Tag Archives: housing

Capitol Hill’s Hudson House apartments to become CoLEAD supportive housing on Summit Ave

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(Image: The Easton Group)

Capitol Hill’s Hudson House apartments, long operating as single-room occupancy rentals, is entering a new chapter under a supportive services partnership with Purpose. Dignity. Action., according to filings with the city.

Located at 1712 Summit Ave, the 1906-era 61-unit building has been serving as studio micro-apartments since its $4.5 million acquisition by the The Easton Group from Pioneer Human Services in 2024. Rents hovered around $799 a month, plus utilities.

Under its new plan, the building is being utilized as supportive shelter. On-site staff provide will provide intensive harm-reduction case management, room support, and exit coordination to guide residents off the streets and into housing, according to a recent job listing.

PDA, formerly known as the Public Defender Association, is a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to creating non-punitive, community-based alternatives to traditional criminal legal responses. Rather than developing or owning real estate, PDA focuses on diversion services, systems reform, and care coordination.

Ripples of the city’s increased spending on supportive housing and transition from eras of halfway houses and transitional apartments continue to be felt on Capitol Hill. Continue reading →

Seattle Office of Housing grows to more than $300M a year affordability effort

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Mayor Katie Wilson’s choice to lead the city’s Office of Housing was slated to brief the city council Wednesday morning on the department’s efforts as the Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights Committee was scheduled to cast its vote on the appointment.

CHS reported here on Wilson’s selection of Kelli Larsen following a selection process involving community organizations and housing partners.

In her presentation for the council, Larsen says the Seattle Office of Housing’s 2025 performance report highlights hundreds of millions in dedicated funding aimed at sustaining affordable housing amid severe market and cost pressures.

According to the update, the 2024–2030 Housing Levy is anchoring the city’s strategy, generating $138 million annually with 78% targeted for rental production, alongside a $142 million JumpStart/PET budget.

In total, Seattle’s Office of Housing mobilizes more than $300 million annually in local funds — about six times what it marshaled a decade ago.

Continue reading →

‘I believe housing is the solution to homelessness’ — Wilson names director of Seattle Office of Housing

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Larsen (Image: City of Seattle)

Mayor Katie Wilson has announced the appointment of Kelli Larsen as the new director of the Seattle Office of Housing.

Following a selection process involving community organizations and housing partners, Wilson says she chose Larsen to drive the city’s affordable housing agenda. Wilson praised Larsen’s “thoughtful, values-based, and decisive leadership” in the announcement, saying that her guidance will be essential in expanding housing access and combating homelessness. Continue reading →

‘Five to twelve months’ — Mayor signs legislation to shave time off creation of housing and emergency shelter

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Mayor Katie Wilson signed legislation Wednesday her office says could shave “five to twelve months” off the creation of shelter and housing in the city.

CHS reported here on the bills from the City Council’s South Seattle representative Eddie Lin that revise environmental review thresholds and relax requirements for transportation impact analyses, transportation management plans, and construction management plans.

“Today, we’re eliminating out-of-date regulatory barriers and speeding the permitting process so we can accelerate the production of the housing and shelter we need,” Wilson said in a statement.

CHS reported here on the mayor’s first State of the City address delivered this week including her pledge to create 1,000 units of shelter space this year and identify city land for new tiny house villages.

 
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City Council set to buy time while Seattle City Hall debates 2025 updates to Multifamily Property Tax Exemption program

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Tuesday’s vote is expected to extend the “P6” version of MFTE through September while City Hall bangs out the details of the program’s 7th update

The Seattle City Council is prepared to approve legislation extending the city’s current implementation of the Multifamily Property Tax Exemption another six months as City Hall debates larger changes to the program that secures more affordable units in market-rate Seattle housing developments in exchange for significant tax breaks on the properties.

Developers have pushed back on efforts they say will further complicate Seattle’s version of the MFTE and that have driven the Area Median Income requirements for the program that have pushed it from achieving important goals around so-called workforce or middle income housing.

Tuesday, the full council is set to take up legislation approved by its Housing and Human Services Committee in February to buy more time for the debate over MFTE to play out. The full council vote Tuesday is expected to move a new sunset date for the current MFTE program from the end of this month to September. Continue reading →

Hollingsworth will lead Comprehensive Plan committee in 2025 — Check out District 3’s neighborhood by neighborhood proposed zoning and growth changes

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Check out a D3 neighborhood by neighborhood look at the proposed comprehensive plan changes, below

It was only a year ago that Joy Hollingsworth was making the case that issues of development and growth in Seattle showed why the city needs leadership from someone who has lived with those challenges — even if they haven’t been part of shaping policies and government.

“I can speak to real impact,” Hollingsworth told CHS last year during the campaign as The Stranger attacked the candidate for a letter she had written in 2017 opposing a neighboring microhousing development. “The impact it has had on the real communities. That perspective is important.”

Now, as the District 3 representative finishes her first year in office, Hollingsworth will lead the Seattle City Council’s committee dedicated to finalizing the city’s next 20-year plan for zoning, growth, and development.

Councilmember Hollingsworth will lead the council’s select committee on the Comprehensive Plan in 2025.

“Seattle’s comprehensive plan is an opportunity for us to shape what type of city we want to live in for the next twenty years,” Hollingsworth said Monday. Continue reading →

As rising rents erode queer communities across Capitol Hill and the Central District, leaders pin hope on state rent stabilization legislation

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Rep. Nicole Macri at the September affordable housing forum (Image: CHS)

Nobody in Washington rents like the queer communities living across Capitol Hill and the Central District rent. Political and community leaders say there could be new opportunities in Olympia to address the climbing rents in the city’s core causing continued displacement among the city’s LGBTQIA+ population.

Advocates and legislators met in September with the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance to discuss rent stabilization and support, where House Bill 2114— which passed in the House and died in the Senate this past year — took up much of the conversation and was the’ go-to answer when responding to community questions about how they will improve the lives of renters.

A National Low Income Housing Coalition report this summer found that workers in the Seattle and Bellevue areas would need to earn $50.87 per hour to afford a two-bedroom unit.

A recent University of Washington graduate spoke about their experiences with renting in Seattle.

“The lack of stable rents really makes me feel as if Seattle doesn’t want to support young people, especially those who are all about improving their communities and not just making a big salary,” the renter said.

“It’s likely I won’t be able to stay in Capitol Hill at a certain point due to a future rent increase.”

The challenges for renters in Seattle hit the city’s LGBTQIA+ communities especially hard. Continue reading →

Seattle City Council cooks up alternative to new social housing salary tax for February ballot

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The Seattle City Council has been eyeing the city’s pandemic-era JumpStart tax used to pay for services and affordable housing as a possible band-aid to patch up myriad holes from the city’s projected deficit. Now the council is considering a proposal that would raid the funding as an alternative to the upcoming ballot measure to create a new $1 million salary tax to fund social housing.

Seattle City Councilmember Maritza Rivera representing the city’s northeast District 4 has unveiled proposed legislation that would put a competing measure on the February ballot. If passed by the council, the proposal would present voters with an alternative for funding the newly created Seattle Social Housing Developer. Continue reading →

Seattle City Council makes tweaks to $970M housing levy spending plan ‘with focus on homelessness prevention’

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In business wrapped up before the Independence Day holiday, the Seattle City Council heard updates on spending powered by the $970 million voter-approved housing levy and signed-off on adjustments that council members say will increase spending on “homelessness prevention.”

Councilmember Cathy Moore, (District 5, North Seattle) and chair of the House and Human Services Committee, says the changes will allow the city build the 3,000 “desperately-needed affordable homes” initially promised under the 2023 levy, while also growing opportunities for first-time home ownership, and “vastly” expanding rental assistance “to proactively prevent homelessness.” Continue reading →

Audit shows Seattle’s house and small building rental market is dwindling, down 19% in five years

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A report on Seattle’s rental housing shows the city is experiencing consolidation of ownership with larger property owners and a quickly-shaping decline in small rental properties ranging from fourplexes to single family-style homes.

The report from the Department of Construction and Inspections utilizing data from the Rental Registration and Inspection Ordinance Program was presented (PDF) to the Seattle City Council’s Housing & Human Services Committee Wednesday as part of an audit to improve the program.

The registration program has struggled with technical limitations and resources and the audit found oversight of the program requiring landlords to register properties and undergo inspections has weakened, City Auditor David Jones said.

Landlords with smaller holdings including many single-property owners have said it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue renting in the city as regulation requirements have increased making it more likely that the properties would be sold to a smaller and smaller market of larger real estate and development companies. The city has convened a Small Landlord Stakeholder Group to try to stem the tide.

According to the report presented to the council committee Wednesday, early efforts may have slowed the transition but the number of low-unit properties including houses and building with up to four units has plunged 19% in only five years. Meanwhile, even the number of large properties registered under the program has dropped as ownership is consolidated and fewer, larger landlords emerge. Continue reading →