Budget shortfalls, widespread uncertainty, continued discrimination. At a time when housing leaders across the country grapple with these recurring themes, solutions to a deepening housing crisis are emerging in unlikely places. That was a core message as Enterprise CEO Shaun Donovan joined state and local leaders from across the housing ecosystem in Seattle.

In a discussion that ranged from Washington State concerns to federal policy issues, Donovan joined State Representative Nicole Macri(link is external) and Michael Brown(link is external) of Seattle-based Civic Commons at the Housing Washington Conference. Moderator Nicole Bascomb-Green(link is external) of Bascomb Real Estate Group prompted panelists to outline strategies for unity and collective action. 

What took place was not just a conversation about policy, but a call for resilience, creativity, and new and surprising alliances.

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

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Donovan opened with a warning: don’t be distracted by fear tactics. “If you look past the smoke, you can figure out what’s really at risk — and where the fire is right now is around homelessness and the continuum of care(link is external).”

While discussion of sweeping federal cuts ripple through the sector, Donovan said the real danger is losing focus on what matters most: protecting the programs and communities most at risk and ensuring advocates don’t cede ground to distraction.

More than 771,000 people experienced homelessness across the U.S. in 2024, an 18% increase from 2023. Washington state had the nation's third-largest homeless population in 2024(link is external), with a 55.8% increase in chronic homelessness since 2007 and a 40% rise in family homelessness.  

Crisis as Catalyst

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State Rep. Nicole Macri with Michael Brown (l) and Nicole Bascomb-Green (r)

Macri urged the audience to see this moment in historical context. Time and again, she said, crises have led to breakthroughs: the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit after the cuts of the 1980s, stronger food supports after welfare reform, and the Affordable Care Act after the Great Recession.

“If you tear it all down, it gives us an opportunity to build it up in a way that we haven’t really had the space to think about,” Macri said. Constraints are real, she added, but they can also spark creativity and new forms of partnership. “Now is the time when we think about how we're going to meet the housing challenge, which was here before the federal government started saying they were going to cut everything.”

Brown pushed the room to think boldly: “If the old system wasn’t working, let’s make it obsolete and build something new.”

Building Strange Bedfellow Coalitions

Each panelist underscored the power of coalition-building, especially across unexpected lines. Donovan pointed to Montana’s conservative governor, who eliminated single-family zoning under the banner of property rights. “There is a huge opportunity… to build a truly cross-sector, bipartisan movement around this that gets to the right results,” he said.

The fact that housing is now the number one economic issue in just about every part of this country means that while we are playing defense, we also need to be on offense. And we need to build coalitions beyond Washington State, beyond the places where you can get 1,300 people in a room to talk about these issues.

Shaun Donovan

Macri agreed, emphasizing that coalitions succeed when they center the people most affected. She described a time when she was part of a community-based research project where the people who designed and ran programs “sat at the table equally with those who received services and supposedly benefited from those services.”

Seizing New Opportunities

Even in a challenging environment, the panelists pointed to recent successes and emerging opportunities. Donovan highlighted a rare national policy breakthrough as part of the spring passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: “A big increase in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and a reduction to the 50% tests for bonds. That’s 1.2 million new affordable housing units around this country over the next 10 years.”

Macri pressed for efficiency to streamline the maze of funding streams so developers can focus on building, not chasing financing sources. Brown emphasized that creativity in coalition-building across communities, funders, and government is part of the solution, moving neighborhoods “towards deeper and stronger communities, and eventually to the place where everyone truly is prospering.”

Brown talked about progress over the past four years with the Black Home Initiative(link is external), a network of nonprofits, private companies, philanthropy, and government agencies focused on increasing Black homeownership. “If we get it right for those furthest from opportunity,” you create a system with benefits for everyone, he said.

Preserving the 'Fabric of the Field'

The panel closed with a reminder that the housing crisis is about people, not just buildings. Donovan described the sector’s greatest asset as the “fabric of the field” — the diversity of organizations, leaders, and coalitions that carry the work forward. Sustaining them, he argued, is just as vital as preserving housing units.

For Macri, that also means sustaining one another. “It's going to be a longer road than you think it's going to be. And I think that's true with the time we're in right now,” she said. “Take care of yourself and take care of each other. This work is deeply personal.”

Brown talked about using “civic muscle” to strengthen “trust and resiliency" across sectors. “Even in environments where scarcity is being promoted, abundance will still win out,” he said.

Related Topics:Policy Pacific Northwest