A recent design proposal for a market-rate development on 12th Ave neighboring the affordable Community Roots Housing 12th Ave Arts building on Capitol Hill (Image: Runberg Architects)
As homelessness continues to rise and the city’s affordability crisis drags on, voters this fall could approve the creation of a new public developer “to build, acquire, own, and manage social housing” in Seattle.
Backers of the House Our Neighbors! coalition have announced a proposed ballot initiative that would establish a developer to create more rental housing options in the city, powered by public funding, and protected from free market influences, and city and county restrictions.
The initiative will require around 30,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot with plans for a vote on the proposal this fall.
Unlike the existing Seattle Housing Authority which typically serves only low-income residents, backers of the House Our Neighbors proposal say the new authority would be free of federal constraints on income levels and could be made available to renters with earnings ranging from 0% to 120% of area median income to help create a diverse pool of tenants across the authority’s properties.
“Social housing is available to all who need it, with rent designed to match the specific income levels of all tenants,” the group says. “This is particularly crucial for residents making 0-30% of the Area Median Income, for whom very little housing currently exists, and creates rent stability throughout the city.”
Under the proposal, the public development authority would create and acquire only publicly financed housing and maintain the properties as permanently affordable developments.
The ballot initiative would also create a renter-led board to form a charter for the authority and lead the development.
The initiative also includes environmental and labor restrictions including requiring new development to be built to Passive House energy standards and to use union labor.
Around Capitol Hill, some of the highest profile recent affordable housing projects have been developed by Community Roots Housing, the former Capitol Hill Housing group that serves as a citywide Public Development Authority (PDA) and the city’s Community Development Corporation (CDC) for Capitol Hill. Community Roots housing typically finances its projects with a mix of government funding, philanthropy, and standard lending. Its recent projects include the under construction Pride Place affordable housing project for LGBTQ+ seniors on Broadway, and the affordable, 110-unit Station House above Capitol Hill Station. In 2019, it partnered to create the Liberty Bank Building at 24th and Union as a model for “inclusive development” in the city.
A new Seattle development authority with a citywide focus might look a lot like Community Roots Housing.
The House Our Neighbors coalition is led by Real Change and was formed last summer in opposition to the so-called Compassion Seattle initiative as a response to the proposal that would have paired tough new restrictions on encampments with more money for shelters and services. The Real Change coalition formed, it says, to bring forward “concrete solutions to improve people’s lives, funded by progressive taxation, that provide paths for people to gain permanent housing, and end the conditions that lead to homelessness.” The Compassion Seattle drive, meanwhile, ended in September when an appeals court upheld a decision finding the downtown chamber-backed proposal was an illegal use of a local ballot initiative and violated state laws.
European-style social housing has long been held up as an example by affordable housing advocates in the United States. In one example cited by NPR, social housing accounts for an estimated 40% of the housing stock in Vienna. Public housing has also been championed by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) as part of the Green New Deal.
Now, the House Our Neighbors effort to put the social housing developer decision on the ballot is beginning. Expect to see signature gatherers outside Capitol Hill Station soon.
“Virtually every elected leader, and every individual working in housing and human services, agrees that we urgently need more housing for very low income workers and income restricted residents,” Tiffani McCoy, advocacy director for Real Change and House Our Neighbors! co-chair, said in the announcement. “We have created the structure and the vision to get this public developer off the ground. Now we will see if elected officials fund a social housing model that has been wildly successful across the globe.”
You can learn more about the proposal at houseourneighbors.org.
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Can’t figure out why you mention homelessness in the first paragraph, none of these potential units will be used for that purpose…unless you mean that any new housing will help with our shortage?
Anyway this is an interesting idea but the devil is in the details. Vienna is a good model to look at as is Singapore, where something like 80% of the population is living in a unit originally built and managed by the govt.
Agree! I’ve always said, why aren’t we talking to cities where they have run successful programs??? We aren’t trying to recreate the wheel. We need help! And I’m so tired of all the millions of dollars that have been spent and still budgeted for this issue, yet we have barely seen the needle move. I’m more inclined to believe that many people are lining their pockets and are making a profit vs actually wanting to solve the issue. #GREED We need a group of Seattle leaders, not on the City Council, to speak up and make this all stop, or we are doomed to continue. Where is the accountability?