At a recent homebuyers’ seminar in downtown Spokane, aspiring homeowners sat at desks inside a small, white-walled classroom. They had come to hear realtors, credit repair experts and insurance representatives walk them through the process of buying a home.
Heidi Gough, a single mother who currently rents an apartment for herself and her five children, said she’s grown weary of making rent payments into someone else’s pocket.
“It's not yours,” she said. “I'd rather have my money going towards something that's mine.”
Spokane County struggled with housing cost and supply even before the Spokane Complex Wildfires swept through the region in August, destroying about 600 homes. Now, on the eve of the midterm elections, renters, homeowners and unhoused people alike are weighing housing policy as a significant part of their vote.
Gough is a registered Spokane County voter. She said housing is nearly always on her mind during election season. Because she hopes to buy a home this year, she’s paying particular attention to statewide races. She’s wary of candidates who might support raising taxes.
“Just the tax rates that go up for property taxes, something that you've already paid taxes on when you made the purchase,” she said. “So that's huge.”
Sitting just behind Gough, Terence Campeau said he considers himself “technically homeless.” He relies on a fixed disability income and has bounced back and forth between friends’ homes for nearly three years. During that time, he’s applied for numerous rental assistance programs and grants.
“I've been on the Section 8 waiting list now going on 12 years, and I'm still near the bottom of the list,” Campeau said. “So that's been my experience, and it's just disheartening.”
Although Campeau believes state officials shoulder much of the responsibility for solving the housing crisis, he said there’s a local component, too.
“County-wise, our politicians need to get their butts in order,” he said.
When he votes tomorrow, Campeau will be looking for candidates who support rental assistance programs and have compassion for his situation.
“While there's a high population of homeless, a good chunk of them are just common people like you and me, not necessarily druggies or criminals or whatever,” Campeau said. “But a lot of them are just families that have fallen on hard times because of the economy.”
About 10 minutes north of the housing seminar, Michael Scally paused for a moment outside the Spokane Public Library’s Shadle Park branch.
He was there to visit a pop-up session of the city’s remote Development Services Office, where city planners work with people affected by August’s wildfires.
Scally and his wife lost their home to the fires.
“There are some days it's been a complete struggle and complete frustration,” Scally said. “And all you do is want to yell and scream.”
Scally is working on rebuilding his home, and said he appreciates how many local housing-related resources are available. However, when it comes to state and federal policy, he thinks officials have left Spokane in the lurch.
Outside the library, he wondered whether more conservative state officials could convince the federal government to release emergency money for his family and other affected homeowners.
Governor Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, submitted a request for major disaster declaration funding earlier this month, but the federal government hasn’t yet released those funds.
Back at the housing seminar, Unique Wood sat in the real estate office’s kitchen, a coffee maker humming in the background.
Wood is a housing and employment specialist and a mother of two. She splits her $1,900 per month rent with her partner and brother-in-law. She said sharing rent or a mortgage with just her partner would be a strain.
Wood voted for President Trump in 2024.
“I’m not proud of that,” she said. “I wish I could be proud and say, ‘Oh, I voted for him.’ And it’s something that I’m ashamed to say today because he has just done so many terrible things.”
Wood believes Trump and other Republicans have betrayed renters by raising prices, making it more difficult for people like herself to get by.
This fall, she will vote for Democrats up and down the ticket. She wants policymakers to lower prices, fund programs like Habitat for Humanity and build affordable housing units.
“I would like to see them build properties that are more lenient when it comes to credit and rental history,” she said. “And yeah — just lessening those barriers for people.”
