These rules are adopted under the authority of chapter 43.185 RCW which provide that the department shall have the authority to promulgate rules governing the award of grants and loans.

The purpose of the affordable housing program is to provide financial assistance, and develop and coordinate public and private resources to meet the affordable housing needs of low-income households in the state.

(1) "Affordable housing" means residential housing for rental or private individual ownership which, as long as the same is occupied by low-income households, requires payment of monthly housing costs, including utilities other than telephone, of no more than thirty percent of the family's income.

(2) "Low-income" means a family or household earning eighty percent or lower of county median income.

(3) "Very low income" means a family or household earning fifty percent or lower of county median income.

(4) "Department" means the department of community development.

(5) "Director" means the director of the department of community development.

Eligible applicants for funding include local governments, local housing authorities, nonprofit community or neighborhood-based organizations, and regional or statewide nonprofit housing assistance organizations.

The department shall not approve a request for assistance unless it has received and approved a housing needs assessment. The affordable housing needs assessment shall:

(1) Describe the jurisdiction's current needs for housing assistance for very low-income households, low-income households, and special-needs populations;

(2) Estimate the need for a five-year period; and

(3) Contain a strategy to meet the need. The needs assessment shall:

(a) Contain population demographics including age, race, household income, and household type;

(b) Provide a ten-year summary of population changes and a projection of population changes for the next ten years;

(c) State the number and percentage of persons and households at eighty percent and lower of county median income;

(d) Identify the gap between the number of households at eighty percent of median and the number of affordable rental and for-sale units which are needed;

(e) Identify the amount of average assistance required to close the gap for a household at eighty percent of county median income with not more than thirty percent of household income to be used for housing costs including utilities; and

(f) Contain a description of local existing housing conditions including vacancy rates, average rents, average for-sale house prices, units in need of rehabilitation, units in need of weatherization, and the number of new units in the past five years and their type.

The department may accept a local housing element, a certified comprehensive housing affordability strategy, or a housing assistance plan, if consistent with the provisions of this section. To be approved a plan must contain the number of households at eighty percent or lower of county median income and state the average amount of assistance required per household to enable access to affordable housing at fair market rents or to average sales prices with no more than thirty percent of the household's income, including utilities, and comply with the above requirements.

During each calendar year in which funds are available for use by the department for the affordable housing program the department shall announce to all known interested parties, and through major media throughout the state, a grant and loan application period of at least ninety days duration. This announcement shall be made as often as the director deems appropriate for proper utilization of resources.

With the advice and input of the low-income assistance advisory committee appointed by the director, the department shall develop criteria to evaluate applications for assistance.