Tri-Cities home builders ask Inslee to reconsider ban to save jobs and the economy

The Home Builders Association of Tri-Cities sent a letter Tuesday to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee requesting that home building be deemed essential during the coronavirus outbreak.

The move follows the association’s call to action to Inslee on April 3 asking the same.

“The longer this goes on, the longer it is going to take to come back to where the market was before the COVID-19 virus,” Jeff Losey, the association’s executive director, told the Tri-City Herald.

While reports have not been finalized for the number of building permits in March, the 246 permits in February was a 52 percent jump from February 2019.

Active residential listings in March sat at 463, according to the Tri-City Association of Realtors. However, that’s a sharp drop from seven years ago when home buyers had 1,204 active listings to consider when shopping. The average sale price also is up $24,000 to $336,000 from January.

Availability of open land for large housing developments is getting limited, Dave Retter, president and owner of Retter & Company Sotheby’s International Realty told the Herald in January. At that time, he expected the inventory of homes available to choose from to remain stunted. That was before coronavirus took hold.

The shutdown of home construction will have a domino effect, Losey said.

Not only is the physical act of building on hold, homebuilders cannot order supplies because the manufacturers and suppliers are shutting down — or close to it — and laying off people.

Losey believes it could take up to two months after everyone gets back to work for manufacturers to build back up their supplies.

“Comparing it to toilet paper — once its gone, its gone. It will take a while to catch back up,” he said.

In the letter to Inslee, Losey outlined key ways that home construction can continue to be done safely just like government projects during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said it is entirely feasible for home construction activity to meet social distancing guidelines, and with additional measures, construction sites can meet necessary protocols to minimize the transmission risk for COVID-19.

He also argued:

• Local permitting and inspections can be done safely.
  
  
• Housing is a major engine of our state economy.
• Halting construction of homes will only exacerbate our current housing crisis.
• Washingtonians are relying on us for homes.
• Vandalism and theft are on the rise in the wake of the shutdown.

Home building ‘essential’ in Oregon

He said the association is looking to Oregon as an example in making the case to the governor to declare home building essential.

“Oregon is one of the models of where it’s been done,” Losey said. “If construction in Oregon has been allowed from day one of Oregon’s stay home, it makes sense to us that the same opportunity should be allowed in Washington.”

He added that builders who work on the state lines, like in Tri-Cities, are now working in Oregon exclusively because it is allowed. That in itself, may be problematic in the coming months in trying to catch the market back up.

“Even if you can get those laid off unemployed workers back — if they didn’t go somewhere else — the setback could last into summer.”

That effect will be felt throughout the community, he said.

“Customers are in limbo,” Losey said. “They sold a home or are out of a home. They are stuck at a relative’s house, which doesn’t work with social distancing.”

He says he and homebuilders have been fielding phone calls of pleas for help from people who had planned on moving into new homes in May or June.

“Some of those stories are gut-wrenching. They are not always a young vibrant couple — they may be an older couple who are downsizing.”

“This is not a good scenario. There are lot of desperate people across they state,” he added.

He recognizes that the home building industry is not the only job area that is suffering and he doesn’t take his plea to Inslee’s office lightly.

“At the end of the day, while we try to get through and hope residential and commercial building gets going, we have not lost sight that there are other businesses throughout the state that don’t have the opportunity to go back. That effects us every single day.” Losey said.

“But we also realize construction is a big economic driver in our community. We know we can go back to work as other states have. We are just asking to be one of those states, and do it in a safe way.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 4:13 PM.