The City Has Not Implemented Income Guidelines Established by HUD as Required by State Law

The City is at it again. As of today, the City’s Office of Housing has not implemented income guidelines set by HUD for the City’s Multifamily Tax Exemption (MFTE) program. If implemented, this would means adjustments to the rent being paid by tenants in MFTE units.

The reason.

The City doesn’t like the new income limits because rents could go up.

Rents go up because there isn’t enough housing, something the City Council has ensured with overreaching regulation on the production of housing.

Remember when the City tried to force developments below the threshold of design review to do it anyway and lost in court. That’s just one example of blatant contempt for the law.

Now they are ignoring the law again, something that is bad enough but this is yet another disincentive to participate in the program which has produced thousands of affordable units very efficiently. This won’t make the city’s housing problems any better, only worse. 

Below is the letter we sent to Deputy Mayor David Mosley and Steve Walker the head of the Office of Housing. We’ve still heard no response 10 days later.

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Hello David and Steve,

We recently became aware of a determination by the City’s Office of Housing to abrogate previous practice and the requirement in the Seattle Municipal Code (SMC) to follow the income guidelines set annually by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) when setting rent limits for programs like the Multifamily Tax Exemption (MFTE) program.

Here’s a link to the statement and the relevant passage:

https://www.seattle.gov/housing/property-managers/income-and-rent-limits

Housing supported by the Office of Housing is rent- and income-restricted to ensure that the affordable units we fund are occupied by those who need it most. The below income and rent limits are based off HUD figures, annually updated, and posted as soon as they are available. Each program has a particular income focus and requirements, and is thus listed separately.

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published the 2018 Seattle-Bellevue, WA metro area income guidelines on March 30. Historically, income and rent limits for City-supported affordable rental housing programs have been based on the HUD income guidelines.  Using the previous methodology, the 2018 HUD income guidelines would result in an 11.5 percent increase in rents, compounding a 6.3 percent increase in rents in 2017. In light of the significant two-year increase, the Office of Housing 2017 published rent and income guidelines will continue to apply to all City-supported affordable rental housing programs until further notice.

The City is not implementing the 2018 HUD guidelines as it always has. 

This decision violates the plain language of state law (see Revised Code of Washington 84.14.010) authorizing MFTE and the City Code.  More specifically, see SMC 5.73.020 where the City Code explicitly defines “median income” as:

“Median Income” means median family income for the Seattle area, as published from time to time by the HUD for the Section 8 program. If in any year HUD shall publish median family income data for more than one area that includes Seattle, then unless otherwise approved in writing by the Director of the Office of Housing, the lowest of such median family income figures shall be used. If, at any time, Median Income for a Family size cannot be determined under the foregoing sentences based on data published by HUD for the Seattle area within the most recent 13 months, then the City may determine Median Income for such Family size based on any data for the Seattle area or an area including Seattle, published or reported by a federal, state, or local agency, as the City shall select in its sole discretion, adjusted for Family size in such manner as the City shall determine in its sole discretion.

The City can stray from the highlighted sentence only if HUD’s data is not available.  Thus, the City cannot decide not to follow HUD’s data because it does not like the new figures.

Was this an error? Will you correct this information on the website and elsewhere and implement the HUD standard as required?

Can we get a response to this issue as soon as possible?

Thank you!