City staff presented the Tri‑Cities Assessment of Fair Housing for 2025–2029 and the Pasco Planning Commission opened a public hearing at its May meeting to receive comment and questions.

Sharon, the city staff member presenting the assessment, said the Tri‑Cities Home Consortium (Pasco, Kennewick and Richland) conducts the assessment every five years to identify barriers that limit equitable access to housing. The assessment identified a limited supply of affordable housing, a shortage of accessible units for seniors and people with disabilities, language barriers, and transportation gaps that hinder access to jobs and services.

To address those gaps, the consortium proposed targeted actions for 2025–2029 including continuing partnerships with local housing authorities and nonprofits such as Habitat for Humanity, broadening multilingual outreach for down‑payment assistance programs, supporting owner‑occupied rehabilitation and retrofit programs to increase accessible units, promoting accessible design standards and accessory dwelling units (ADUs), hosting fair‑housing trainings for landlords and nonprofits, translating key documents and offering interpreter services, and coordinating with Ben Franklin Transit on student transit programs and connectivity improvements.

Commissioners and staff discussed implementation and outreach. Commissioner Pat Jones praised the report’s candor and encouraged the consortium to treat community‑wellbeing needs (for example, public restroom access at downtown events) as part of planning and outreach. A commissioner with school‑district experience emphasized that the plan’s recognition of languages beyond Spanish — including Burmese and Ukrainian — is important and recommended partnering with schools for adult English‑language supports and for distributing housing information to families. Another commissioner noted the need to address homelessness and referenced prior local emergency shelter efforts.

After discussion, Commissioner Pat Jones moved to close the public hearing; the motion was seconded by Dana Crutchfield and passed unanimously. Staff said next steps are a presentation to the city council (a workshop on May 27) and formal adoption scheduled for June 2; staff will then submit the plan and consolidated plan materials to HUD for approval. Sharon said the consortium will incorporate commissioner comments into the final plan.

Earlier in the meeting commissioners also approved the March 20 meeting minutes by unanimous vote.