“As a kid growing up in Tacoma, I got to live in every neighborhood,” said Mayor Victoria Woodwards. “There was something affordable in every neighborhood.” Now that the city passed a major Affordable Housing program, the mayor wants to make sure that Tacoma’s new zoning changes continue to allow for affordable housing in every neighborhood. “Density is coming, but we as a city have to be responsible for where we allow that density to happen,” Woodard said.

“It has to happen in places where it doesn’t displace people from their neighborhood as new construction is frequently more expensive than what the surrounding neighbors can afford.”

In early February the Tacoma City Council approved an update of their anti-displacement plan which was part of the city’s affordable housing zoning that was passed in 2018-2022. The city’s new Home In Tacoma zoning plan opens up many arterials for more dense housing. The updated anti-displacement plan examined the original goals in the 2019 plan, then evaluated their success.

These new actions came several months after the City Council enacted stronger renter protections, which was followed by a sweeping tenants’ rights initiative that was narrowly approved by Tacoma voters. Both Mayor Woodards and Deputy Mayor Kristina Walker have been leaders in making the latest policy changes to update strategies to keep goals achievable.

Major cities including San Francisco, Denver and New York have also struggled with this displacement issue. The anti-displacement approach is also viewed as a means of mitigating other issues, such as the lingering effects of Tacoma’s past redlining policies.

The plan references the Washington State Department of Commerce’s Displacement Risk Map which highlights areas where residents face higher risk of being displaced. Notably, areas with a higher percentage of residents of color, and low-income households, are more likely to be at risk of displacement.

One such area is Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood, which the plan specifically points out, along with downtown, South Tacoma, and East Tacoma. This displacement map from the Washington State Department of Commerce shows where residents are most at-risk of being displaced by future growth.

A recent report shows that people of color and seniors were most at risk for displacement. In particular, a Hilltop census showed the Black population significantly decreased between 1970 and 2020 from 60% to 21%.

During this period, the total population in this area grew by 14%. Seniors and renters are disproportionably people of color and at higher risk of displacement.

                 Tacoma’s Anti-Displacement Plan

The plan has 21 points spread across a handful of focus areas, such as preserving and rehabilitating existing affordable housing. Tenant protections are included. The plan also includes homeownership and down-payment assistance for first-time homebuyers entering the market, and it promotes mixed-income developments.

There are also strategies that may sound familiar to other cities, such as streamlining the permitting and development process. The idea is to remove delays and lower costs for new types of housing.

The Anti-Displacement Plan also opens up potential for accessory dwelling units (referred to as an ADU or DADU). These are commonly referred to as “mother-in-law apartments,” or “backyard cottages.” Part of Tacoma’s philosophy around anti-displacement is a wariness for how improvements to an area can raise the cost of living for residents and their property tax in the area.

Another program available to low-income seniors is to freeze their property tax rates to reduce the effect of increased property values as new apartments and modern homes replace existing affordable housing. “When you make improvements to neighborhoods, that drives up the cost of housing,” Woodards said. “But every neighborhood deserves to have light rail, to have new schools, or remodeled schools. Everybody deserves to have these things in their neighborhoods”

“In the middle of a single-family-home neighborhood, it doesn’t make sense for a 200-apartment-size building, but on a corridor where there is transportation, where there are services, it makes sense to do that there,” Woodard said. “But you could, in a single-family neighborhood, do a duplex.”

Many of these housing tactics come nearly a year after state lawmakers in Olympia passed a suite of reforms that opened up more types of housing developments. These anti-displacement policies come at a time when these policies were badly needed.

A recent report shows that a significant number (estimated at 40%) of the city’s low-income work force will not be able to live in Tacoma as rents rise. In the past, affordable housing for working class people making under $50,000 per household, was dependent on an abundance of new homes for middle-income people who moved out of older apartments and houses.

Now that the salary divide has grown, with the dramatic increase in new home prices, an older home in a lower-cost neighborhood is now beyond the reach of many residents with modest incomes.

The new Anti-Displacement Plan consists of 21 actions. One program involves buying property to build affordable units in areas of high-risk displacement. And there is also a requirement of owners of subsidized properties to issue notices when they intend to sell or refinance.

The city’s updated strategy shows that in the last 5 years Tacoma has added 1100 units toward the goal of 6000 by 2028, and has also preserved 10% of its target of 2300 units by 2028, according to Jacques Colon, Tacoma’s Chief Strategy Officer. “What we’re doing,” Woodard said, “is putting density where density makes sense, not just putting it everywhere for the sake of having more housing.

We want to continue to create communities that make sense, where neighbors feel welcome and get the services they need. The important thing in Tacoma is to recognize that the City Council has the political will to continue to re-examine the housing problem and has continued to adjust their approach to better serve our low-income workers and seniors.

“Not everybody wants to live in a single-family home and take care of a yard and all of those things,” Woodard said. “So we want to make sure we have different types of housing for people who want to live and work in Tacoma.”

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Much of this information is credited to Shea Johnson, a reporter at The News Tribune, and Libby Denkmann, a journalist at NPR station KUOW in Seattle.