Seattle ranks among America’s fastest growing cities. As Seattle continues to welcome new jobs and new residents, we must ensure housing is available and affordable.
Much of Seattle’s current housing is already out of reach for tens of thousands of residents. It’s critical that housing is affordable for people across the income spectrum. Making this a reality means expanding housing options for people of all incomes and planning for growth in a way that improves everyone’s quality of life.
Mayor Ed Murray will soon submit legislation to the City Council to create a Mandatory Housing Affordability program. If passed as envisioned this program will leverage growth in every urban center and urban village in Seattle to create 6,000 new affordable housing units.
Every person who wants to live in Seattle, no matter their race, income, or family size, deserves housing that is affordable and sufficient for their needs.
But long-time community members are finding themselves with no other option but to move outside of the city to find suitable housing choices taking them farther away from friends, neighbors, jobs and services. Those who do stay are too often forced into living precariously paycheck to paycheck.
That’s why Mayor Murray’s proposed Mandatory Housing Affordability program is so important. Under the program, every new building in all our urban centers and villages across the city will create new affordable housing units. To make the program go into effect legally, buildings will be allowed to be a little taller or a little larger to make room for a few more market rate units. Together, these policies represent a win-win for providing more housing options for different income levels and addressing the growing scarcity that’s driving up housing costs.
It’s essential that your city councilmembers know you support the Mandatory Housing Affordability program.
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Photo Credit: Grandma in Kerry Park, by Ian Lucero, used under a creative commons license.
Brock Howell
Brock Howell has worked on transportation and land use policy the last decade in the Pacific Northwest, including at Futurewise and Cascade Bicycle Club. He currently works with Seattle For Everyone and has his own consulting business, Howell Consulting.
Seattle For Everyone (Guest Contributor)
Seattle for Everyone is a broad coalition of non-profit developers, private developers, affordable housing providers, labor groups, businesses, social justice advocates, environmentalists, urbanists, and neighbors.