In Tacoma-Pierce County, as in most areas of the U.S., having a job does not guarantee a family a place to live at an affordable cost. Minimum-wage workers simply do not earn enough. Many seniors and persons with disbilities live on limited incomes. These incomes often aren't adequate to afford the high market-rate rents that are found throughout Pierce County.

Many of these are people you see every day - your child's teacher or childcare worker, the clerk employed at the local store, the woman in the wheelchair or the elderly man on the bus, a police officer, janitor, office worker or waiter. People like you and me.


When people spend too much money on housing, they don't have enough money left to cover other basic needs, such as transportation, food and health care, or to cope with emergencies.

Affordable housing provides attractive, low-cost homes for people who simply do not earn enough to pay for "market-rate" apartments. It gives people with low and modest incomes safe and decent places to live in our communities.

Formed in 2001, the Tacoma Pierce County Affordable Housing Consortium is a nonprofit organization of 49 housing providers, lenders, and other stakeholders who work in Pierce County to provide a unified voice for affordable housing in our community.