The Puget Sound Regional Council is seeking comment on the recommended program of 17 special needs transportation projects to receive $2 million in Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funding. These projects are designed to provide transportation service, create or maintain an infrastructure for coordinated planning, or provide training and educational resources for individuals with special transportation needs.

Defined by state law, those with special needs are individuals and their attendants that, due to mental or physical disability, income status, or age, are unable to transport themselves or purchase appropriate transportation services. Each project plays an important role in the mobility of special needs populations or the coor-dination of special needs transportation services.

Examples of projects and services recommended for funding include:

o	Bellevue Easy-Rider Shuttle	$122,760
o	Hyde Shuttle II Lift Equipped Vehicles	$174,937
o	Beyond the Borders Rural to Urban Shuttle	$254,000
o	WorkFirst Van Continuation and Expansion	$165,000
o	Transportation Assistance Program (TAP)	$628,238

A complete list of the 17 projects and detailed project descriptions are available online at http://www.psrc.org/boards/advisory/specialneeds/specneeds.htm.

The funds are derived from two Federal Transit Administration sources available via the PSRC: Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC), and New Freedom. The projects are not required to be modeled for air quality conformity.

Written comments will be accepted until July 3 and included in the agenda packet for the Transportation Policy Board meeting on July 12, when it finalizes its recommendation to the Executive Board. Comments can be made in person at the meetings listed below. The draft program of projects is scheduled to be acted on for final approval and inclusion into the Regional Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) at the Executive Board meeting on July 26.

King Cushman Draws Innovative Career to a Close

After 30 years of public service in the region, King Cushman is leaving PSRC to pursue an active retirement through time with his family, extensive travel and his passion for bicycling and bicycle transportation issues. Mr. Cushman will continue to serve on the Boards of the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and the Cascade Bicycle Club.

Most recently, Mr. Cushman has been renowned for his development of the Rural Town Centers and Corridors program and his leadership of the study to preserve the 42 mile eastside rail corridor being vacated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Company.

"The Rural Town Centers and Corridors program was an important step in recognizing and supporting the critical importance that the region's rural areas play in the success of the region's long-range growth, economic and transportation strategy, VISION 2020," said Bob Drewel, PSRC's Executive Director. "The program has provided two cycles of $2 million in new funding available via PSRC and addressed previously neglected town center and rural highway corridor development and mobility needs."

King joined PSRC in 1992 as the Transportation Planning Director, just after the agency was formed and ISTEA was enacted federally, assigning Metropolitan Planning Organizations a bigger role in transportation planning and funding decisions. He formed a new transportation department to create the region's first Metropolitan Transportation Plan, the long-range plan now known as Destination 2030, as well as the region's first project selection process for PSRC's federal funds, which currently enables billions worth of regional projects to move forward. Under his leadership, Destination 2030 was named America's Best Plan by the American Planning Association as well as winning two other National planning awards.

Prior to his arrival at PSRC, King was Director of Development at Pierce Transit, heading up transit planning and scheduling. His direction prompted the popular Seattle-Tacoma Express bus service and development of the country's first fully connected transit-center-based system, including construction of five transit centers to serve as hubs throughout urban Pierce County.

King's first job in the area was to open and manage Parsons Brinckerhoff's first Pacific Northwest office. In this role, he developed strategies for King County Metro's 1980 ten year transit plan to establishing hubs in Bellevue, Northgate, Federal Way, and Southcenter and the Seattle Downtown Transit Tunnel, as well as transit plans for Kitsap and Pierce counties, which ultimately led to the creation of Kitsap Transit and Pierce Transit.

Despite a substantial cool down in the national housing sector over the last year, with home prices in several previously overheated metropolitan area markets throughout the U.S. stabilizing and even declining in some places, the housing market in central Puget Sound has been affected minimally and remains quite robust.

Housing affordability in the region has eroded significantly over the last three to four years, as shown by the Housing Affordability Indices reported in Table 1. Since 2000, growth in area median household incomes has been steadily outpaced by the rise in home prices. A decline in mortgage lending rates initially helped to offset the growing gap between incomes and housing prices. But since 2003, housing affordability for home buyers, and especially first-time buyers, has declined to the lowest levels recorded since these data indices began to be tracked in the mid 1990s.

For renters, median income levels generally kept better pace with the increase in average rents between 2000 and 2006. The 2000/01 recession actually led to decreasing average rents in King and Snohomish counties between 2002 and 2004. Yet despite the relative stability of prices in the rental housing market, decennial Census and American Community Survey data indicate that affordability for renters also declined during the first part of this decade.

The full version of this Trend is available online at psrc.org or from the Information Center at 206-464-7532 or info@psrc.org. Housing market data published by the Washington Center for Real Estate Research can be accessed online at http://www.cb.wsu.edu/~wcrer/. For questions, contact Carol Naito at 206-464-7535 or cnaito@psrc.org.

The Prosperity Partnership has convened a Regional Housing Strategy Working Group to develop strategies and actions that will help to improve access to housing close to jobs for workers of all wage levels from throughout the four-county region. U.S. Senator Patty Murray has praised and pledged support for the Prosperity Partnership's efforts.

"Housing is central to many of the other policy decisions we make as a region," says PSRC Executive Director Bob Drewel. "As our region grows, access to housing affects our transportation system, our growth management planning, our economic development prospects and much more."

Helmed by Rita Ryder, President for Strategic Initiatives, YWCA of Seattle-King County-Snohomish County, and Bill Longbrake, Vice Chairman of Washington Mutual, the housing working group's mission is to identify existing areas of broad consensus in regional housing policies. The top few strategies will be added to the Prosperity Partnership's 2008 Action Items for implementation next year.

"This will give us a sense of what else is being implemented at the regional level to inform our decisions about the strategies we choose," says Rita Ryder. More than 30 civic leaders representing private business, affordable housing developers, government officials, and market rate developers from the central Puget Sound region have agreed to be a part of the working group. The group will also advise and comment on the housing element of the draft VISION 2040 plan document.

"We are seeing our employees face longer commute challenges and many ancillary issues that come with not being able to live closer to work," says Bill Longbrake, "I look forward to helping get some tangible deliverables when we complete our work in the fall."

For more information, please contact Eric Schinfeld at 206-587-5063 or eschinfeld@psrc.org.

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