As his administration bolsters its political will to update Seattle’s growth plan and address the region’s housing affordability crisis, Mayor Bruce Harrell issued an executive order Wednesday hoped to strengthen the city’s anti-displacement strategies.
The order includes five components hoped to address Harrell’s focus on helping existing homeowners in challenged communities hold onto their family properties while also bolstering Tenant Relocation Assistance, Economic Displacement Relocation Assistance, and Emergency Rental Assistance programs, and doing more to track housing statistics at displacement’s core:
- Develop new legislation to prevent predatory homebuying practices in Seattle which often target distressed homeowners, offering cash for their homes that may be lower than what they would otherwise receive on the open market.
- Create an anti-displacement work group within the City to improve coordination and outreach activities across departments and programs; support ongoing monitoring of displacement risk and provide regular reporting to the Mayor’s Office; and create an evaluation framework to support ongoing program improvement and help inform future investment decisions.
- Improve the service design of existing anti-displacement programs including Tenant Relocation Assistance, Economic Displacement Relocation Assistance, and Emergency Rental Assistance programs, including how they can be incorporated into the Affordable Seattle portal.
- Propose a plan for preserving naturally occurring affordable housing and create a database to track at-risk properties and potential organizations the City can partner with to preserve that housing.
- Create a report on housing production statistics and development activity in upzoned areas following the first full year after the adoption of the One Seattle Plan.
The “naturally occurring affordable housing” component of the order, meanwhile, is hoped to address calls from individual and smaller landlords to do more to help keep the ownership of older apartment buildings and multifamily homes out of the hands of large companies.
“While more housing is needed to accommodate future growth and reduce cost pressures, Mayor Harrell remains committed to equitable growth and helping keep residents and small businesses in their communities,” the announcement on the order reads.
The order follows a presentation Wednesday at the meeting of the Seattle City Council’s comprehensive plan update committee chaired by D3 representative Joy Hollingsworth that examined the progress of the city’s anti-displacement efforts.
The city says a review of its 20 anti-displacement programs across six different departments, totaling $44.7 million in 2024 and more than $50 million in 2025 found “many of the City’s anti-displacement programs are grounded in a solid evidence base, indicating they can be effective in reducing displacement, while other efforts involve more novel approaches as staff seek to pilot new ideas.” The city says the review “also identified several areas where the City could improve upon its anti-displacement efforts with more proactive planning, monitoring, and evaluation to inform program delivery and strategic direction.”
“I appreciate Mayor Harrell’s commitment to equitable growth, and I want to thank the members of the Innovation and Performance Team for their hard work reviewing the City’s existing anti-displacement programs,” Hollingsworth said in the mayor’s announcement. “It is critical that we address both the current and historical root causes of displacement to ensure that our neighborhoods remain vibrant, diverse, and livable. This executive order is an important step towards ensuring that our anti-displacement programs are helping our residents and having the impact that they were designed to have.”
Hollingsworth’s office is at the center of the city’s debate over updates to its 20-year growth plan and worries about rezoning neighborhoods across the city.
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If the Mayor is serious about anti-displacement, he could start by looking at his comp plan proposal. Their own Environmental Impact Statement identifies the preferred alternative as the plan with the most displacement: https://bsky.app/profile/holz-bau.bsky.social/post/3lgx2v4xzh22w
“The “naturally occurring affordable housing” component of the order, meanwhile, is hoped to address calls from individual and smaller landlords to do more to help keep the ownership of older apartment buildings and multifamily homes out of the hands of large companies.”
Are we going to feed them money? Is that the solution?
Do you think there might be cases where it makes sense to help a small landlord with a major repair, for example, so they don’t sell to a developer?
No I do not. You either run it as a business or you get out of the business.
Why is settling bad. Why are we trying to keep dilapidated structures.