Housing That Works

In Kitsap County, housing no longer works the way it should. People struggle to find homes that fit their stage of life, income, or connection to the community. Longtime residents worry about being forced out. Young adults have trouble getting started. Workers commute farther because housing near their jobs simply is not available.

Residents feel this disconnect every day, and the data backs it up. In the 2025 Kitsap County National Community Survey, residents gave extremely low ratings to the availability of affordable, quality housing, signaling a system that is not meeting real community needs.

Daria approaches housing with a problem-solving mindset shaped outside of politics. He understands that housing does not fail because of one bad policy, but because systems stop working together. Outdated rules, slow approvals, and poor coordination drive shortages and rising costs. Fixing housing means fixing how decisions are made and carried through.

What the data - and lived experience - show

• Residents report very low satisfaction with housing availability in Kitsap County

• Housing supply has not kept pace with population and workforce needs

• Many housing types are missing - especially homes for seniors, young adults, and middle-income workers

• Slow, fragmented processes increase costs and delay delivery

• When housing does not work, communities lose stability and connection

Daria’s Livability First standard is simple: housing policy should produce homes people can actually live in, in the communities where they work and belong.

Why this matters in Olympia: Because solving the housing shortage requires coordination, execution, and accountability - not just good intentions or top-down mandates.