The Council is taking another look the best ways to increase the supply of affordable housing in Seattle. The decision to take on this work this year was made by the Council last year when it passed Resolution 31444, “calling for a thorough review and update of Seattle’s incentive zoning and other affordable housing programs and policies focused on creating affordable Workforce Housing.”
As part of this work, next week we’ll hear from national experts about workforce housing production in cities like Seattle.
By 2031, 100,000 new jobs are projected for downtown Seattle. If current wage levels are maintained, one in four of the workers in these new jobs and one and three of workers in all jobs downtown, new and existing, will be paid wages that qualify them for affordable housing. I’ll be seeking to insure that existing programs and new programs that may come out of this effort will produce housing that is affordable to lower-income workers, for instance, those who are early childhood teachers, janitor, as well as health care, grocery/retail, and hospitality workers. We don’t want to continue to price these people out of Seattle with long commutes to work, contributing to pollution and suburban sprawl.
Here are some of the details for the day:
Thursday, February 13
Seattle City Hall, 600 4th Avenue, 1st Floor, Bertha Knight Landes Room
12 noon – 4:30p.m Expert Panel and Stakeholder Engagement Discussion
This part of the day is geared toward housing/development/advocacy stakeholders.
6 p.m – 8 p.m Public Feedback Session
This part of the day is geared toward the general public
Draft Agenda for the day (see link here)
Both events are free, and the public is welcome to attend either or both. Your RSVP* is requested, see here to RSVP