Name: Bellingham City Council - Community and Economic Development Committee meeting, Jun 15, 2026
Start: 2026-06-15
End: 2026-06-15
Location: City of Bellingham

City Council - Community and Economic Development Committee

Mon, June 15, 2026

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City Council – Community and Economic Development Committee — June 15, 2026

This was a single-item committee meeting chaired by Councilmember Jace Cotton. Staff and Mayor Lund presented an informational update on the Bellingham Home Share Program; no binding votes were taken.

Bellingham Home Share Program — Presentation and Discussion

What it is: The Bellingham Home Share Program connects homeowners who have spare bedrooms with renters seeking affordable housing. The program operates through a partnership with Nesterly, a Boston-based platform with eight years of experience running home-share programs in cities across the United States. The program is structured as a five-year pilot, funded by the city for its duration. A key requirement specific to Bellingham — not standard on the Nesterly platform elsewhere — is that the homeowner must live on-site, ensuring this is a genuine home-sharing arrangement rather than an absentee rental.

Why it matters: Staff estimate that Bellingham has somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 underutilized bedrooms. Community Development Manager Tara Sundin framed this bluntly: building 4,000 new housing units would take many years and enormous cost, while those bedrooms exist right now. The program was launched in response to Mayor Lund's housing executive order, which called on staff to find creative approaches to the housing crisis beyond conventional tools like loans to nonprofit developers, first-time homebuyer programs, and rental assistance.

How it works: Nesterly functions as far more than a listing site. Trained social workers on staff help facilitate matches, guide users through background checks (required for both host and renter), and assist with drafting custom lease agreements tailored to shared-living situations. The service is free to join and browse. Nesterly charges a small fee when a match is finalized. The city has established a "civic leader" badge for any listing priced at $600 per month or below, signaling affordability. An optional "task exchange" feature allows renters to trade help around the house — cleaning, yard work — for a reduced rent. One current listing dropped from $600 to $450 per month (utilities included) through this exchange.

First match — Joyce and Francine: Staff shared the program's first success story. Joyce, a 92-year-old woman living alone, wanted supplemental income and help around the house but felt overwhelmed by finding a renter on her own. Nesterly staff walked her through the process one-on-one, helped her build her profile, and flagged incoming inquiries she might have missed. She was matched in March with Francine, a 60-year-old local artist. The two hit it off. They are currently in a six-month lease and both consented to having their story shared publicly.

Current status: The program has four active matches. The year-one goal (by fall) is ten matches. The five-year pilot target is 260 matches total. Staff acknowledged this is a modest start by design — data from other cities shows that trust in a new platform takes years to build, and programs that were evaluated too early were written off prematurely.

Council discussion:

Councilmember Huthman asked about marketing strategy. Staff explained that outreach has been focused primarily on homeowners — the supply side — because renters are already looking for housing but need listings to exist first. The city has built partnerships with Western Washington University, Bellingham Technical College, and Whatcom Community College, and has accepted invitations to speak at community events. Staff said raising general community awareness is the top priority for the first two years.

Councilmember Hammill raised two concerns. First, he questioned whether the pace of scaling — even at an optimistic 100 matches per year — could ever meaningfully close the gap given the ongoing growth in housing need. Staff acknowledged this program is only one piece of a larger puzzle and is not expected to solve the housing crisis on its own, but noted that 100 matches per year at $75,000 per unit (the city's typical subsidy for affordable housing construction) represents $7.5 million in equivalent housing value produced from existing inventory. Second, Hammill noted that when he searched Nesterly's Bellingham listings live during the meeting, the lowest-priced listing showed at $750 — nothing at $600 or below. Staff explained this is because the most affordable listings rent quickly; all four completed matches have been at reasonably low prices, and the absence of sub-$600 listings reflects their demand, not a lack of supply.

Staff also flagged an important caution for lower-income homeowners: rental income could potentially affect eligibility for public benefits. City and Nesterly staff are available to help homeowners think through pricing to avoid unintended consequences.

Council President Stone and Chair Cotton both emphasized the value of targeted outreach — senior centers, local churches, schools, and community organizations — and encouraged council members to serve as program ambassadors. Cotton specifically raised manufactured home communities as a potentially underserved population of homeowners facing high lot rents, noting that a Washington State bill (HB 1204, co-sponsored by Rep. Timmons) had sought to clarify manufactured home owners' rights to participate in home-share programs, and suggested council would want to know if park ownership rules created barriers locally.

Mayor Lund closed by framing the program as one that reflects community values — mutual aid, aging in place, social connection — and personally invited council members, housing advocates, and the public to help spread the word and encourage homeowners to list available rooms.

Vote: Informational presentation only. No vote taken.

Key Takeaways

The program is live but early: Four matches have been made; the goal is ten by fall and 260 over five years. This is intentionally modest — staff say building community trust in a new platform takes time.

Affordability is real: Listings at $600/month or below (with some as low as $450 including utilities via task exchange) are filling quickly — well below Bellingham market rates — signaling genuine demand.

Scale is a known limitation: Staff were candid that home sharing is one tool among many and will not, on its own, close Bellingham's housing gap — but argued the cost-efficiency of activating existing inventory justifies the approach.

Marketing is the immediate priority: The program needs more homeowners to list rooms. Council members were asked to act as ambassadors; targeted outreach to seniors, manufactured home communities, and faith communities was suggested.

Benefits eligibility is a watch-out: Lower-income homeowners considering participation should consult with city or Nesterly staff to ensure rental income doesn't inadvertently disqualify them from public benefits.

AI-generated summary from voice-to-text transcript. Not the official record. Verify important details with the source documents linked above.

What happened at this meeting

A presentation on the Bellingham Home Share Program

# Bellingham Home Share Program Summary

Staff presented the Bellingham Home Share Program, a partnership with Nesterly designed as a 5-year pilot to address Bellingham's housing crisis by connecting homeowners with underutilized bedrooms to renters. Tara Sundin noted the city has identified 4,000 to 10,000 empty bedrooms in the community, making this approach more efficient than new construction. The program, which has completed 4 matches with rents ranging from $450-$1,200/month, offers benefits including affordability for both homeowners (supplemental income to age in place) and renters (below-market rates), with support from trained social workers, background checks, and custom agreements. Councilmember Hoffman emphasized that marketing to homeowners is critical for success, while Councilmember Hammel noted the program is one solution among many—not intended to solve the entire housing crisis alone—with Council expressing cautious optimism and suggesting expanded outreach to senior centers, churches, and manufactured home communities.

Agenda items (1)

Procedural (1)

24962ProceduralA presentation on the Bellingham Home Share Program

City staff will present information about the Bellingham Home Share Program, which helps residents find housing partners to share homes and reduce housing costs.

What happened

Verbatim transcript available

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Welcome back to the Bellingham City Council Committee meetings. Um, we're going to get started this afternoon now with Community and Economic Development. Um, that committee is chaired by Council member Cotton.

City of Bellingham Community and Economic Development Committee minutes June 15, 2026, 2:20 PM Chair: Jace Cotton Phone: 360-778-8200 Members: Hollie Huthman, Edwin H. "Skip" Williams Email: ccmail@cob.org Web: cob.org/council City Council committee meetings Standing committee members receive reports and information, ask questions, and vote on a recommended action for consideration by the full Council at the regular meeting.

So, I'll turn it over to him at this time. >> Good afternoon. Um, we have one agenda item today. This is a presentation on the Bellingham Home Share program. Uh, as a reminder, the city has implemented a new home sharing program that connects homeowners who have an extra bedroom or two, three with good fit renters.

There is no public comment period during committee sessions. Call to order and roll call Council President Stone called the meeting to order at 2:20 p.m. Present: Committee Chair Jace Cotton, At-Large Committee Member Hollie Huthman, Second Ward Committee Member Edwin H.

The program in partnership with Nesterly increases our community's existing housing supply by turning underutilized bedrooms into successful living arrangements. It addresses Bellingham's housing needs by offering a more supportive rental option um, that builds social connections and increases financial independence for program participants.

"Skip" Williams, Fourth Ward Community and Economic Development 24962 1. A presentation on the Bellingham Home Share Program Summary: Tara Sundin, Community and Economic Development Manager, and Taylor Littrell, Development Specialist, presented on the Bellingham Home Share Program, which connects homeowners with spare bedrooms to renters.

Um, I will first recognize Tara Sundin, Community and Economic Development Manager for the city. >> Good afternoon. Thanks for having us here today. Uh, as you know, the city is addressing this housing crisis in a number of ways.

And in in the Community Development Division, we're a little more focused on um, supporting our lower income community members. Um, some of those uh, more conventional ways that we approach this um, matter is we we lend monies to the nonprofit housing developers and um, help construct and bring bring on more units.

Um, we invest in first-time homebuyer program. We invest in rental assistance programs, etc. Um, but a few years ago, we were kind of trying to unlock some well, like, what else can we do? And this program came up.

This idea came up and and we think of this as one of the more creative ways to approach this problem. We estimate that somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 empty bedrooms exist in our community. And um just on the conservative side side of 4,000, that would take us a a lot of time to construct that many housing units and would cost a lot of money to construct that many housing units.

So, we thought let's let's give this a shot. Um we reached out to partners like Aging Well Whatcom and others to see if they had the bandwidth to um launch a program like this. And not new to you, but our community just lacked the capacity at the time to take on yet another program and one that was untested in our area, one that needed a 4 or 5-year commitment to keep it going to see if if we could launch a program like this.

So, we undertook this project and we did that knowing we had funds to keep it going for 5 years and knowing that we could find somebody like Nesterly to partner with, a business that already had the experience to undertake a program like this.

So, here we are. Um Sort of the first year, um and uh I want to acknowledge the team that has been doing that the heavy lifting. You're going to see Taylor Webb um today. She's going to present here in a minute.

But I also wanted to acknowledge um her kind of co-project manager, Kathleen Morton, who works in community development as well. She's here today. And then um also uh Ryan Keywin, who's our communication um manager.

She This is a This is a um program that not not only needs good communication, but also marketing. And um she has just done a fantastic job. So, want to thank the team for the the work they've done and um, thank you Taylor.

Taylor's going to take it from here. >> Thank you, Tara. Um, and thank you council members. I'm excited to be here today to talk a little bit more about the Bellingham Home Share program. Um, so Tara covered this a little bit already, but I just wanted to acknowledge a lot of this work started um, a couple years ago when Mayor Lund um, released the uh, housing executive order and really was a call to action for staff to find creative ways that we can approach this uh, housing issue that we're facing today.

Um, and just want to highlight again um, the stark number we have here of approximately 4,000 to 10,000 underutilized bedrooms in Bellingham. That's quite a lot that we could tap into. Um, so just to back up slightly, I want to talk a little bit about what home sharing is.

Um, home sharing is when a homeowner has empty bedrooms and they rent those out to um, people in the community. Um, specifically for Bellingham, we're really focusing on that homeowner piece. And that really ties into a lot of what uh, home sharing can benefit the community.

The first being affordability. Um, there's kind of two parts. Affordability for the homeowner and affordability for the renter. So, on the homeowner side um, having some additional supplemental income every month can really make the difference for folks to be able to age in place and stay in this community, stay in the home that they love.

Um, and for renters, home sharing is often um, a more affordable option. By affordable, I mean um, typically less than market rate um, because you are sharing some of those uh amenities with the homeowner.

It also is an efficient use of our resources. Um, as Tara mentioned, uh it takes a long time to build new housing. There's all these empty bedrooms that are available right now that we can tap into and really use efficiently.

Um, and the last piece I don't want this to be taken lightly is um the companionship that can really come out of these um matches. Something that we saw a lot of especially in COVID was um loneliness.

Um, people really seeking out this sense of companionship. And for a lot of older adults especially, um when they're living in their homes isolated, um they really crave that interaction and that connectedness that you can get by inviting someone into your home and having a roommate again.

So, we established the Bellingham Home Share Program um really with this goal of 5 years as a pilot. Um, and other jurisdictions who have done home sharing programs throughout the US have done a similar model um knowing that you're really not going to see results in 1 or 2 years.

It takes a long time to build trust in a new platform, a new uh idea in the community. So, um we're really trying to start out modestly here with the number of matches that we think that we can get. By a match that means um a homeowner with an empty bedroom and a renter.

Um, and really trying to create quality matches. Um, so for us uh at the city our goal really is to just in year one, which will be coming up in fall, to have 10 successful home share matches. We currently have four matches right now, so we're excited about that and um I'll go into detail about that a little bit later.

Um, but really this partnership isn't possible um without our partner Nesterly. So, um through the city's public procurement process, we requested proposals for a vendor who could operate a site for us.

Nesterly was the person who won in that process, and that's because they really have a strong history of doing this type of work across the US. Their first city that they launched in was Boston 8 years ago, and Boston started off with a similar pilot program as we're deploying right now.

Um For the city of Boston, it's been wildly successful, and I'm sure you can imagine there's some similarities between us and Boston. They have a strong university presence, so they have often a lot of renters, but they also have a lot of people who love the city.

It's rich in culture, and people want to stay there. You know, maybe they were there earlier in their lives, and and they don't want to move away. They want to be engrossed in all of that culture still, but it's hard to do that and to stay in place when maybe they don't have the same income that they used to.

So, Boston's been wildly successful. They're still a user of the Nesterly platform. You could go on their website and see they have dozens and dozens of listings. We hope to to be there 8 years in for the city of Bellingham as well.

Um So, I want to talk a little bit more about Nesterly itself and really what this this program offers. On its face, it really looks like maybe Airbnb, right? You have a map and you have listings that you can browse, but I I want to stress that it's so much more than that.

It's not just a listing platform. Really what Nesterly does is offer full services to any user of the site. Um and really that focuses on creating quality matches. So, often times people will list their rooms um, available on Facebook Marketplace.

And you kind of do your own um, you know, maybe you interview people and you hope it's going to go well and you've drafted up your own agreement, but you don't really know what that means. Um, really Nesterly is here to take all of the hassle um, out of the way for homeowners who might want to do this process.

Um, and again, they're really focused on those quality matches and they do that through offering specialized support with their um, service providers who are um, trained social workers. So, it's more than just customer service.

Um, they really have experience in making sure that homeowners and renters are both asking each other the right questions to make sure that it's a smart match for both parties. And uh, again with the custom agreements, um, it's a little bit different than a normal lease because you're inviting someone into your own home.

Um, so really Nesterly is there to help you create and draft custom language that really matches what your specific situation is. Um, and both parties, both the host and the renter are required to go through background checks.

Um, so you can make sure that both parties feel safe before entering into the agreement. Um, and I do want to point out that it is free to join. Um, anyone at any time can go on the site and browse the listings for free without creating an account.

Um, but you can join for free as well. Um, there is a low fee that Nesterly um, does assess based on um, when the first match is made. So, I want to talk a little bit um, I'll round out here by um, sharing our first home share match.

Um, and to start, um, I wanted to give you all a sense of what it looks like. If you haven't visited Nesterly.com, uh, when you're browsing the listings, um this is what it will look like. So, you'll have um some photos, um as well as some information about what the listing itself offers.

Um you can see when it's available for move-in. Um and I wanted to point out a special feature that Nesterly offers, which is an option for a task exchange. Um any host could choose to add this if they wanted to, um which basically is um an exchange for some help around the house.

Um in this example, some housecleaning and yard work. Um they're willing to take an additional amount of money off of the monthly rent. Um so, for this particular case, um the rent started at $600, um and now with the optional task exchange, it's $450 a month, which does include utilities.

And I'm sure you all maybe are aware this is much lower than anything else that's offered in our community right now. Um so, really we're really excited to be able to offer options at this price to our community members looking for homes.

And I wanted to point out this civic leader badge here. We worked with Nesterly to set um a a monthly rent amount that we felt was um at an affordable rate. Um that amount is $600 a month. So, for any host who lists their vacant bedroom for $600 a month or lower, um we place the civic leader badge on the profile, and that really indicates um both from Nesterly's standpoint and our standpoint that um we're prioritizing listings that are low-cost for our community members.

Um and so, this is a really sweet photo that we received of our first match, Joyce and Franceline. Um Joyce was a 92-year-old uh who was living alone, and she really knew that she could benefit from having some supplemental income and also some help around the house.

Um, but she felt really overwhelmed by the process of having to find someone to rent her space by herself. Um, so Nesterly ended up being a really great match for her. Um, and they were really hands-on in this process.

Um, you know, Joyce as a 92-year-old woman wasn't very, um, used to using online platforms such as this. Um, and so they really walked her through every step of the way, um, through a lot of one-on-one help.

Um, they helped her create her profile. They also helped her review all of the, um, interested renters that, um, uh, were presented to her, and they would even remind her if they saw that there were some some requests that maybe hadn't been answered.

They would call up Joyce and say, "Hey, just wanted to see if you had a moment to check some of these requests, and do you have any questions? Can we help you through this process?" Um, and they had lots of interest, and, um, after a while she was able to find Francine, who is a 60-year-old woman, um, local artist in our community, and they just really hit it off with each other.

So, they were matched back in March, and we really do hope that, um, it'll be a successful for them. It's a 6-month lease term, um, and hopefully they they will choose to renew after that. Um, so we hope that there's a lot more success coming, um, similar matches to this success story.

Um, but we know that that work isn't possible without your help. So, we're really hopeful that, um, we can spread the word about this platform and the benefits, um, that it can achieve. And with that, I'll pass it over to Mayor Lund to close us out.

Thank you all. >> I just wanted to share, I think everyone that's on the dais knows that to create 5,000 bedrooms is thousands of units of housing and exactly how much work that takes, how much cost that takes, how much time that takes.

So, this is such it's a program that is rich with promise. Um and I think it's a program that has a heart. Like hearing the story of Joyce and Francine, um like this is a program that aligns with our community's values.

And so, I wanted to have an invitation to all of you to help be program ambassadors, to help me and staff get the word out for our housing advocates in the community, an invitation to them to help get the word out.

Not only are those rents so far below market rates right now, it had this is a program that has elements of mutual aid that I think are really important and align with our community as well. So, um there's a lot of goodness here and I think we can far exceed our goals for matches if we can especially drive people to open up their homes, to open up their bedrooms.

We know first hand that the need is out there. People are seeking um safe, reliable housing in spaces like this. We know the need. So, if we can encourage people to take a risk and put their available rooms on Nesterly, Bellingham will be better for it.

So, thanks to everyone that's worked so hard on this program. >> Sorry, I forgot I was chairing. Um uh questions from uh committee, Councilmember Hoffman. >> This looks like a wonderful program um Um, and I'm been looking at the website to see what is available.

It The website looks a lot like some of the other apartment listing sites um that I've seen. So, I think I have I've it just the look of it, just the way that the site is structured. Um, I think I have two questions.

One of them marketing question. Um, I think the success of this will rest on how we spread the word. Of course, sometimes word of mouth is one of the best ways to spread the word. Um, but what are we doing as a city?

What plans do we have to promote this? Different ways to share the information, get the word out. Um, I think that sharing uh real stories in the community is a great way to help spread the word cuz it's um really easy to relate either to being the renter or the homeowner.

Um, but marketing how how is that? Um, what what kind of plans do we have there? And and then and how do we I guess reduce the barriers to make this feel like it's just another way to look for a room like uh already exists in our community.

>> Thank you, Council Member Herthman. Um, to answer your first question about marketing, um that's been our primary focus since launch and actually will be continuing to be our primary focus for the next probably two the two first years of the program, just knowing that building awareness is the first step that we need to tackle.

Um, and really by by building awareness, we mean primarily marketing to homeowners. Um, we know that the renters uh are here and that they're looking all the time for housing, um but the nature also for renters is that they're looking when they need housing and then they're not once they've found it, right?

So, we need to have options for them to look at and we can only do that by um having homeowners list their rooms for rent on the site. So, primarily our efforts for marketing and advertising have been geared towards homeowners in our community, but we've also been just trying to raise general awareness in the community.

We've been invited to speak at a variety of different events. We've tried to create sound partnerships in our community with Western, Bellingham Technical College, Whatcom Community College, and a lot of other partners.

And so, a lot of it is really building the trust and getting people familiar with the site. And then your second question about reducing some of those barriers, that's certainly been part of this initial discovery phase is trying to understand what barriers are people experiencing, what's stopping people from wanting to be a part of the site.

And a lot of that is, I think, um, they're just unsure about it. They haven't heard that someone's done it, right? So, to your point about sharing stories, we certainly hope to get to that point. We don't want to prematurely share when we don't know the outcome of some of these matches yet.

We're in our early years. We did get permission from Joyce and Francine to share their story, so we were happy to do that today. And we hope that that'll be everyone's experience. >> Great. Uh, Councilmember Hammel.

>> Um, yeah, thanks, Chair. I don't know if I'm allowed in the committee, but I this is a issue that's near and dear to me. This is a significant departure from when I started years and years ago. We had the what was called the rule of three, if any of you would recall that.

Where legally no more than three unrelated people could live together, which if any person went [clears throat] to any higher education institution in this community, you may or may not have lived in shared housing and you may or may not have violated that rule.

I did. I [snorts] [clears throat] guess I think that the spirit of this is great. I do share I have some concerns however and I want to share those with you. The rate of scaling to me is concerning. So 260 [clears throat] matches within 5 years is just I mean I totally respect the fact fact that this is like a startup period and eventually we might like see 100 matches per year and that would be would be better but the rate [clears throat] of folks that are would need housing will still continue to rise.

I don't know if that delta will ever be closed. And then I did I just did the QR code here on the on the screen and I typed in Bellingham and $600 per month and there weren't any listings at that at that rate.

In fact in fact the first one is was 1200 per month and then 750, 960 5 and 900. Um So [clears throat] I just I my question I guess is the reality is of what people need to rent their their space out for and to make the to make it pencil and to make it make sense and I'm just wondering what considerations are provided to it to address that need just given the realities of the market.

>> I'll start first by answering your second question cuz I might have you repeat the question the first question that you had but to to answer your second question about the price and what's listed right now.

Yes, there is not anything lower at that 600 or below rate right now because they've all been rented up. So what we've seen is anything that's priced 600 or lower tends to be rented rather quickly once it's been on the site.

So we've had four successful matches and all of those have been um, reasonably priced. There was actually one that just uh, was rented at 1,200 and that was for kind of a basement apartment. So, full dwelling unit.

Um, so really ranges depending on what each uh, homeowner is able to offer, whether it's um, a small bedroom, a furnished bedroom, um, shared kitchen facilities versus private. So, there is a pretty big range in cost.

Um, and to your other point about um, what it might cost for the cost-benefit analysis for homeowners, um, I think that's very accurate. Um, and I do want to stress um, a lot of our materials we often um, say please come talk to us if especially if you're um, a lower income homeowner and receiving benefits of any kind.

We want to make sure that this extra income isn't going to disqualify you from any of those other benefits that you're getting. So, um, city staff as well as Naturally staff are here to support homeowners in trying to understand what that um, nexus is and and how we can price that room correctly for them.

And would you mind repeating your first question? >> It was uh, just related to the scalability of getting this to to the to the point where it would make a really good dent in um, in the vacancy rate issue that we face.

>> Yeah, I just want to stress this is not um, or this is only one of many available options. So, um, we don't anticipate that this will um, take a a major chunk out of the housing issue, but it's just one more solution that we haven't already been offering to date.

Um, we we also know this is only going to benefit homeowners. We do have a requirement that the homeowner um, lives on site to be able to list their bedrooms for rent. Um, Naturally doesn't require that in other communities, but we felt that that was important for us um, to make sure that this is something that's going to benefit both the homeowner and the renter in our community.

So, we hope we hope it'll just um move the needle ever so slightly. Thanks. >> Can I just I would like to add on to the second question, too. Um What One of the questions I asked at the beginning of this is what does success look like?

And those my kind of those milestones, they don't look like huge numbers is I think is what you're raising. But, we were looking at the success of other communities throughout the country and and what that startup period is.

And so, that's where we got those benchmarks for the size community that we are. And also, we need to we do need to know if we're making Are are we successful knowing And when I said at the beginning, we were told, "Really, if we're going to do this, you can't do this for a year and go, 'Oh, it didn't really work out.'" because it just really does take time to build the trust in the brand.

And I think that's what we're asking for right now is the community needs to hear about Nesterly from more than probably one source for them to start to go, "Oh, this is this is a thing." And so, I think that's that's really our focus.

And then, let's say we get to 100 matches per year. 100 matches times 75,000, which is what we put in to every housing unit that we help build, is 7. $5 million. That's a tremendous amount of savings, I think, for our community for um an inventory that's already built in our community.

So. >> Well, thank you so much for this presentation and for those framing um comments. I think this is a tremendous opportunity. And so, let's all commit to being um good partners to spread the word.

Um my uh one comment is um I think Joyce and Francine are such a great story, and I think there's probably a lot of opportunities in our manufactured home communities where maybe folks recently lost a spouse and are just dealing with really high lot rents.

Um and Rep Timmons last year co-sponsored House Bill 1204, which would have given manufactured home owners a right to participate in home sharing programs. And I I don't know if that's going to be an issue in Bellingham or if our our um park um owners are see the value in this just like we do.

Um but um if that comes up, I think Council would be interested in hearing that. So, um but uh targeted outreach to manufactured home owners could be something we could think about. Um and thank you so much for this presentation.

Any other comments? Um Council Member Stone, Council President, sorry. >> Yeah, one just a big thank you. As you said, it's a creative, right, option and a way to really try and leverage the the housing that's there.

And just wanting to highlight one of the things that Taylor was saying, which is that affordability piece and the ability to see benefits, right, on both sides. And then the people who, yes, own their home but are struggling right now to make ends meet, you know, being able to to bridge that gap.

Um thinking about the example that was shared, just wondering the targeted outreach to places like the senior center, right, and thinking about local churches and schools, and we're alert. Um and thinking about boards and boards and commissions and boards I don't know when when Mayor Lin was talking about the values of this community and how it really seems like this would be a an amazing match.

It's thing about the number of people who have asked questions about like, well, how do we help and sort of what's your role in the community about addressing this, you know, need and the housing crisis that we're all facing.

And so, really those personal contacts with the ability to um yeah, to show people the way cuz as you mentioned, it's an existing asset that our community has and just figuring out how to leverage that.

So, um I'm cautiously optimistic and very excited that the city, you know, took this on when you mentioned that there wasn't a partner who really had the bandwidth to to take this on themselves. So, um just appreciation and yeah, and hopes that there are additional ways we can brainstorm to to market this citywide.

So, thank you. >> And seeing no further comments, um any closing remarks? Great. Well, thank you again. Um that's the end of our meeting today. So, back to you Councilmember uh Council President Sawant.