Bayside Housing & Services marked ten years of operation in Port Hadlock this week with a gala that raised $326,000 for emergency and transitional housing programs, and Gov. Bob Ferguson showed up to deliver keynote remarks tying the local milestone to his administration's housing agenda. The event, held August 15 at the Old Alcohol Plant Inn, doubled as both a fundraiser and a stage for the governor to highlight what he has called record state investment in housing during the current two-year budget cycle.
Ferguson posted photos from the gala on his Facebook page, noting that housing has been a top priority for him since he ran for governor. He pointed to Bayside Housing as an example of the kind of nonprofit work the state is trying to support, and cited nearly $1 billion in housing investments during the current biennium as evidence of that commitment, according to the post. Since opening on April 16, 2016, Bayside has provided more than 500,000 nights of safe shelter and served 80,000 hot meals, with 420 unhoused individuals assisted and 60% of participants successfully transitioning into permanent homes, according to The Jefferson County Beacon.
Waiting List Doubles as New Housing Breaks Ground
The celebration arrived amid mounting local demand. Bayside's waiting list for assistance reached roughly 200 people in the summer, double what it was the previous winter, as reported by the Peninsula Daily News. That pressure prompted the nonprofit to break ground just a day before the gala, on August 14, on Vince's Village, a 32-unit permanent supportive housing facility in Port Townsend. The station's report notes that Bayside leadership has pointed to local workers and elderly residents facing increasing displacement pressures in Jefferson County.
Ferguson's appearance in Port Hadlock also served to link the local nonprofit's decade of work to a broader legislative push he has championed in Olympia. Housing has been central to his agenda since taking office, and the governor requested and signed a bill with Sen. Emily Alvarado earlier this year allowing housing construction in commercial and mixed-use zones — a measure Hoodline previously covered as Ferguson's Olympia zoning win.
Zoning Law Caps Retail Mandates, Expands Buildable Land
That measure, Senate Bill 6026, took effect June 11 and requires cities and counties with more than 30,000 residents planning under the Growth Management Act to permit residential housing in commercial and mixed-use zones. It caps local mandates for ground-floor commercial space at 40% of mixed-use acreage and bans mandatory ground-floor retail for subsidized affordable housing, according to The Spokesman-Review. An independent spatial analysis by the Sightline Institute estimated the law could expand the total urban land area available for multifamily residential development by up to 62% in qualifying municipalities, per HFO Investment Real Estate.
Ferguson also signed House Bill 2266 this year, establishing statewide permitting rules that prohibit local governments from denying land-use permits for permanent supportive housing, transitional housing, or emergency shelters in commercial and residential zones, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. Together, the two laws reflect a strategy of pairing zoning preemption with direct capital investment, though the shift has not been without friction — some local leaders have previously raised concerns about losing mandatory ground-floor retail in walkable commercial districts.
Task Force Weighing a New Cabinet-Level Housing Agency
In December 2025, Ferguson issued Executive Order 25-12 establishing the Washington State Task Force on the Department of Housing, which is developing a proposal for a cabinet-level agency intended to elevate housing as a priority and ensure accountability. The task force began holding monthly public meetings in February and must submit final recommendations to the governor and Legislature by November 15, according to the Washington State Department of Commerce. State housing administration is currently divided across multiple agencies, with core capital and planning programs housed under Commerce.
The stakes behind that reorganization are significant. Commerce projections indicate Washington must add more than 1 million housing units by 2044 to keep pace with population growth, with half of those units needing to be affordable to households earning at or below 50% of the Area Median Income. In spring 2026, Commerce surveyed housing providers, local officials, and tenants to evaluate administrative costs and regulatory friction ahead of the task force's reporting deadline, with property owner groups urging the state to streamline landlord-tenant regulations and reduce permitting bottlenecks in any new agency, per the Rental Housing Association of Washington.
Ferguson has also pointed to budget numbers to back his housing push. In December 2025, he unveiled a $244 million supplemental housing budget proposal — the state's largest supplemental capital housing investment to date — allocating $55 million for housing preservation and flood relief alongside $81 million to construct 1,933 affordable rental units, as Hoodline reported in coverage of Ferguson's $244M housing pitch. For Bayside Housing, the immediate task remains more local: filling the gap between its waiting list and the beds it can offer, one gala and one groundbreaking at a time.
