I-135 backers push to get public housing authority measure on Seattle ballot
Organizers of an initiative to establish a public housing authority in Seattle plan to file their petition with the city this week, a first step in the effort to get the measure on the fall ballot.
The backers of Initiative 135 need 26,520 signatures, which they expect to have by Wednesday. An appointment with the city is scheduled that same day, said Tiffani McCoy, advocacy director at Real Change Homeless Empowerment. McCoy is the spokesperson for the initiative.
Despite pushback from a local affordable housing developer consortium, the supporters got a boost last week by an endorsement from the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI).
Sharon Lee, executive director of LIHI, said in a release that the organization is endorsing the initiative because there aren’t enough tax credits or subsidies to meet the demand for more affordable housing.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/06/20/public-housing-authority-initiative-gains-traction.html
Seattle council measure would help community groups access funds to build housing
A proposal that would enable community organizations in Seattle to secure city funding to develop affordable housing without partnering with a developer passed out of the City Council's finance and housing committee 5-0 last week.
For years, community organizations in the Seattle area have sought to be able to orchestrate building projects independently from developers. Backers of the measure, including Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who chairs the council committee, say it will help the city meet demand for affordable housing and give power back to the community.
“We initially had been talking about how this is removing, sort of, ‘patriarchal covenants’ that required many of these organizations that are community-of-color-led to partner with larger, established groups,” Mosqueda said at a briefing last week. “This really removes this requirement, so that we can move forward with building affordable housing not only more quickly but also in the lens of what community organizations truly want.”
In an interview with the Business Journal, Mosqueda underscored that the change to the housing statutes was designed to help smaller community organizations, many of whom are expanding their role within the community, to get off the ground in their efforts to develop affordable housing.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/06/20/seattle-council-measure-community-groups-housing.html