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CHS Community Post | Why we need Sawant, Grant and Herbold on the City Council

By Kathy Heffernan

Something is rotten in the city of Seattle.

Seattle rents are among the fastest rising in the nation with 47% of us rent burdened, paying more than 30% of our income for housing. Seattle is the 10th most expensive U.S. city and has become increasingly unaffordable for average working people who are being forced out of the city in droves.

Right before New Year’s this past winter I came home from my work as a hospital chaplain to a notice on my front door. My new landlord, Paul Anderson of Bauhaus Partners was raising my rent from $1000 to $2300–a whopping 130% increase!

Everyone in my apartment building was forced to move out except those who had extended leases.

My neighbor, a 62 year old retired professional woman on disability, was living in a 420-square-foot studio. Her rent went from $650 a month to $1500—a 145% increase. She told me she had been on a list for senior housing for years but there was still no space available. She was told by staff at the Seattle Housing Authority to “find a safe car”. A Seattle Weekly article from this past March shared the story of another tenant who was facing eviction for being unable to pay rent. His landlord brought him a list of community resources and a manual given to people about “how to enter homelessness,” thinking it would help. It didn’t. The man committed suicide two days later.

This is the tragedy underlying Seattle’s growth. It’s unacceptable.

There are 47 candidates vying for 9 Seattle City Council seats. Current council member and District 3 candidate Kshama Sawant, District 1 candidate Lisa Herbold, and District 8 candidate Jonathan Grant, particularly stand out for their commitment to bold, comprehensive steps to make Seattle affordable for all. Still others say they want Seattle to be affordable, but their rhetoric does not match their actions.

Why is this? One simple word: Money.

In this election year, big developers are funding candidates to pursue their own interests – jack up rents, build luxury condominium towers, stop rent control, and definitely avoid paying for public housing development.

Take, for example, Pamela Banks, who is running for city council in District 3 against Sawant. She calls herself a progressive and earlier in the year said she supported making developers pay for affordable housing development.

Then in the last 3 months, dozens of developers and real estate executives contributed at least $22,800 to her campaign coffers, including donations from the CEO and Chairman of Goodman Real Estate, a private real estate company in Seattle. Tenant union actions and pickets have protested Goodman’s predatory practices and mass evictions of the most vulnerable in our community. Goodman holds $2.5 billion in assets. Banks also has taken big donations from executives at Pine Street LLC, a major downtown developer; the Rental Housing Association of Washington, the major landlord advocacy group; as well as CEOs and other executives at other major real estate and construction firms including Columbia Investments, GLY Construction, Areteaus Real Estate, and Canal Investments. Seven executives at the major development firm Vulcan have given Banks another $3,000.

Guess where Banks stands now on the question of making developers pay into a fund to boost affordable public housing development? She’s not supporting it anymore.

As the English bard wrote, “’Tis gold which buys admittance”.

We need public officials who will fight for working people. Lisa Herbold, as longtime aide to retiring Councilmember Nick Licata, has been a consistent advocate for affordable housing and a tenant’s bill of rights. Jonathan Grant has been a grassroots advocate for renters as director of the Tenant’s Union. Kshama Sawant has put rent control on the political map, along with making developers pay for affordable housing.

Guess what? None of those candidates takes money from big developers and real estate executives.

People like me need rent control and a tenant’s bill of rights to address the tragedy faced by renters every month in this city. We need people on the city council who will stand up for us – not take political contributions from big developers and then switch their position on affordable housing.

This election year, voters will decide: To be, or not to be affordable, Seattle.
That is the question.

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10 Comments
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sameorsimilar
sameorsimilar
8 years ago

17 years. Herbold has been at City Hall for 17 Years. This all happened under her nose, and she wants a do over? No thanks.

Steve
Steve
8 years ago
Reply to  sameorsimilar

LOL! Wha? She was an aide. And, to Licata one of the most progressive of the lot. You’re going attribute the lethargy and doddling of Bagshaw, Rassmussen, Clark, Godden and Burgess to one aide? You’re a turd burglar!

sameorsimilar
sameorsimilar
8 years ago
Reply to  Steve

Hahah! Turd burglar, that’s a good one. 17 years touted as the 10th Council Member. They couldn’t do anything except hand wring for 17 years either, right?

Paul Mason
Paul Mason
8 years ago
Reply to  sameorsimilar

When push comes to shove, I’ll be glad to have Lisa Herbold’s 17 years of experience representing West Seattle.
In a time where big money thinks it can buy our city government (evidenced by the size of many candidates campaign contributions), Lisa Herbold will not be intimidated.

Josh Bradley
Josh Bradley
8 years ago

Brianna Thomas is a much better choice in District 1. Herbold, Grant and Bradburd are promoting housing policies that won’t increase the stock of affordable housing, that will encourage environmentally unsustainable sprawl and that will put home-ownership beyond the reach of working families. So sad to see self-proclaimed progressives opposing good policy.

Paul Mason
Paul Mason
8 years ago
Reply to  Josh Bradley

When the developers come for your neighborhood (before the transit is sufficient to support it) they will cloaked in the mantra of density, peddling the myth of affordability.
Don’t be fooled by big money and shiny objects.
Elect someone who has the guts and experience to stand up for your neighborhood, for me, that’s Lisa Herbold.

No to these candidates!
No to these candidates!
8 years ago
Reply to  Josh Bradley

As a renter paying over 50% of my income in rent and making less than 60% AMI, I agree with you. I don’t want rent control. I want upzones to SF zones and enough supply to meet demand. Not time wasted trying to punish developers or lobby the legislature that won’t give me a non working policy like rent control.

Derek
Derek
8 years ago

You’ve left off Michael Maddux and you shouldn’t have. Rob Johnson has no plan for affordability.

ahabbaha
ahabbaha
8 years ago

Sawant with all her TALK about rent control is just that.A lot of HOT air.She knows it will never happen in Seattle

HT3
HT3
8 years ago
Reply to  ahabbaha

The fact that some real estate people have donated to Pamela Banks doesn’t immediately disqualify her in my book. Sure rent control sounds like the answer. But it isn’t. That has been proven over and over again. I’ve experienced it in other cities. It’s a “feelgood” statement. It’s a quick fix that is neither. Real estate people and developers also may happen to not feel rent control is a solution. There is a lot of gray in these issues. Compromise and reasonable conversation are important. Shouting down people who disagree with you like Sawant’s supporters do is not constructive and in my opinion is intellectual arrogance.