2018 ANNUAL REPORT 3 This year, 1,090 children and youth attended the 15 locally run after-school programs supported by KCHA and operated in community facilities we have built across the county. And 618 veterans experiencing homelessness were housed and provided care through our partnership with the Veterans Administration’s Medical Center. Not only must the supply of affordable housing be sufficient, it must be distributed equitably around the region. Neighborhoods matter, and our region’s lowest income households must have access to high- opportunity neighborhoods where they can prosper and, in turn, neighborhoods can benefit from socioeconomic diversity. KCHA is rising to this challenge, with almost 30 percent of the extremely low-income families with children we serve now living in high-opportunity neighborhoods. With ongoing efforts, particularly in White Center, we are also, most critically, bringing opportunity to neighborhoods where large numbers of under-resourced families currently live. Not only is this smart social policy, it is critical to our future. Our community’s workforce is struggling with longer and longer commutes, putting at risk the region’s continued economic expansion, challenging our transportation capacity, and threatening our environmental sustainability. The sad truth, however, is that we and our partners are falling further and further behind the region’s growing affordable housing crisis. King County estimates that a staggering 36,000 affordable housing units have been lost in the past decade. In 2018, our school districts identified more than 10,000 students experiencing homelessness. And virtually all households earning less than 30 percent of the region’s median income who are not receiving housing assistance are paying more than 50 percent of their income on rent and utilities. Our waiting lists have never been longer. It is important to recognize where the private market can offer efficient solutions to the housing supply challenge — and where it cannot. Given the rate of population growth in our region, the escalating costs of housing construction, widening disparities in income, and growing economic segregation and displacement, there is a critical need for increased government intervention to assure a sufficient and equitably distributed supply of affordable housing. This is an essential investment in our region’s future. There is no viable alternative. Sincerely, Stephen Norman