Social Housing

Seattle Councilmember Maritza Rivera and three other councilmembers sponsored a competing measure seeking to elbow out a ballot initiative funding social housing. The two measures will go to voters in February. Only one can pass.

King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay rolled out the Regional Workforce Housing Initiative this week, aiming to use bonding to boost family-sized workforce housing construction. Colleagues were largely supportive, but warned the devil was in the details.

King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay lays out the case for his $1 billion workforce housing bond proposal, saying workers deserve affordable housing near their jobs.

Despite backers collecting enough signatures to make the ballot, the Seattle City Council voted Tuesday to delay a decision on I-137, which would fund Seattle's Social Housing Developer.

By this winter, Seattle voters will have before them the question of whether to fund the city's new social housing developer with a tax on the highest compensated employees in the city. To make it happen, House Our Neighbors gathered more than 38,000 signatures in support of Initiative 137.

After her bill failed Tuesday, Councilmember Morales said: "My Connected Communities legislation would have produced more affordable housing, commercial affordability, and anti-displacement measures right now. I’m incredibly disappointed in its failure to pass today."

Chair Tammy Morales appeared flabbergasted as she initially failed to get a second to her motion to introduce her bill providing incentives for affordable housing.

The mayor's comprehensive plan proposal failed to deliver real solutions on housing abundance, affordability, and climate. It promises only modest zoning changes at the margins and 100,000 additional homes over 20 years.