There’s a new tone rising from the ranks of the San Juan County Council.

And teaming up with the town of Friday Harbor might just be the ticket that leads to the creation of a local housing authority.

Chairman Rich Peterson, North San Juan, last week backpedaled from previous objections and offered his support if the right set of circumstances are put in place.

Peterson said he could support creation of a housing authority if it were supervised by a team of elected officials from the town and county. Such supervision, he said, provides accountability and a measure of restraint on the far-reaching powers that a housing authority is able to wield.

“Some of the concerns I’ve had I think are put to rest, depending on the way the model might look like,” Peterson said. “If it can be made up of people from elected bodies I’m much more at ease over that.”

Establishment of a housing authority remains a central, though controversial, plank in the pending revision of the Housing Element of the county Comprehensive Plan. The Housing Element, a set of goals and policies ensuring that housing remains available to all income levels and meets projected population growth, is being revised by the county to settle a lawsuit filed by Orcas Island architect John Campbell. It’s subject to review by the Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board upon completion.

Of 39 counties in Washington state, San Juan and Garfield are the only two without a housing authority; 29 have their own and eight counties operate a housing authority in partnership with a neighboring jurisdiction.

Peterson is not the only council member with a change of heart. Councilman Gene Knapp, East Orcas, who earlier raised concerns about a housing authority’s ability to claim land through the power of eminent domain, has softened his stance as well.

“I had concerns earlier about a housing authority primarily because I didn’t know anything about it,” Knapp said. “My level of concern has dropped considerably.”

Still, Knapp noted that even Campbell, a long-standing advocate of affordable housing and Homes For Islanders board member, has raised objections about a housing authority.

The Council will tackle the housing authority topic in a May 14 work session and reconvene its public hearing on the Housing Element June 9. It asked the Hearings Board for a 90-day extension after missing a March 31 deadline.

San Juan is not entirely without benefits which a housing authority can provide. Thanks to the housing authority in Skagit County, which operates in partnership with the city of Anacortes, 20 islanders under the age of 62 and considered mentally-disabled receive rental assistance via Section 8 vouchers, a federally-funded program.

Though 20 are better than none, Angela Lausch, county affordable housing coordinator, said more Section 8 vouchers, as well as other state and federal housing programs and funding, would be available to islanders if a local housing authority were created.

Councilwoman Lovel Pratt noted that a housing authority, unlike local land trusts, has access to funds that can benefit those earning 80 percent or more of the average median income. It can be a conduit for state and federal housing funds even if the council choses not to support it by establishing a local funding mechanism, she said.

“It doesn’t necessarily need to be funded in order to be able access some funding and provide for more rental assistance than we’re getting going through other counties housing authorities at this point,” said Pratt, former director of the San Juan Community Land Trust. “But it has a potential at some point to be funded and to do more projects.”