Social housing in Seattle
Building vibrant, cohesive, and climate resilient communities
I've stepped into the role of caregiver because it seemed like if I didn't, someone would end up without a place to live.
This is why so many of us become caregivers. Someone is in a slow crisis. The bills aren't getting paid. They aren't taking care of basic tasks. They're getting into trouble with the neighbors and the landlord. Someone needs to keep an eye on things and, hopefully, nudge them back into doing the things people need to do in order to retain their housing.
Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes someone else steps up when we walk away. Sometimes people recover. Sometimes an agency takes over. Sometimes people end up unhoused.
Not all people who lack access to stable housing have a physical or intellectual disability, mental health issue, or struggle with addiction. Housing is expensive and life is complicated. Still, people who need support are at particular risk of homelessness.
They end up in RVs, vans, cars, shacks, and tents. Only, of course, there are restrictions on where you can park or camp. There's harassment from authorities, security, and the public. There's a lack of access to toilets and showers.
The financial realities of having a disabled family member mean that many caregivers worry about becoming homeless themselves. The cost of everything goes up, chores need to be outsourced, special diets need to be followed, and special equipment needs to be bought. People are forced to quit their jobs or retire early. People wipe out their life savings to pay for treatments that aren’t covered by insurance. Income drops as expenses balloon.
As Courtney Martin put it, “For too long, we have thought about housing and care in separate circles, when in fact, they are overlapping spheres. Where and how we live—the structures of our homes, the density of our neighborhoods, the division of public and private spaces—influences everything about how we show up for one another in times of need.”
Housing in Seattle
We’ve all heard a lot about the housing crisis Seattle’s in. Seattle has been working to change their housing market and keep it accessible to people of various income levels:
It’s been legal to carve a second unit out of a single family home in Seattle since 1994. They legalized garage apartments and backyard tiny homes in 2010. Regulations were updated in 2019 to encourage the creation of more accessory dwelling units.
In 2022, Seattle passed an inclusionary zoning policy requiring new development projects to have a certain percentage of units for low- and moderate-income households.
The city is increasing the permitted zoning density and exempting buildings downtown from the design review process. This makes it less expensive and faster for developers to build more housing in the core of the city, where people have easy access to essential services, jobs, and transit.
Rent control laws and eviction regulations are being used to slow the increase in housing costs and protect current residents.
I spent a few weeks dog sitting in Seattle, giving me the opportunity to wander down side streets and laneways. Seattle’s hills mean many homes are much larger than they appear at first glance, since they have an extra level or even two hidden by the slope. Many neighborhoods have laneways, featuring garages with apartments above, garages converted into homes, and even custom built laneway houses. These bonus housing units provide a mix of home sizes, types, and costs, even in the decidedly upscale neighborhoods I’ve been lucky enough to stay in.
Despite all the new buildings going up, the units reserved for low- and median-income households aren’t enough to meet demand on their own. The struggles of the city’s poorest residents is obvious. Seattle’s transit system is a hub-and-spoke model, requiring a trip downtown in order to transfer. This meant many of my bus rides took me past gleaming new condos advertising a luxurious lifestyle, with shabbily dressed people sitting or sleeping on the sidewalk in front of them. Quite a few downtown shops have a doorperson or buzzer to regulate who comes in and out.
In 2021, the city proposed new regulations that would allow them to clear homeless encampments. A group of concerned residents formed a new organization: House Our Neighbors (HON). Once the anti-encampment legislation was defeated, they expanded their vision to do more than react to a crisis. Their focus is now on creating social housing: a system of housing that aims to promote social equality, permanent affordability, and democratic resident control.
In Toronto we have a handful of co-op buildings that achieve this aim. When I first immigrated to Canada, I lived next to the Margaret Laurence Housing Co-op. Our buildings shared a parking garage, so whenever someone accidentally went out an emergency exit, we’d all shiver in the cold together until the fire department agreed things were safe. We also shared a little park, Arena Gardens, with the Terrace Housing Co-op.
I can attest that not all co-ops are permanently affordable, since I’ve experienced the New York City housing market. In New York many of the apartments for sale are co-ops, rather than condos, and their prices are astronomical. New York City can provide a fantastic tour of various housing scheme successes and failures.
In New York, I've stayed in rental units assigned through the housing lottery (created through incentive programs), the Manhattan Plaza, and privately owned units subject to rent stabilization. Anyone who’s lived in New York knows the difference in status for those living in the projects compared to those who have a coveted spot in a Mitchell-lama building or, even more desirable, a rent controlled unit.
HON has looked at the lessons to be learned from housing types and regulations around the world and is ready to put those into practice in Seattle.
Social housing
Housing is tricky. These days, housing is usually both a fundamental need for shelter and an investment vehicle. With social housing, a home is just a home. It's not a way for a homeowner or a landlord to build wealth.
HON has been busy carrying out their plan to create social housing. Seattle has already passed Initiative 135, which created a publicly owned developer to purchase and build affordable housing, Seattle Social Housing Developer (SSHD). The homes they’re building will serve a broader range of incomes than most affordable housing does today. SSHD will create homes for households with 60-120% of the Area Median Income. Seattle's median household income in 2023 was $120,600.
This is in contrast to affordable housing programs where only the poorest are eligible to participate and programs where housing units are only required to remain affordable for a certain number of years, before becoming market rate.
The Seattle Housing Authority prioritizes people with 30% of the area median income, while accepting applications from people with up to 80%. Their website warns people that: “Because SHA primarily serves people at or below 30% of Area Median Income (AMI), availability for households at income levels above that is extremely limited.”
SHA also has housing for low income seniors and is running a pilot program to support people recently freed from incarceration.
Charity housing focuses on people who are currently unhoused or at imminent risk of losing their housing, as well as people living on an income which could never cover market rate rent, such as disability payments.
The SSHD will provide housing for people who are not prioritized by or don’t qualify for housing through the SHA. This means people who are completely on their own right now — because they earn too much for SHA housing and not enough to afford market rate — will have an easier time finding stable housing.
When we build barebones housing of last resort, a not insignificant portion of those eligible opt to remain unhoused rather than submit. The SHA apartments I saw were tiny cinderblock rooms with twin beds. They’re built on parcels of undesirable land, such as an awkward plot next to a noisy highway exit ramp. HON wants to build homes and communities, not just places indoors to sleep.
Seattle's social housing program targets people who could be financially self-sufficient, because they're working or living off a pension. The problem is that the cost of housing has risen dramatically in the last few years. So has the cost of health insurance. Incomes haven’t kept up. Social housing can mediate the impact.
Why is it important to create affordable housing for people who aren’t indigent? The median home price in Seattle means you need to earn around $215,000 a year. Yes, that’s in a city where the median household income is around $120,000 a year.
Both types of affordable housing are important. Together, they provide residents with housing options that provide stability and flexibility for people who can’t keep up with dramatically increasing market rates.
The SSHD plan
If things go according to plan, SSHD will be funded by a new tax. Employees with a total compensation of over $1 million a year (so not just salary, but also things like bonuses and stock options) living in Seattle will have an additional 5% marginal tax. The tax will be paid directly by the employer. This will provide SSHD with a source of funding, in addition to rental income from residents.
House Our Neighbors, the organization behind this initiative, estimates that they can create 2,000 units of social housing in ten years. They’ll do this by buying existing buildings and building new ones.
The vision is to create a city where people can afford to stay in their homes, even as their income fluctuates and their needs change. They want to see everyone who works in Seattle able to afford a home in Seattle. They want to create vibrant, walkable, and ecologically friendly communities.
The inspiration for Seattle’s social housing
Social housing wasn’t always so controversial. There’s a joke that Toronto only has pilot projects. Toronto’s politicians are terrified of any fresh idea. Any proposal needs to have a proven track record in cities around the world and at least one American city. Once that’s clear, Toronto might agree to a pilot project. Canada is deeply risk averse, which sometimes means allowing things to get worse because we refuse to make necessary changes.
That’s not how they do it in Seattle. Social housing has been proven in cities around the world, so there’s no need to prove it again.
HON has looked at Vienna’s social housing program and Montgomery County, Maryland. They’ve considered what might work at home. They’ve devised a solid plan and written the legislation. Now they just need the second half of the legislation to pass on February 11.
What can we do to keep housing affordable?
Many of us know how to make a place unaffordable, because we’ve seen it happen in our hometowns. It’s harder to say how we can roll that back and keep our communities affordable, stable, and vibrant.
The accomplishments and plans of House Our Neighbors are exciting and impressive. If we’re inspired by their work, how can bring these ideas to our communities?
Use time banks and other community support programs to help our neighbors maintain and adapt their homes to their needs affordably
Incorporate universal design into our local building codes so more homes meet the needs of people with disabilities and mobility issues
Encourage our municipality to legalize (existing and new) multi-family conversions, basement apartments, and garage apartments in order to create more housing without changing the architectural character of the neighborhood
Use existing community infrastructure to encourage households to merge, sharing expenses and chores and reducing the number of empty bedrooms in our neighborhoods
See if there’s already a group working to develop social housing near you and get involved