Every morning, Mackenzie Pagaduan tries to get on the road by 6 a.m. Her commute from Tacoma to Kingston takes about an hour-and-a-half, on a good day, and she wants to beat rush-hour traffic on I-5.

Her daily commute is about 120 miles roundtrip, costing Pagaduan two hours' pay at her job as a receptionist in a physical therapy clinic in North Kitsap.

The trip is even longer on Tuesdays, when Pagaduan, 26, brings her 3-year-old son, who has autism, to his weekly therapy session in Poulsbo after work. They don’t usually get home until 8 p.m. “It’s a long day. It wears on you,” she said.

But it still beats paying the cost to live in Kitsap County, where rent has increased 10 percent each year since 2014 and shows no sign of stopping.

The average apartment in Kitsap County now costs $1,475 per month, a 60 percent jump from five years ago, according to reports from housing research firm Yardi Matrix. The average Kitsap renter, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, can afford around $660 per month.

The region’s housing crisis has become a focal point for local lawmakers, public officials and nonprofits; all stress the need to build more affordable housing. The Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council — an inter-governmental assembly of city, county and regional leaders — launched an affordable housing task force this year to look at the problem.

But those efforts aren't helping renters like Pagaduan, who need an affordable place now. Those who do find housing are increasingly cost-burdened, putting a sizable share of their income into rent.

In July, Pagaduan and her family moved into her mother-in-law’s house in Tacoma. They had been living in an apartment in Poulsbo but could longer afford the $1,700 rent after her husband lost his job at Boeing.

She’s been searching for an affordable place in Kitsap since January, and most options are too expensive for her family.

A spot check of popular rental site Zillow found only five out of the nearly 300 rental listings in Kitsap were under $1,000.

The few places within the couple’s price range require first and last month’s rent and a sizable security deposit. “You’re ending up having to pay two or three times the rental amount just to move in,” she said.

Though there are cheap rooms for rent on sites like Craigslist or Facebook, Pagaduan says most people are looking for individual renters, not a family of three. She’s explored other options — spots for RVs or campers, extended-stay hotels and AirBnBs — but has come up empty.

“I usually will check Craigslist and Facebook and occasionally some of the other sites, once a day,” she said. “If I do find something, there are a lot of other people in Kitsap County who can't find something. It’s gone before I can get to it.”

For now, Pagaduan’s stuck making the trek from Tacoma to Kingston and back again each day. She can’t quit her Kingston job, the family’s main source of income while her husband looks for steady work. But she’s not hopeful they will find a place of their own any time soon.

“It's really disheartening every day to be looking and looking for a place to go and there is no place to go,” she said. “There's just nothing available. There’s just no affordable housing.”

High demand, lacking options

The average renter in Kitsap County makes $12.74 per hour, according to a 2019 report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

At that rate, you would have to work 56 hours per week to comfortably afford a fair market one-bedroom apartment in Kitsap County. Even paying for a studio apartment means the average renter would need to work 47 hours per week.

The high cost of housing has put a strain on nearly half of those who rent in Kitsap. A 2018 report by Apartment List found that 47.4 percent of renters in Kitsap County are cost-burdened, meaning they pay more than 30 percent of their income on rent. About 23 percent are severely cost-burdened, spending more than half of their household income on rent.

Kurt Wiest, executive director of the Bremerton Housing Authority, says the supply of affordable rentals in Kitsap County continues to be an issue.

“When there’s a higher demand for shelter and we’re not creating the number of units that a healthy market has, we’re going to see an increase in prices,” Wiest said. “When the price of housing goes it just becomes that much more difficult for your typical renter to afford the rent that is out there.”

Kitsap’s affordable housing challenges mirror those occurring in other metropolitan areas across the country, including Seattle, Wiest said.

Those problems have seeped into other parts of Puget Sound, especially as people from Seattle move to areas in proximity to the city, Wiest said.

Bridget Glasspoole, manager of Kitsap’s Housing Solutions Center, said that average earnings simply have not kept up with housing costs.

“People’s rent is going up and their wages are staying stagnant,” she said. “Those that are finding housing are just paying a larger part of their income.”

The Housing Solutions Center, which works with those struggling to find housing, focuses on helping the most vulnerable first; around half of its clients are homeless. But even for those most in need, Glasspoole says there’s a lack of resources.

“We do not have enough,” she said.

'It's more expensive to rent here than it is in a major city'

When Brian Sullivan, a Marine veteran, moved from Spokane to Silverdale to attend Olympic College, the area’s high housing costs caught the 24-year-old off guard.

Back home, Sullivan says his friends pay $650-$700 for a place. Out here, he can’t find a one-bedroom for less than $1,000.

“I mean it's crazy,” he said. “It's more expensive to rent here than it is in a major city like Spokane.”

Sullivan’s renting a room from a family acquaintance for the next couple of months, waiting until gets his college housing allowance from Veterans Affairs. But after a divorce last year damaged his credit, Sullivan says he’s having trouble scoping out a new apartment.

“I’ve called a ton of apartment places,” he said. “All the apartment complexes I call don’t have any single bedroom apartments open.”

Others have had better luck in their search.

Michaela Rodgers, 21, moved into a new place a few weeks ago. She's renting a room in a couple’s house in Port Orchard.

Rodgers, who works at a pizza place in Silverdale, had been looking on-and-off for about two years, seeing housing prices steadily rise while doing her “rounds checking Facebook, Craigslist, Zillow and Trulia.”

“I felt really lucky to find the place I was moving into for $600,” Rodgers said. “Now it’s like super rare to find a room for rent that's under $800.”

However, it can be more challenging for families looking to rent, especially if they have young children.

Katherine Duncan, 25, moved to Bremerton a year and a half ago with her 3-year-old son. After staying with her brother for a year, Duncan spent the last few months living at a friend's house. The whole time she’s been trying to find a place.

Even making a decent wage — Duncan is an electrician's apprentice — she couldn’t find something affordable. “I was looking all over actually. I was pretty much looking at Bremerton, Shelton, Poulsbo. I was just kind of going to take what I could get,” she said.

Just to get her foot in the door, Duncan said she was spending $40 or $50 on each application. And that wasn’t even a sure bet.

“When I would put in an application they would inform they had several already,” she said. “It was just kind of discouraging knowing you're putting $40 more into an application knowing there's a list of people who had put in applications before you.”

Duncan eventually found a two-bedroom apartment in Bremerton she could afford. She relied on her family to help pay the security deposit and initial payments.

Rent is still expensive, but “it’s like a breath of fresh air” to have their own place, Duncan said.

“It just ending up working out,” she said, adding: “Finally.”