A Plan for Housing Affordability
Seattle is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis. Skyrocketing housing prices have contributed to our region’s economy, but at the cost of making it less livable for the majority of its residents. The housing crisis is not just an economic issue, it’s a political issue that requires bold leadership to stop displacement, increase affordable housing and end subsidies for profitable developers.
Longtime Seattle homeowners, especially people of color, low-income whites and seniors are being increasingly priced out of their homes by rising property taxes. Fewer and fewer first-time homebuyers can afford to live in Seattle. Seattle’s renters—its low-wage and even middle class workers, its students, and its fixed-income seniors— are being pushed to the margins of our city, and often into suburbs with poor public transportation. And because of the desperate situation low-income renters face, we have more and more homeless people—not just people living on our streets and in shelters, but people who are living in their cars or permanently “couch-surfing” with their relatives and friends.
To address these problems, I propose a four-point plan to:
PRESERVE OUR CURRENT AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Even though Seattle’s real estate market is booming, it has suffered a net loss of almost 4,000 rental units in 2005-2006 with 3,000 more expected this year. We’ve lost three to four affordable rental units for every one we’ve built with our city’s Housing Levy. So while demand for rental housing has increased over the last few years, total supply has decreased, resulting in thousands of renters being displaced from their homes by huge rent increases or the conversion of their apartments into condominiums. To slow this process, we need to
- Place a temporary moratorium on condo conversions to provide us time to develop new forms of affordable housing. (State law currently forbids the City of Seattle from accomplishing this. Nevertheless, I intend to fully support Councilmember Tom Rasmussen in his effort to change the law.)
- Pass a law that gives the non-profits the right of first refusal on existing low-income apartments before they are sold to speculators.
- Require one-for-one replacement of affordable rental units that developers tear down, sell off, or convert to condos.
- Require that the Seattle Housing Authority’s redevelopment of Yesler Terrace include on-site, one-for-one replacement of all affordable units.
END TAX BREAKS AND GIVEAWAYS FOR DEVELOPMENTS THAT DON’T PROVIDE CLEAR PUBLIC BENEFITS
Instead of trying to protect affordable housing, Seattle’s government is making our housing crisis worse. The City has provided millions of dollars of subsidies, tax breaks, and sweetheart deals to housing developers, especially to the South Lake Union projects of billionaire Paul Allen. As the Seattle Post Intelligencer observed on August 7, 2005, “Vulcan has made particularly cost-effective investments in Jim Compton [and] Jean Godden … giving and raising thousands for them in campaign contributions, getting their backing for hundreds of millions in city subsidies.”
Through the Multifamily Tax Exemption program, Mayor Greg Nickels is currently proposing that we give tax breaks to developers who build rental housing that in many of Seattle’s neighborhoods would actually be above-market rate. This would drive rents even higher and accelerate displacement in the name of solving it. We need new leaders who can stand up to the Mayor and
- End subsidies and tax breaks for developers of market-rate housing.
BUILD MORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Seattle is fortunate to have a housing levy, but it hasn’t been enough to meet the current need for affordable housing. We therefore need to
- Grant tax breaks, up-zones, or housing levy money only to build rental housing that is significantly below-market rate in the affected neighborhood.
- Create a dedicated revolving fund to develop more co-ops and community land trusts which can make decent housing affordable to many more people at a lower cost. Community land trusts can reduce the cost of the equivalent of homeownership by 20-40%.
SUPPORT HOMELESS SERVICES
Housing is so basic a need that we should consider it a fundamental right. Yet there are eight thousand homeless people in King County and as many as two thousand in the greater Seattle area are unable to find shelter on any given night. Seattle has a 10-year plan to end homelessness, but only the federal government could properly fund a plan that would truly end homelessness. Until we can obtain that kind of funding, local government should spend its limited resources wisely. I therefore support:
- Ensuring, first and foremost, that all people have access to safe, clean shelter. This means funding homeless shelters until we can honestly say that we have enough affordable and transitional housing to meet the demand.
- Expanding funding for social services that help people address personal problems that stand in their way of getting out of homelessness.
|
