Vashon, a rural refuge, feels mainland’s housing woes

Vashon Island Faces Housing Crisis Amid Soaring Costs

VASHON ISLAND — A full-time employed couple squeezes with two young children into an RV that’s now their home.

The owner of a small market converts space above her business into apartments that rent out in hours.

A kindergarten teacher worries her students could leave the school if their family is forced to move.

All over Vashon Island are signs of a brewing housing crisis as longtime residents and new transplants alike struggle to afford soaring costs, and businesses — even the U.S. Postal Service — scramble to find and keep staff. Some longtime residents have left the island; others worry rising costs are threatening the identity and economy of a place where artists and service workers were once able to cobble together a life removed from the bustle of nearby cities.

The Impact of Housing Crisis on Vashon Island

The island of 11,000 is just a brief ferry ride from Seattle or Tacoma, but not connected by a bridge. That limited accessibility, to some residents’ relief, protects the island’s rural feel with swaths of farmland. But there are drawbacks.

Like many small towns all over America, the housing challenges once associated with fast-growing cities like Seattle are reaching Vashon, where the costs of rentals and homes for sale have shot up by double-digit percentages since before the pandemic.

Challenges Faced by Vashon Island Residents

Housing has always been somewhat scarce on the island, but now a tighter market, a growing vacation and tourism economy, and hourly wages that don’t keep up with housing costs are making finding and keeping a place to live all the more difficult. There are few apartment buildings, and the costs of renting a single-family home can stretch beyond hourly workers’ budgets. Buying can be out of the question.

While some single people and couples can make do with a single room or a backyard cottage, families with kids struggle to afford the space they need. And, enticed by high land values, single-family homeowners renting out their houses may opt to sell, leaving their renters once again on the hunt.

To cope, renters search for rooms, backyard cottages and houses through desperate posts on social media and word-of-mouth. Businesses run shuttle buses to the ferry terminals for the growing share of off-island employees, or rely on teenagers and college students who can live with their families. Affordable-housing organizations juggle long waitlists.

Some on the island worry that an inability for middle-class residents to find housing could pose an existential threat to a tight-knit community long known for its counterculture streak.

Climbing prices

Over the years, Vashon Island has drawn people with its natural beauty and bounty.

Indigenous people, including ancestors of the Puyallup Tribe of Indians, lived and relied on the 13-mile-long island long before European settlers farmed, fished and logged there in the 1800s. By the early 1900s, Vashon was also home to successful Japanese farmers who were then forced to leave their farms when they were incarcerated during World War II.

In the past 50 years, the mostly white community became a haven for artists, small-scale farmers and those looking to live communally or trade labor for rent. The island drew a reputation for hippies, anti-vaxxers (now a dwindling contingent) and progressives looking for a rural outpost.

Over the past decade or two, the same forces driving up housing costs from Everett to Enumclaw have pushed up prices on Vashon Island: a shortage of homes for rent and for sale — exacerbated on the island by limited water that corrals development — and, more recently, an influx of remote workers looking to relocate their home offices to more idyllic pastures.

“Folks from Seattle, Tacoma [and] Bellevue have realized they can live on Vashon and have that island lifestyle,” said Clay Gleb, whose family owns the island’s Thriftway grocery store.

“That helps our business. That’s more customers for us,” Gleb said. “But on the flip side it’s less housing available for people [who] could potentially work for us.”

The challenge also reflects the island’s unique transition over the past several decades from dependence on manufacturing jobs to heavier reliance on vacationers and tourists, residents say. Homegrown ski and snowboard manufacturer K2 shifted many production jobs to China starting in the late ’90s, and in 2006 left Vashon entirely. Seattle Coffee Co., which operated Seattle’s Best Coffee, closed its roasting plant on the island in 2003. 

With that shift, workers may instead turn to jobs in tourism, retail and the service industry, whose pay often can’t keep up with housing costs.

Full-time work, living in an RV

At Sawbones, Leandra Godfrey and her partner were both grateful to find full-time work this summer.

But stable work doesn’t guarantee stability.

“My biggest concern is housing,” said Godfrey, a soft-spoken 37-year-old who helps

SDGs, Targets, and Indicators Analysis

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

• SDG 1: No Poverty
• SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
• SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

The article discusses the housing crisis on Vashon Island, which is connected to the issues of poverty, decent work and economic growth, reduced inequalities, and sustainable cities and communities.

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

• SDG 1.4: By 2030, ensure that all men and women, in particular the poor and the vulnerable, have equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to basic services, ownership, and control over land and other forms of property.
• SDG 8.3: Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity, and innovation.
• SDG 10.2: By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic, and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, or economic or other status.
• SDG 11.1: By 2030, ensure access for all to adequate, safe, and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums.

Based on the article’s content, the targets related to these SDGs include ensuring equal access to economic resources and basic services, promoting job creation and entrepreneurship, promoting social and economic inclusion, and ensuring access to affordable housing and basic services.

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

• Percentage of population with access to affordable and adequate housing
• Percentage of households with income below the poverty line
• Percentage of households spending more than a certain percentage of their income on housing
• Percentage of population employed in decent and productive work
• Percentage of population with access to basic services

The article mentions the rising costs of rentals and homes for sale, the limited availability of affordable housing, and the struggle of households to afford housing. These indicators can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets.

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

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Source: seattletimes.com

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