“How to Build Support for More Housing in Seattle: Advocacy and Grassroots Organizing”

McCormick & Schmick’s Harborside Restaurant
1200 Westlake Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109
Thursday, April 28, 2016 | 6:00 – 8:30 PM

Join Roger Valdez, Director of Smart Growth Seattle, and Sonja Trauss, principal at the San Francisco Bay Area Renters’ Federation (SF BARF) to hear about the latest trends in efforts to increase housing supply in Seattle and the Bay Area.

Trauss leads a grass roots group that agitates in favor of market rate development, because increasing supply is the only way out of San Francisco’s housing problem. Trauss argues that the cause of current housing shortages and the resulting high prices isn’t technological (we know how to build) and it’s not financial (investors are clamoring to invest in the Bay Area). The current shortage and high prices are 100% political. SF BARF has lead petition drives and other actions to protest efforts to limit housing supply in the Bay Area.

Valdez leads efforts in Seattle against policies that increase the costs of housing and reduce housing choice and opportunity. Smart Growth Seattle advocates for more housing of all types, in all parts of the city for people of all levels of income. He was the leading opponent to legislation passed by the Seattle City Council that outlawed many small-lot single-family developments and microhousing. Valdez is the leading skeptic of the so called, Grand Bargain, a mandatory inclusionary zoning scheme that would increase the price of housing, make many projects infeasible, and is likely against State law.

Register now at mbaks.com or call 425-451-792