The Liberty Bank Building’s financing recipe combining debt, tax credit equity and critical funding from the Office of Housing and the state’s Housing Trust Fund could be the kind of creative combinations Seattle’s new Social Housing Developer will need to employ (Image: Community Roots Housing)

With Initiative 135 to create a Seattle Social Housing Developer winning handily with voters, backers are now turning their attention to pushing the effort forward with the Seattle City Council and Mayor Bruce Harrell including making sure the $750,000 in administrative and staffing startup costs gets accounted for quickly.

“We’ve seen (Mayor Harrell) talk about budgeting for this next Fall, but that is not what the initiative dictates,” the House Our Neighbors group said. “We will fight for the funding for the staff positions in the supplemental budget.”

Other costs like office space that will be allocated for the process are also part of the $750,000 plan dictated by the initiative.

Next steps will also include 60 days for the city to form of a board to guide the process:

From the day the election results are certified by King County Elections, as per Charter Article VII, Section 2, the entities charged with board appointments will have 60 days to make said appointments to the board. The following entities will be responsible for appointing board members with specific qualifications, including the demonstrated commitment to the vision of social housing.

The initiative also spells out the board’s intended composition:

• Seattle Renters’ Commission: 7 renters

  • 3 at 0-50% AMI

  • 2 at 50-80% AMI

  • 2 at 80-100% AMI

• MLK Labor: 1 rank-and-file union member

• El Centro de la Raza: 1 representative from an organization that provides housing to historically marginalized communities

• Green New Deal Oversight Board: 1 green development professional

• Seattle City Council (2) / Mayor (1)

  • 1 non-profit development professional

  • 1 public housing finance professional

  • 1 urban planning professional

“Once appointed, the board will meet at a minimum once a month, and create committees for hiring, finances, and other oversight tasks of the developer,” the initiative’s directives read.

Today, we sent an email to every @SeattleCouncil member alerting them of the clear mandate from #Seattle voters for social housing as outlined in I-135. Once I-135 is certified, the 60 day clock starts ticking for the initial board to be appointed.

— HON- Yes on Prop 1A! Fund social housing🏘️🌲 (@houseRneighbors) February 20, 2023

The board’s first job will be to appoint a chief executive officer and chief financial officer.

Those hires — and the board — will then have to sort out the biggest challenge for the new organization: how to o acquire and take over management of existing properties for affordable housing while also setting the groundwork for philanthropy and grants to create new renter-governed housing in the city.

The wheels are turning for how those elements will be funded including possible state or federal funding, public bonds, or a new effort involving an initiative and property tax.

“Our initiative follows the path of the Pike Place Market and the monorail. This is a multi-step process. We are setting up the structure and the vision to get this public developer started, then we will begin raising money,” House Our Neighbors says. “We are pursuing several options, but money that is available today will not necessarily be the extent of what’s available tomorrow. Once the public developer is established, they can receive and request funds from city, state, federal governments, as well as private donations if those donors feel so inclined.”

But first, Seattle needs to be put the team in place to figure that puzzle out.

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