Our Pacific Northwest team mourns the passing of Frank Chopp, Speaker Emeritus of the Washington State House, consummate community organizer, and lifelong champion for low-income communities in Washington.
From Apple Health for Kids to the Washington State Housing Trust Fund, the Fremont Public Association (now Solid Ground) to the Low Income Housing Institute, Frank (he insisted we call him Frank, not “Representative Chopp”) played an integral role in making Washington a better place to live. Over his 30 years serving in the Legislature and as the longest-serving Speaker in state history, Frank led the passage of massively consequential legislation with the goal of alleviating poverty and improving our communities.
Frank worked in close partnership with Enterprise to develop our Home & Hope Initiative, which accelerates the development of affordable housing co-located with early learning and other community facilities on underutilized public and tax-exempt property.
Adamant that public land should permanently serve public benefit, Frank played a key role in creating policy allowing public agencies to make surplus land available for affordable housing development at low or no cost.
Frank helped codify equitable transit-oriented development in our region with the “80-80-80” policy, which requires Sound Transit to make 80% of its surplus land available for housing once light rail development is complete, and 80% of that housing must be affordable to households at or below 80% of area median income.
Determined that people experiencing homelessness should be able to have a prescription for a home to be able to improve their physical and behavioral health, he established Apple Health & Homes, which utilizes Medicaid funds for permanent supportive housing.
Frank was passionate about the success of all our youth, no matter their family’s income or zip code. He helped secure significant investments for quality, affordable childcare and early learning programs, healthcare, state-paid family and medical leave, and post-secondary education opportunities. His efforts to provide capital funding for early learning facilities were a key aspect of the Home & Hope Initiative and the creation of our Washington Early Learning Loan Fund.
Frank was a mentor to countless advocates, public servants, community leaders, and all of us here at Enterprise. He always had new sites to evaluate, partnerships to foster, funding ideas, policy proposals, and plenty of strategy for how to make it all happen. We are forever indebted to him for his passion, optimism, and determination. Home & Hope has just begun to hit its stride, with over 2,000 affordable homes complete or under construction, and another 8,500 in the pipeline, along with the development of over 300 new early learning classrooms providing care for more than 5,000 children statewide.
Thousands of families impacted and communities across Washington made stronger because of Frank’s leadership and vision. We will celebrate his memory with every groundbreaking and ribbon cutting for years to come.