R4, MC, and C (as separate or attached units), include a minimum density requirement of five units per minimum lot size for that zone, and require that 20 percent of those units are affordable for at least 50 years.

a. Identify parcels in R2 that could be shifted into R3/R4 if they could meet the plan described above.

b. Establish a mechanism to ensure that the units go to local workforce members and are maintained as permanently affordable.

3. Do not upzone R1 and R2 until the city adopts a comprehensive affordable housing strategy.

4. The city should evaluate the risk of rental displacement in any density changes.

5. Enact zoning changes that allow for tiny homes, mobile homes, and alternative affordable housing developments within the city.

6. Rushed decision-making on such complex issues is inherently risky.

As we work to develop a comprehensive affordable housing strategy and determine which steps to take with our near-term zoning decisions, it will be important for us to hear best practices and lessons learned from other communities and affordable housing experts. With the help of Kim Herman, the former executive director of the Washington State Housing Finance Commission for 35 years, HSN has been researching solutions deployed elsewhere in Washington state.

Please come, listen, and learn; join in the heavy lift and conversation at the upcoming joint city council plus planning commission meeting on Feb. 13. HSN will be there in support of the work carried forth by the staff and commissioners; helping to find more stability and affordability in local zoning codes. There will be multiple ways to engage stay up to date at housingsolutionsnetwork.org.

To reiterate: it is powerful to carry with us the act of sistering; spreading the burden of a heavy lift and bringing more support and stability to the task at hand. We should allow ourselves to carry on the ancestral practice of accepting help and living in community.

Together we can accomplish great things for the community at large, all while strengthening our own structural integrity.

(Liz Revord is the Director of Housing Solutions Network. With the help of the Network, this monthly column will amplify the voices of the workforce, highlight housing issues, and celebrate big victories across the housing landscape. To learn more about the work HSN is doing in our community, visit housingsolutionsnetwork.org.)