Who’s On First? $180 Million from Mariners Won’t Buy Much Housing

Posted by on Wednesday, September 5, 2018 · Leave a Comment 

After a nice trip out to Mazama I told myself I wouldn’t whine about how we do things around here. That didn’t last. Clearly the King County Council learned nothing from the jobs tax debacle in Seattle. Now the King County Council is creating a huge controversy about renovations to Safeco Field. I’m not even going to get into that. Go ahead and raid the repair fund. But what does $180 get you? Not very much a long time from now. Policy makers need to ask, “What do we get for this money?” This is an email I sent to King County Auditor John Wilson and the County Council. 

Greetings,

It’s been awhile.

You know the drill.

Here’s a blurb from a recent article on the Mariners issue in which you are mentioned:

The idea of giving the Mariners such a big chunk of money has been met with outrage. Some want the $180 million to be spent on building affordable housing to alleviate the region’s ongoing homelessness crisis. There are about 12,000 people living homeless in King County, and the county’s own auditor has said that a lack of affordable housing is a major impediment to solving the crisis.

The problem with that is at the going rate for many projects — like Building 9 at Magnuson and Capitol Hill Arts — is about $500,000 a unit. You can see a decade of cost information at our website.

After the dust settles, and the umpire makes the call, if some people get their way, $180 million for housing would mean, maybe, 360 units, 5 or 6 years from now. This is wasteful and inefficient. 
Being efficient is compassionate! 
You have an opportunity to lead here. Whatever the outcome, make sure there are efficiency measures in place so that if money does get allocated to housing it goes as far as possible, including direct cash payments to help people with rent.

For $180 million, King County could help 25,000 people paying $300 more than 30 percent of their monthly income on housing, where they currently live, for two years. Check my math. We’ve already set up a calculator to help people see how much they’d qualify for at http://helpmewithrent.com. Imagine that many households not having to worry about rent next month, or the next, or the one after that.
This would help many people avoid homelessness or help them until they find another job or help with expenses that force them to decide between paying a medical bill or childcare and rent.
Plus, more new market rate housing will lower prices. What slows that down? Rules and regulations, especially from the Seattle City Council. And guess what; those same regulations stymie non-profit housing too and make it even more expensive. Even the non-profits agree with me. In a candid moment a board member of Capitol Hill Housing said,

that to the extent that there are cost differentials, we could give examples of why it might be more expensive and that those things should be changed (ie government regulations)

Contrary to what Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell said this isn’t a complicated problem; unless you’re the Seattle City Council and you make it a complicated problem. Fewer rules and barriers, more market rate housing, and more efficient use of subsidies is the answer.
I appreciate the leadership you’ve taken on the issue and I hope you can help steer this away from simply throwing more money at a problem but not fixing it.
Roger–
PS — For comparison, In case you’re wondering, the highest paid player in baseball, Mike Trout, will make about $36 million this year. The Building 9 project will cost at least $73 million. The entire Mariners player payroll is about $160 million. 

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