(Image: House our Neighbors)
A low turnout February election apparently won’t stop Seattle from making progress on funding its new Social Housing Developer and backing the renewal of two school levies.
Election Night first tallies show voters approving a new tax to fund the city’s new housing program and, thus, rejecting a Seattle City Council backed alternative that critics said would have limited the new effort. 68% of voters in the first count approved funding the developer. More than 57.5% said the city should move forward with the new business tax.
With approval, the measure will add a 5% tax on companies for every dollar over a million paid to a Seattle employee in annual compensation including salary, stock, and bonuses to fund the city’s new public Social Housing Developer. The House our Neighbors group behind the salary tax proposal says it would add up to around $50 million a year to fund the development authority and power its ability to borrow to build or acquire 2,000 units of housing over 10 years.
Support for the new tax is outpacing the City Council’s $10 million alternative that would have utilized existing JumpStart funding and limited the Social Housing Developer to offering affordable housing to only the city’s lowest income levels, a restriction social housing advocates say undermines the purpose of the program and hopes of creating affordable housing across multiple tiers of income.
In February 2023, Initiative 135 to create a Seattle social housing developer won handily with 57% of voters approving the proposal. But the program came without funding components because of limitations imposed on the state’s initiative process. Meanwhile, Public Development Authorities do not have taxing authority in Washington.
Last July, the Seattle Social Housing Developer announced its first leader, announcing that Roberto Jimenez has been appointed as its inaugural Chief Executive Officer.
Unlike the existing Seattle Housing Authority which serves only low-income residents, the new social housing authority is free of federal constraints on income levels meaning its housing could be made available to renters with earnings ranging from 0% to 120% of area median income to help create a diverse pool of tenants across its properties.
Meanwhile, Seattle voters also were easily approving two levy renewals for Seattle Public Schools. The new operations levy will provide SPS with $747 million to pay its faculty and staff while the capital levy being approved Tuesday weighs in at around $1.8 billion to help the district improve its campuses, and construct new buildings and facilities.
The city’s voters have typically enthusiastically backed school spending in past votes. The district could use the boost. The state’s 1% cap on levy revenues presents a complicated restriction that limits the total revenue collected in property tax to 1% annually and can leave local governments scrambling to keep up with inflation.
HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE THIS SPRING
🌈🐣🌼🌷🌱🌳🌾🍀🍃🦔🐇🐝🐑🌞🌻
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 👍
It’s a pity that Initiative 1A is passing, because there were strong arguments against it. But, hey, Seattle voters always approve of a new tax, as long as someone else is paying for it. The House our Neighbors group raised alot of money to get this passed and the opposition did not. Once again, money talks.
Stop spreading nonsense lies Zach…
https://www.realchangenews.org/news/2025/02/07/comparing-funding-sources-seattle-s-social-housing-campaigns
Oh yeah. Real Change is my goto for sure.
Matt, Seattle believes in free speech aka Democracy. Adults give, lead & teach mutual respect. Opinions for debate & to have an open forum for discussions is what the USA is about.
Nice try Zach…the election is over and you can turn off the gas light now.
As The Urbanist summarized on 02/08:
“A pair of $100,000 donations by both Amazon and Microsoft in late January joined contributions from an array of business moguls and corporations, including Puget Sound Energy, Alaska Airlines, and Russell Investments. Glassblowing artists Dale and Leslie Chihuly chipped in $1,000 each. The late donations have pushed total pro-1B political spending past $500,000 — more than doubling the amount that Prop 1A backers have raised.”
Check out https://www.realchangenews.org/news/2025/02/07/comparing-funding-sources-seattle-s-social-housing-campaigns for a full breakdown of who funded what….if you can stomach it.
What exactly do you think the money said? Because 1B overspent 1A 2:1. About $500,000 total, including a drop of $100k of Amazon money and another $100k from Google. Maybe that big influx of corporate cash made voters realize 1B is a bad plan.
Oh, here’s a citation.
The “strong arguments” were not.
To you, the sales person. Sounds like a believable solution.
It’s not. 1A is the only solution. Shuffling deck chairs and delaying tactics are not a solution. It’s a “business hates taxes solution”. “Rich people hate taxes solution” It was never a “housing solution” 1B is meant to derail the voters wishes.
Who do you think pays the majority of taxes in King County? Please share.
1 in 5 adult americans are functionally illiterate
That someone else: rich millionaires. Who SHOULD pay for lower society housing.
You ever see the documentary
Requiem for the American Dream?
Browser won’t play video. Maybe post a link instead or try it out yourself before posting and walking away.
I did post the link and it did this to me…lolol
Just look up the title on youtube…no need to link.
To understand the last 50 years. This is 100% necessary. It is all facts. Lots of charts and cool $1 money art.
Did you watch it? Or?
Never ever will taxing ever stop homelessness. All city officials do us take more money, slush it into surveys, research & administration fees. Ask the organizations not funded by the government taxes on what really needs to be done. How much money do you think has already been put in the piggy bank to address homelessness? Prior to 2017, massive international investors were allowed to buy significant amounts of homes in King County. That was their target & they snapped them up. Plus, those investors are exempt from only being allowed to have two AIRBNBs = STR’s…plus they also bought a significant amount of Seattle mixed use or multi-famy sites and scrapped the former “affordable housing”.
Granted…Grammar is not a rule, it’s a suggestion.
But could you please write so it makes some sense to the average dude?
“Money talks” is a reductive take here. 1A did raise more campaign funds, but only because it was a sustained campaign (since I-135 passed). Since the start of this year, 1B’s campaign raised over $200 million more than 1A’s — and 1B’s backing has come almost entirely from corporations.
The average donation to 1B is almost 10 times larger than the average to 1A. A more accurate assessment is that money tried to talk, but individuals and labor unions organized to shut it out.
Sources: https://www.realchangenews.org/news/2025/02/07/comparing-funding-sources-seattle-s-social-housing-campaigns; https://web6.seattle.gov/ethics/elections/campaigns.aspx?cycle=2025&type=contest&IDNum=218&leftmenu=collapsed
Correction: I meant to type $200,000 more, not $200 million more, when referring to the 2025 funds raised by 1B compared to 1A.
“Money talks” is a reductive take here.”
Because listening to Rantz and being functionally illiterate goes hand in hand almost 100% of the time.
The article from the Stranger dated Feb 6 shows 1A did have more funding than 1B by about $160k, but I think the next point they mention is critical: 1A had more donors with smaller contributions and 1B had fewer donors with significantly larger contributions. Also worth noting that a large portion of 1B’s funding was from outside of Seattle.
I’m very happy with these election results, and proud of the people of seattle to chose to fund the Social Housing Developer in a meaningful way.
I think it’s a mistake. 50 million bucks annually ad infinitum. But it’s done and I really do hope that it solves our problems. What oversight will there be on the money spent? Will there be accountability for the 50 million bucks spent annually?
Bottom line, it’s just another tax money funnel for King County & Seattle officials to waste money, not be transparent & tax citizens every way possible. Local officials kept it hush that sales tax was raised to 10.25, utilities increased 10+% in 2024, another 10+% for 2025, gas tax going up again and nothing has really changed in 10 years = its a big lie about building affordable housing. Washington took off the designations of single family housing designations. So now in Seattle, they are putting 2-3 almost or plus million dollar homes on a postage stamp. All of the apartments in Seattle will never-ever be priced for someone making less than $100,000 dollars a year, which is now almost minimal to afford rent, food, utilities & taxes.
you just make up stuff and puke it out in such a disjointed way that it’s impossible to figure out what is the issue..>beyond you being angry about your money.
HAHAHA OHHH! So when business’s attempt to sandbag 1A fails spectacularly…it’s the opposition that is awash in cash all of a sudden…got it! No doubt a victory secretly facilitated by all those socialist business owners and filthy rich retail workers corrupting democracy with their cash!!
Definitely nothing to do with the people of Seattle being sick and tired of the exorbitant cost of housing here…couldn’t be!
This is a small but significant step towards addressing the homelessness crisis, and I’m sorry you don’t like it zach…but most people here do. Maybe the council (sans Rinck) and Harrell need to step their game up and listen to all their constituents if they want to ensure their re-elections.
This tax will push and out the poor raise rents. Socialism has nothing to do with this Seattle is about to get back to the office and there is a lot of vagabond behavior in some of our most prized neighborhoods. Best way to deal with it is make the city unaffordable.
It’s a tax only on salaries of A MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR OR MORE. What sort of greedy jerk would be whining and crying about an employer paying a tiny tax on someone making 100 times the average yearly wage? We don’t even have a state income tax! Why are so many people like this?
Yeah. And a reasonable income tax with rollback on all the other many various taxes might be the best solution. But income tax without major reductions or eliminations of the other taxes…nope.
No particular issue with the tax, but I’m not a fan of another new housing authority when we already had one – and this one with less accountability to boot.
FYI: (1 million divided by 100 is $10,000, which is not the average yearly salary, thus you are off an order of magnitude). So I assume you meant to say that the average salary is around $100,000?
Seattle’s cost of living index is 145, or 45% higher than the average US city, with housing and rent at 212, or 112% higher. We are an outpost in the upper left corner of the USA. We live on an isthmus surrounded by mountains. We have Mediterranean climate adjacent to Alpine topography. Everyone wants to live here. What could go wrong?
I am not sure if you have added up all your taxes. Add up your cell phone taxes, utility taxes, transportation taxes, W1040 taxes, all restaurant, bevie & deli taxes, all service taxes & anything but pure raw food tax. I did, it was 55% of my earnings. WA promotes they have no income tax. But they bleed everyone on taxes like a succubus. If your renting, there is a significant tax included & anything you toich is taxed.
55% of your earnings? mkay…
Fact is Seattle tax is regressive. The poorer you are? The bigger % in taxes you pay.
Based on that simple equation? You are lying or completely illiterate.
OK, OK, I stand corrected. My statement about campaign contributions was based on a conversation several weeks ago I had with George Howland, who was the primary advocate for 1B. This was before the large, last-minute contributions by Amazon, Microsoft, and others. I have to say that the timing by those corporations was pretty bad. If they really wanted to deter passage of 1A, they should have contributed much earlier.
However, I stand by my statement that there were strong arguments against 1A, such as lack of real accountability and the fact that it will fund very little housing for low-income people.
You are wrong. There’s accountability. it will be housing for people below poverty lines.
Then where is the one billion already spent on the homelessness that previously was funded?
wow…someones brainwashed you to pieces.
Lack of accountability & mysterious funds lost is the normal for all taxed funds or significant overrides so that either a project never gets done or the money is sucked up into a secret funnel that never served the purpose. One (1) billion has already been funded & spent on the homeless problem. Where is it now?
I love this. The loud minority commenters are exactly that, a minority. WOOO FOR HOUSING! Big party at Wild Rose last night.
The CHS blog trolls have a 100% political prediction rate. That is, you can bet good money that whatever outcome they are matter-of-factly stating will be wrong 100% of the time.
It’s always funny when they use mental gymnastics to try to claim that Seattle is wrong or dumb for voting to tax themselves to make their city better. Mostly because their wealthy employer overlords tell them to, but it’s still funny and pathetic.
How long have you lived in Seattle? The city & county has barely done anything with the one billion dollars already given to them. Even the owners of the Wild Rose know how city & county officials just slush the money 💰 i.e. the majority developers & land owners are now international investors. Seattle sold out over a decade ago. I drive the streets and see no changes in a decade.That money will not be used wisely to help our people. Anymore than the one billion dollars. Plus, the city officials gave themselves a raise during the pandemic when they were all cozy in their homes while people went hungry, homeless & garbage piled up by the Wild Rose 🌹
So now that they had their asses thoroughly handed to them on an election that should have been held in Nov. and not cost us all this money for a “special election”. I am going to tell you where these morons on the council went wrong!
Ya see? Balancing the budget on Jump Start. THAT was everyone’s demise. Here’s why…
Jump Start Had 500+ million in it. The City Council stole 309 million. Our homeless situation is critical and affects everyone.
Now then? Let’s say they didn’t steal that money.
Had there been 500+ million? They EASILY coulda asked for 10 million for a pilot program. And probably got it on the basis of simple problem solving options. See if it werx??? Why not?
But now? NOBODY trusts them. They broke trust on the wage laws they tried to claw back. Housing money clawed back…Are you seeing a pattern? The City Council is hell bent on getting their money back and doing as little as possible about the rest. “More Cops” is all you’ll see. “Cameras everywhere” is their solution. “Stadium Lights” will solve everything.
Fact is this. They shot themselves in the head. The feet were full of holes. None of these people stand a chance at reelection. ANY decent candidate will beat them. The trust is gone and Trump is in the WH.
We need people we can trust to follow voters wishes. Not make it up on their whims based on campaign donations.
We were having an election for the school levies anyway so placing the housing question on the ballot did not require a special election costing “all this money.”
Then why didn’t it all go on the ballot in October? It was a waste of money. That money could have been used to actually give to the classrooms so teachers don’t have to come out of pocket for supplies or put food on someone’s table struggling. Why has it become the norm in Seattle to spend money as though people don’t work really hard for it?
Exactly 💯 Actually Seattle is noted as spending one (1) billion and gave themselves a big raise. In addition they raised our sales tax, gas tax, utility taxes twice the last 24 months, raised wages so they get to tax employees more & delivered us “affordable” housing that is outside the majority of workers, students, seniors or most of our budgets. Don’t get me started on their lies about food cost. You can go to any other county besides King + find most daily food 20+% cheaper and their shelves were not empty, but packed during the pandemic.
Can we merge SHA into this newly funded housing authority now? It makes no sense to have two.
I would have preferred 1A with the auditing and accountability provisions in 1B.
They already exist.
Meaning what?
it wasn’t funded until now
Is there any accountability or success measurements for 1A ? Seriously asking. Do not know.
This recently came up during a conversation with a friend. I can’t find it online. I wonder if any of the Seattle city council people know.
Absolutely.
Good question.
SHA should be leading the cause, all spending should be accountable & transparent. This fund was set up because they called out that it wouldn’t be accountable to the Federal government.
I did not appreciate the blatant shadiness involved in this special election, and would likely have voted in whatever way seemed most likely to frustrate the people behind it, but it helped that 1A seemed like a genuinely good idea.
When I read the whole language of the ballot information, it told me I was voting for nothing- city& county officials were going to do whatever they chose irregardless. It sounded like they had it in the bag, would not be accountable to anyone + set it up to make sure the Federal Government could not do an audit.
Good news! I know this won’t solve our problems quickly, but I’m hopeful that, unlike the alternative, it has real potential for future progress. I’m proud that my neighbors thought so, too!
Please express how you feel about the one billion already spent & the money has dissapeared?
Yay! New taxes! Affordable housing and better schools. Not to mention a solid floor for inflation. I mean eggs are not gonna get cheaper in Seattle any time soon!
why would a tax paid by employers who can afford million dollar salaries impact the price of eggs lmao
Same reason people are gonna start hiring funny. Anyways, taxa always affects the poor and working class. We are the marginal people this tax targets. Companies are not altruistic, they are capitalist.
Maybe so…But more money in the hands of consumers is more power as well.
Every new business that opens solo or with employees..that is an entrepreneur, which is called capitalism. It’s the reason why so many people have migrated to the USA for centuries. Everyone wants a chance to build their dreams. Every small business you support, that is capitalism. You are talking about elites & aristocrats, the lords of the lands that collectively gather their resources to gain power.
there’s NO upward mobility in America. It’s all gone.
Who do you think pays employees salaries? Any company affected by this, which will be many, will find a loophole. It won’t be to favor lower paid workers at all.
Going against voters wishes was the sword Bruce and Sara chose to die on. At this point, neither (plus Exile Annie) stand to even clear their primaries this year.
Agreed. I didn’t vote in the last city election because I hadn’t moved back yet. I have seen nothing but stagnant words and extraordinary new taxations the last 24 months on all of King County residents & no transparency. It’s like crickets with cloaks.
If I recall correctly, this new organization intends to provide up to 2000 units of moderately affordable housing over the next ten years. Many of those units will not be newly built housing, but properties they purchase on the private market and place in their care. They will be taking property out of the private market and placing it within their own portfolio rather than building more housing. That is what you get for five hundred million dollars projected to be raised with this new tax over the ten year period. Very little, if any, new housing. And many of the residents will not be low income, but moderate income. How will this address homelessness, as some suggest here?
Well it might. The 1A marketing, very successfully done, is that the more market rate folks will be subsidizing the affordable properties I guess. European model. Yada yada yada. I truly hope it works. I worry that there will be no accountability for 50 million bucks annually for like forever. Are Share and Wheel held accountable? No.
Also. I live on Capitol Hill and have for the past 30 years. It has gotten “unpleasant ” in the last few years due to all the fentanyl but oh well we’ll get through it like we did with the drunks and heroin etc. over the past many years. But what really pisses me off more than anything is people, often foreign investors, coming in and buying properties and tearing them down and putting them on the market as vacant lots. These were people’s homes!!! One place a few blocks away housed maybe 15 or 20 people. It’s a garbage lot now. Chinese investors came in, bought it, got people out, and tore it all down. We need heavy taxation on vacant lots and vacant buildings. This is bullshit.
It’s not all Chinese investors, its United Emirates & fund groups from all over the world. Including Blackrock, etc….I agree, all of this is staging for developers. The city, county & state make money off RE taxes & employee taxation. It’s all about as dense + as high as they can get the housing. None of the downtown will be affordable for low income. Plus, I want to know how healthy & safe any housing will be currated for low income housing or the unhoused. Plus, they are taxing seniors & retired people out of their homes with RE taxes, utility taxes, maintenance & repair costs and food prices in King County. It appears Seattle only wants high income earners living downtown.
Stopping people from sliding into homelessness in the first place…
That’s rough, when they are taxing us heavily on everything we touch or live in King County. Don’t just pay uour cell phone, utility, restaurant × bevie, transportation & rent….add up all the taxes weekly + monthly = outrageous for the Northwest.
It won’t. But we don’t have accountability here, just a short-lived feeling of sticking it to the “rich” and “helping” the housing crisis.
Yep, it’s them just creating a feeling. Because never have they ever spent the money wisely or not shady.
Sorry Captain Strawman, this was never about directly addressing homelessness. It’s about the low income people who consistently struggle to find housing. By providing them the means to find affordable housing, it aims to prevent more people from slipping into homelessness.
But you knew that.
I wish I knew as much as you attribute to me, and I would certainly like to better understand the animus you bring to your comments, but I am merely responding to comments some made here that passage of this funding mechanism will help to address homelessness. I don’t think it will. In my opinion, most of the money will go towards administration and purchasing already more affordable housing from smaller landlords. Their projections price the average unit acquired at $250,000 in today’s dollars. They really can’t build units for that price so they will have to acquire them. The only units selling for that price are older, smaller buildings. These are usually locally owned and often offer lower rents per square foot than newer, larger buildings. In other words, this organization is likely to be purchasing privately owned properties that traditionally offer more affordable housing already. I don’t see how this model, combined with the expenses and inevitable errors inherent in building any new organization, will have a meaningful effect upon preventing homelessness.
And many of the units will be offered to moderate, not low income, residents. This will only further dilute any potential for providing low income people the means to find affordable housing. No animus here. Just how I see it.
The problem is 2 fold…It’s your opinion. Not the answer.
Which level of low-income are you referring to?
Low-income income levels
I’d like to add Severely Low Income as <15%. That’s the demographics targeted and slated for any of the buildings owned and “managed” by DESC and LIHI.
We’re severely lacking housing for very low income and extremely low-income. Think college students, service staff, blue collar jobs, starting career non-technical white collar jobs, teachers, and the such.
I can tell you from experience. The city & county makes people jump through pinholes to get any help that are trying to get out of poverty or tough times. They don’t want to give any money to anyone but in theirbown pockets. It’s a big lie and because they wanted a special fund that could not be audited by the Federal government, that means it cannot be a federally owned building/property that could be
converted to housing. So it has to be today’s market prices purchased. They can’t mix i federal funding to afford to do it right, unless they are willing to be transparent with spending. City,County & State to date – never seen it.
“I can tell you from experience. The city & county makes people jump through pinholes to get any help that are trying to get out of poverty or tough times.”
Really?
I find that if you qualify and you spend the efforts, you’ll get there. I am living proof.
Fact is? The need outweighs the resources. We need a lot more resources.
Me —-> Extremely low-income: A household that makes less than 30% of Seattle’s AMI
Smaller properties are being bought out like snacks. The real estate taxes, utility taxes and cost of repairs & maintenance- King County wants them gone. The county has proven they want density with new building for top dollar to house bigger earners to suck more taxes out of them. King County doesn’t care if your children have a yard, birds have trees or how toxic our ground water is or even if you can see the sun shine. The homelessness has been their campaign for over a decade. Even after one billion spent- it worse.
OH NO! It;s Capt. Strawman! Hid your money!
Wait! Up in the sky! It’s Fairly Obvious!
Yea! We are saved!
TY Fairly Obvious! You stopped that bon fire waiting to happen in the nick of time!
whewwww!
Deep breaths might be helpful.
Have you done a rent or houses for sell survey. There is no way prices ate going down unless all the technology companies move out. It’s supply & demand. That is why all foreign investors & global funds have targeted Seattle. They have snapped up the property & will build to make a big return . Affordable is now just under a million dollar tiny stacked home + a tiny apartment of 500 square feet costing big bucks.
you have no idea do you?
Dude..>You are making it up. I actually KNOW the facts. I live then daily. It’s my whole life.
Right!?
I cannot wait to see this since the majority of investment properties were already contacted before & during the pandemic by big international investment groups or funds. It would cost over $600 million to build 2000 new units and significantly more for a rehabilitation of any building. This does not include all the money that will be wasted on consultants or the current cost of building materials. I do not see it happening as was presented at all.