On December 18, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced the city’s $100 million-plus investment in affordable housing projects. The investment is about double what the Office of Housing pledged in 2016.
Too many long-time residents are getting locked out and pushed out of Seattle. We need to urgently increase the amount of affordable housing to stop the huge displacement of people and provide permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness. With this investment, our City is delivering on our commitment to create more affordable housing… keeping 550 homes affordable for the next 50 years. – Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan
There will be a spectrum of housing encompassing various needs: permanent supportive housing for homeless people, apartments for low-income individuals and families, transit-oriented development, and homes for first-time buyers. The funding will go toward the building and preservation of 1,450 affordable homes in Seattle; including the construction of 896 apartments in nine new buildings in addition to the building of 26 homes for first-time buyers. The funding will also go toward preserving four buildings comprised of 535 apartments.
The Office of Housing’s investment is comprised from a group of resources: utilizing the first year of funding from the 2016 voter-passed Seattle Housing Levy, incentive zoning payments from developers (allows developers to build larger structures if they pay into the affordable housing fund), proceeds from the sale of surplus properties, and $29 million in bonds approved by the Seattle City Council in November 2016.