The Seattle Housing Authority is proposing a new plan called Stepping Forward that aims to free up existing housing capacity to relieve growing wait lists for housing. The problem is that there is no housing for people even if the program is successful. This is because the Council has been relentlessly trying to solve the “workforce housing” problem, a problem that doesn’t really exist. However, there is a great need for housing at lower levels of income. Here is my comment letter on the program and why I think it won’t work under the current circumstances. 

Dear Councilmember Burgess and Executive Director Lofton,

The Seattle Housing Authority’s (SHA) Stepping Forward Plan appears to have the right motivation: taking advantage of a recovering economy to move some residents out of SHA housing to make more room for hundreds of other families on waiting lists.

However this is a deeply flawed strategy and, as long as the City Council doesn’t change course, won’t work.

First, the housing market as it exists today is not producing housing for families that have household incomes less than 60 percent of Area Median Income. The recent King County Affordable Housing Needs Assessment (attached) found that the greatest housing need is for families earning less than 60 percent of AMI. To put these families into Seattle’s housing market means they’ll likely have to move out of the city and will have a great challenge finding adequate housing. This exodus would also undermine the principles of the Growth Management Act and our efforts to impact climate change.

Second, the Council has been impervious to this need, focusing instead on taxing growth in order to subsidize what it has called “workforce housing,” housing for people who earn 60 to 80 percent of AMI. There is no data to justify this policy. On the contrary, the Needs Assessment and other reports show that the market is producing lots of housing for people earning 60 percent and above. Council fees, taxes, and rules would reduce supply there too.

As long as the Council ignores the greatest need and continues to tax areas of the market that are producing appropriately priced housing, families with lower incomes, even earning more after getting better jobs, will face inadequate housing supply in Seattle.

Therefore, we urge you and the Seattle Housing Authority to work with the Mayor as he convenes a committee to address housing in Seattle. We must meet the needs of current residents of SHA and on waiting lists who want to live in our city. Stepping Forward won’t work until the Council stops misallocating resources to Workforce Housing and directs it’s energy to where the greatest need is: family housing for poorer families.

Sincerely,