A sustained housing shortage hovers at a crisis level in the Inland Northwest. In such an environment, elected leaders should be doing what they can to ease pressure and encourage development of workforce and market-rate housing. 

An executive order penned by Mayor Lisa Brown to streamline permitting and development processes is a step in the right direction. But it's just that: a step. 

Measures to clean up the primary gateway into Spokane are positive first steps to making our city more welcoming to those who enter it and to getting our more vulnerable population the help it needs.