Aligned with our core value of climate and racial justice, HDC steps up to advocate within affordable housing buildings for ballot initiatives which further these aims. In 2024, HDC rallied the sector to oppose the harmful rollbacks of state climate policies (No on I-2117 & I-2066). HDC will continue to be outspoken, public-facing advocates for climate justice policies through town halls, press conferences, voter education, and flyering affordable housing residents.

The Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County (HDC) is the nonprofit membership association for the affordable housing operating, development, and service sector in King County. As a membership association, HDC is uniquely positioned to bring together nonprofit, government, business, and community around a shared vision, and our member-driven programs focus on the intersection of housing, environmental sustainability, equity, health, and education. The urgency of the affordable housing crisis is entangled with a growing climate crisis and the disturbing reality of persisting institutional and structural racism. The work of HDC and our members is squarely in the nexus of these three crises. Approaches that treat each issue in isolation are no longer enough, as these facets are fundamentally interdependent. King County is experiencing explosive growth and unprecedented inequity in access to housing. We face an affordable housing shortfall of 156,000 homes today and a projected deficit of 244,000 homes by 2040. Closing that gap requires an additional 44,000 affordable homes every five years, and capital dollars currently available to King County’s affordable housing developers are nowhere near what is needed. Enveloping all of this is the climate crisis. In recognition of the issue’s urgency and the effects of the built environment, which generates nearly 50% of annual global CO2 emissions, Washington State’s Energy Code includes bold mandates for reducing net energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by 2031. We also know that we must eliminate all CO2 emissions from the built environment by 2040 to meet 1.5°C climate targets. Our climate work is driven by a bold vision for climate justice: to transform the affordable housing market by decarbonizing buildings. We know that affordable housing residents, as low-income and disproportionately BIPOC renters, bear the first and heaviest impacts. Through cross-sectoral coalitions, policy-making, pilot projects, and funding, we can secure a more just future.