The City of Bellingham is the Freddy Krueger of Your Housing Dreams
- Brian Gass
- Oct 9
- 6 min read
Updated: Oct 20
In a time where nearly everything feels political, here’s something we should all be able to agree on: our housing system, especially here in Bellingham, is an equal opportunity killer of dreams and hopes when it comes to ownership.
It doesn’t matter your background, your politics, or how long you’ve lived here. If you’re trying to build a future, put down roots, and someday own a home, the odds are stacked against you. And the worst part? It didn’t happen by accident.
The dream of homeownership has become a nightmare for anyone looking to rent or buy—all due to decisions made by City of Bellingham policymakers.
This isn’t just a crisis. It’s a horror story. Because when the city owns the land, blocks the permits, raises the fees, and tells you to rent forever? That’s not a housing plan. That’s Freddy Krueger in a flannel shirt. And your dreams of ownership? Slashed.
A System Built to Kill Your Housing Dreams
Bellingham’s housing crisis is the predictable result of decades of policy choices:
Strangling the supply of buildable land, especially for detached single-family homes
Endless fees and red tape that drive up the cost of every permit and every project
Policies that prioritize density over ownership, while ignoring safety and protecting your home's value
A focus on subsidizing rentals, not creating ownership pathways
No real economic development strategy to attract employers that pay above AMI-level wages
And perhaps most damning:
40 years of neglecting the UGA (Urban Growth Area) as a real solution to housing. The UGAs have become placeholders on maps—used to check a box, not to house people.
The City says that North Yew St is one of it's best "UGA" areas. Problem is the easiest and most affordable land is "WEST OF YEW ST" and the city owns 55% percent of it through the "GREENWAYS LEVY".
In some UGAs, the City itself owns over 60% of the land, taking it off the table for housing and signaling their real priorities: control, not capacity.
Despite having thousands of acres designated for growth, 90% of UGA development has occurred in just two areas: Geneva (area 14) and Hillsdale (area 13). Together, they make up a fraction—less than 10%—of the total UGA land. The rest? Sitting idle, restricted, or deliberately underutilized.
The UGAs are named "Urban Growth Areas" for a reason. How can something be considered a buffer for growth for 20 to 40 years and never actually be used?
At the same time, the City is actively tearing up established neighborhoods, rezoning without regard for stability, safety, or community integrity.
And as they do it, they're gaslighting the public—telling us it's about affordability, climate, or "equity" while pushing policies that undermine all three.
So what do we have now?
An economy built around low-wage service jobs
A housing stock flooded with rentals that people don’t want to buy
A disappearing path to ownership
This isn’t just bad planning. It’s a future stolen in plain sight.
City Wants You to FORGET What They Said in 2003/2005...
In 2003 when preparing the growth estimates for the 2005 Land Capacity Report the city planners said that 8300 SINGLE FAMILY DETACHED HOMES were available. Included with these estimates were the areas annexed in 2009. They estimated 3.7 homes PER ACRE back in 2005!
...AND in 2016 when they annexed 161 acres for E. Bakerview/Mt. Baker Hwy
See chart:
In 2018, the city annexed the E Bakerview/Mt Baker Hwy area, acquiring 134 residential acres. Of course, the City already owned 40 acres of the 134 acres annexed for residential. So if we use our math skills, we can add the 1200-1300 housing units to the total above in the 2003/2005 Land Availability chart, and we get ~9500 SINGLE FAMILY DETACHED PROPERTIES. (City of Bellingham – Staff Report for the East Bakerview/Mt. Baker Hwy Annexation, Council Ordinance 2016-07-013)
In 2016 they started estimating 5-7 homes per acre, 12-15 per acre multi-family.
AND THE RESULTS ARE IN!!!!
According to the City of Bellingham's Planning Department, the following permits were issued from 2007 (the earliest date where permit data is separated) to 2024.
So back in 2005 and in 2016 the city said they had capacity for nearly TEN THOUSAND SINGE FAMILY DETACHED HOUSING UNITS!
But from 2007 to 2024 only 2700 SFR permits were issued.
So what happened to the other 7,000 housing units?
REAL LIFE PACMAN WITH RESIDENTIAL HOUSING LOTS.
Our guess that between the Greenways Levy which has NO LIMIT to what property can be bought with our PROPERTY TAX MONEY, and the WATERSHED PROTECTION efforts, lots of land gets bought up or "set aside" through regulatory slight of hand. We will be issuing an indepth investigation of both programs moving forward.
What we do know is that since 2005, the COB has purchased 437 acres of property INSIDE THE CITY LIMITS, so no Watershed purchases of significance there. This definitely leads to available land shortages.
No Roots, No Stakes
When people can’t own, they don’t stay. They don’t invest. They don’t build generational wealth.
You can’t expect people to put down roots in a community if all you offer them is a box to rent and nothing to grow into.
Ownership is more than just a home. It’s a stake in the community, a sense of belonging, a reason to fight for your neighborhood. When ownership disappears, so does long-term commitment.
Renting keeps you mobile. Ownership keeps you invested.
PLANNERS GOT AFFORDABLE SINGLE-FAMILY OPPORTUNITIES
This was the house I was able to buy in 1998. Median income was $40,000 and the price was $165,000 roughly 4X the median income. Interest rates were 7%. The house has 4000 sq ft lot, 2200 sq ft in living space, had a TWO CAR GARAGE, for you know, the cars people own and drive, and finally a decent backyard.
Now, this is what they expect you to buy with 6X the median income of $80,000 for single person or $100,000 for family of four. No back yard, no parking, no place for friends or family to come visit.
NO THANKS!
Yes, that is the FRONT DOOR of the neighbor BEHIND THE FIRST UNIT! Nice area to hang out right?
These tried to sell for $550,000 and the builder lost their rear to the bank. THe bank sold them for $325-355K. Even if you could buy them? Would you?
SEE THROUGH THE GASLIGHTING
You DESERVE the same as these clueless and uncaring planners and policymakers
SUBSIDIES ARE NOT THE SOLUTION
Let’s be honest: subsidies don’t fix this. They mask it.
Subsidizing a rental may help someone short-term, but it creates a long-term dependency. The cost never goes away. The funding never lasts. And nobody builds wealth paying rent—whether it’s to a private landlord or a publicly funded housing authority.
Meanwhile, every dollar we spend subsidizing rentals is a dollar not spent on helping people become owners.
Speaking of ownership
The City of Bellingham 2024 Housing Survey found 87 % of residents prefer to own their home, directly contradicting the city’s current trajectory toward perpetual tenancy. Right now the city is projecting 92 percent growth via MIDDLE HOUSING, which is RENTALS.
No Jobs, No Homes, No Hope
The City and County haven’t just failed at housing. They’ve failed at jobs.
Where are the employers that pay $35-$50/hour? Where are the jobs that allow someone to afford a home without needing a grant, a subsidy, or a 2-hour commute?
Instead of building a strong economic base, Bellingham has doubled down on service jobs, non-profits, and government employment. It’s a model that doesn’t create new wealth—it just circulates old money.
And that model? It doesn’t support ownership. It keeps people renting forever.
This Doesn’t Have to Be the End of the Story
We need to stop pretending this is normal. Stop accepting that the only path forward is smaller, denser, and more expensive.
We need to:
Reclaim land for real ownership housing
Remove the red tape and fees that make it impossible to build
Stop forcing density where it doesn’t fit
Bring in employers who can actually afford to pay middle-class wages
And most of all, bring back the freedom to choose between renting and owning
Because right now? That choice is gone. And when your city takes away that choice, it’s not just killing opportunity. It’s killing the future.
Share this post. Talk to your neighbors. Show up at your local planning meetings. Ask better questions. Demand real solutions.
This isn’t just about housing policy. It’s about who gets to stay, who gets to own, and who gets left behind.
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