Right this moment the Seattle Metropolis Council will greater than possible vote to position another on the poll alongside Initiative 137. Nonetheless, we wished to handle a number of the extra uninformed remarks that got here out of sure metropolis council members upon introducing this different, which was not mentioned and drafted within the mild of a public course of.
At first, this council different reveals that they’d somewhat take cash from packages for low-income people than from the wealthiest companies in our area. They’d somewhat defund the JumpStart spending plan, which allocates funding for inexpensive housing, advancing the Seattle Inexperienced New Deal, and different neighborhood priorities. We adamantly oppose defunding JumpStart for social housing. This is the reason, via Initiative 137, we hope to determine an employer-paid, extra compensation payroll tax to fund the Seattle Social Housing Developer (SSHD)
With that main concern out of the way in which, we need to instantly tackle the considerations council members raised about Home Our Neighbors and the SSHD.
Declare 1: Backers of I-135 Had been Not Clear with Funding Wants
We perceive that not all council members adopted the I-135 course of intently, so permit us to refresh everybody’s reminiscence.
Home Our Neighbors wished to create a well-funded social housing developer in a single single initiative. Nonetheless, after we crafted I-135 we shortly discovered that we had been constitutionally prohibited from together with a income supply alongside the creation of the SSHD. First, Public Improvement Authorities would not have taxing authority, which implies giving the SSHD taxing authority could be unlawful. Second, a funding supply in I-135 would violate the state structure’s single topic clause, which governs initiatives.
All communication from the I-135 marketing campaign made this clear, and it additionally made clear that we’d comply with up I-135 with a funding initiative. Nearly each media outlet reported these details throughout that marketing campaign, and the topic even got here up within the endorsement interview with the Seattle Occasions Editorial Board. (We advised them they’d be the primary outlet we invited to our press convention asserting the funding initiative for I-135). HON can’t be held accountable for the shortage of primary fact-checking by this council.
Declare 2: Montgomery County Does Issues “Totally different”
It’s exhausting to know learn how to tackle this declare, as a result of it’s so obscure. However, for the general public’s sake, let’s give a fast explainer on the Montgomery County, Maryland Housing Alternative Fee (HOC). Our pals over on the Middle for Public Enterprise clarify it nicely of their article, “The Primary Logistics of Public Improvement”.
The HOC is each a HUD-affiliated public housing authority and a housing finance company. A lot of their housing was traditionally backed both with federal Low Revenue Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) or vouchers, however over the previous few years HOC has taken the method of constructing its personal initiatives with out federal subsidies. For this housing mannequin to financially take off, they use cross-income subsidy, which makes use of rents from mixed-income tenants to repay mortgage cash borrowed for initiatives. The primary mission accomplished utilizing this new mannequin was a 268-unit multifamily advanced. The constructing contains 81 flats inexpensive to households between 50% and 65% of the world median revenue.
The SSHD, a model new company, structurally differs from the Housing Alternatives Fee. The SSHD is just not a HUD-affiliated Public Housing Authority. It doesn’t have a $1 billion stability sheet. It doesn’t have the identical degree of native authorities assist that the HOC enjoys. What’s most essential is that HOC and the SSHD share the identical mixed-income and publicly-owned-in-perpetuity housing mannequin.
Once we say that Montgomery County, MD is at the moment doing social housing, and that Seattle may replicate this mannequin, what we imply is that this: We, too, can construct our personal housing with out federal subsidies like LIHTC. We will make use of the cross-income subsidization mannequin that the HOC’s mixed-income (aka social housing) portfolio employs. We will serve a mixture of incomes with this mannequin and create high-quality, publicly funded and owned housing right here in Seattle.
Declare 3: Social Housing Supporters Have No Observe File or Data about Housing
Given the council’s lack of primary understanding about what SSHD is or the way it works, it must be no shock that their ignorance and hostility additionally extends to the people who find themselves accountable for launching the SSHD. The 13-member governing board of the SSHD has a public housing finance knowledgeable, an architect, two board members who’ve achieved a long time of inexpensive housing growth, an city planner, and–for the primary time–a majority of renters. (Sadly, there’s a renter seat unfilled on the board as a result of failure of the town council’s housing committee to nominate new renters to the Seattle Renters Fee for near a yr.)
The primary CEO of the SSHD is Roberto Jimenez. Earlier than entering into this place he was the CEO of each Mutual Housing California and Mutual Housing Administration. Previous to that, he labored at Cabrillo Financial Improvement Company in Ventura, CA, the place he was Actual Property Improvement Director. From 2005 to 2016 he was the Director of the Farmworker Housing Improvement Company (FHDC) in Woodburn, Oregon. Throughout these 11 years, he tripled the dimensions of FHDC’s inexpensive housing portfolio, developed or rehabbed 330 models of numerous multifamily housing, and managed a wide range of resident providers packages.
What’s Subsequent
For over a yr, the governing board has been working beneath bad-faith constraints imposed on them by the Metropolis. Initiative 135 required the Metropolis to offer 18 months of monetary assist to the SSHD. We had been glad that the Mayor included $850,000 for the primary 12 months of those start-up prices throughout final yr’s funds deliberations. Nonetheless, as of some days in the past, these funds haven’t been launched to the SSHD. If the council genuinely cared about good governance, they’d be urgent the Metropolis at hand over that legally mandated funding somewhat than artificially creating an issue to make use of as a political software towards a preferred housing coverage.
We’d like I-137 to go, as is. At 2 pm as we speak, we can be at a particular assembly, the primary and solely public remark interval devoted to this different that the town council proposed Monday. For those who can’t be part of us, contemplate calling in to offer public remark. Inform the council to position I-137 on the poll with out another. Inform them to guard the JumpStart spending plan. Inform them why we–why you–want social housing. After which, assist us win on the poll in February 2025.
Tiffani McCoy is the Co-Govt Director of Home Our Neighbors, the group accountable for Initiative 135 and Initiative 137. Previous to HON, she labored for over six years at Actual Change because the Advocacy Director.
