Seattle’s Social Housing Developer has held up Maryland’s The Laureate, a 268-unit mixed-income, mixed use, new construction project from Montgomery County’s Housing Opportunities Commission, as a model development.
Mayor Bruce Harrell is proposing a $2 million loan from the city to help the Seattle Social Housing Developer start on its mission to provide a wider variety of public affordable housing in the city.
“Increasing housing supply and diversity have been top priorities for my administration, creating more safe, affordable places for people to call home,” Harrell said in a statement. “While there were different strategies for how to fund the social housing developer, we share a vision for this model to be successful and add more housing options across our city. This loan will provide critical support during this interim period for planning and capacity-building so that the developer is set up for success and can achieve its goal of operating publicly owned, mixed-income housing.”
The Harrell administration says the loan would allow the developer “to sustain core operations and potentially pursue near term property acquisition opportunities” until revenue from a voter-approved tax on city employers is available.
CHS reported here in February as Seattle voters approved the measure, opening the way for a new 5% tax on companies for every dollar over a million paid to a Seattle employee in annual compensation including salary, stock, and bonuses to fund the city’s new public Social Housing Developer. Backers said the increase will add around $50 million a year to fund the development authority and power its ability to borrow to build or acquire 2,000 units of housing over 10 years.
In February 2023, Initiative 135 to create a Seattle social housing developer won handily with 57% of voters approving the proposal. But the plan came without funding components because of limitations imposed on the state’s initiative process. Meanwhile, Public Development Authorities do not have taxing authority in Washington.
In its announcement, the Harrell administration says that under the Social Housing Developer plan, the city has provided $870,000 in financial assistance in addition to $180,000 from the Washington State Department of Commerce for a total of $1,050,000 in start-up support to get the authority off the ground.
With the startup funding, the developer has begun operations and hired staff including its first chief executive officer, Roberto Jiménez.
With the proposed bridge loan, “the developer would face tough financial decisions until the new revenue is received,” the Harrell administration said.
The proposal also comes as Harrell faces challengers for his office. With the August primary quickly approaching, Harrell’s top challenger appears to be progressive organizer Katie Wilson who has worked with organizations like the Transit Riders Union, and helped lead minimum wage and renter rights campaigns around the region. Wilson’s appeal with more progressive Seattle voters includes endorsements from groups like Tech 4 Housing as the advocate has made affordable housing and renters rights a centerpiece of her campaign.
The legislation to authorize the loan will now be transmitted to the Seattle City Council and considered in the Finance, Native Communities & Tribal Governments Committee.
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Could the mayoral race also explain why, in the last month or two, tents have proliferated at Cal Anderson Park? The park was pretty clean in summer 2024 when nobody was campaigning.
Summertime push out of Little Saigon and 3rd and Pine for Club World Cup and cruise season. North Capitol Hill hasn’t been this bad since covid. Broadway Hill and Tashkent Park are a constant strain on residents of the area.
Yes Broadway Hill just cleared for the umpteenth time. But they’ll be back. So sick of it.
Shuffling folks around is evil. Build public housing and leave them alone until you do.
Thank you for being the constant advocate for drug dealers and stolen goods traffickers that set-up in our city parks. Thank you for supporting chaotic housing that often hurts the residents and the densely populated buildings around them.
My hope is that major “fascist” retailers all leave, involved community members tired of constant crisis locate elsewhere, high paying employers shift to the east side to avoid Seattle taxes, that this neighborhood is left with quick churn new arrivals that will come and go and not care about anything here, and that the rest of the area plummets and decays for the next 30 years.
I am so done, I want scorched earth. I want Capitol Hill, Seattle, to be a case study in failed neighborhoods due to poorly thought out and applied government policies.
and money starts funneling off to support bureaucracy instead of housing…great…