Developing Affordable Housing
Seattle is in the middle of a housing crisis—and it’s hitting renters and first-time homebuyers the hardest. The cost of rent and home ownership has skyrocketed, pricing out working families, young professionals, and long-time residents who helped build this city. Currently, about 70% of Seattle’s residential zoning is designated for single family homes and there is virtually no space left for residential development. To make matters worse, there are an estimated 14,000 individuals without housing or shelter in the city limits, and this number is increasing. We must improve housing affordability and access:
Incentivize
lower rent:
Currently, landlords have no incentive to provide affordable rent prices to their tenants – or at least not enough of an incentive. The average mortgage requires homeowners to pay 3.3% of their property’s value annually whereas the average rental price incurred by tenants as a percentage of their rental property’s value is nearly double this at 6.5%. This is backwards. To fix this, landlords who charge the least as an annual percentage of assessed value should receive a sizable tax credit and the cost should be offset to those who charge the most as a percentage of assessed value. This would facilitate greater competition in the rental market and drive down rental costs.
Build more affordable housing:
Seattle’s current zoning codes are outdated relics of the past and hold us back from being able to provide affordable housing to those who need it the most. Zoning laws must be changed to allow for more multi-family housing units to be constructed. Furthermore, development of multi-family complexes should be made far easier and red tape inhibiting it should be cut. Developers wanting to build affordable housing in Seattle should be incentivized by our policies, not deterred.
Transition the houseless:
There is no one-size fits all solution to those living without housing in Seattle. However, the current total spent transitioning each houseless individual is over $1M, which is not sustainable. Every situation is unique and while we can never generalize about illicit substance dependencies or cognitive ailments, we must acknowledge 70% and 40% of this population struggles with these conditions respectively. It is neither compassionate to ignore these as contributing factors nor blame the entirety of the problem on them. Rather we must deal with each intersection of this population in an individually tailored and caring way.