As anticipated, the city council voted Monday, June 30, to
dramatically expand a housing subsidy program that eliminates all
property taxes for 12 years for developers who set aside some units
at “affordable” rents. The changes expand the program to people making
as much as 90 percent of the Seattle median—individuals earning
up to $49,000 a year and couples earning as much as $62,300.
Although Council Member Sally Clark, among others, acknowledged that
the program “is not about low-income people,” that didn’t stop council
members from referring repeatedly to, as Council Member Jean Godden put
it, the “teachers, librarians, police, and health-care
professionals” it would benefit.
That’s a canard, though, for two reasons. One, the “affordable”
apartments the council voted to subsidize are far out of reach for
workers in those and similar professions. The new program
subsidizes studios at $1,090 a month, one-bedrooms at $1,314 a month,
and two-bedrooms at $1,577 a month. It’s hard to see how those rents
are in reach for a kindergarten teacher (average salary: $47,630), a
medical assistant (average salary: $34,552), or a lab technician
(average salary: $36,000).
Second, apartments that rent at the rates the council just voted to
subsidize are already being built. Few neighborhoods are hurting
for rental units under the prices the council is subsidizing—even
newly constructed rental units. A Craigslist search for
new-construction units in Seattle found dozens of brand-new apartments
between $900 and $1,200 in the city. Before Monday’s vote, Nick Licata
noted that more than 9 out of 10 rental units in King County are
already affordable to people making 80 percent of median income.
“That’s a waste, in my mind, of limited resources,” Licata said.
And although developers like Bruce Lorig came before the council
Monday insisting the program doesn’t work (“If you’re going to have
more housing, you need to change the program“), the evidence shows
just the opposite. Between 1999 and 2004, when the program was last
revised, it served people making 80 percent of the median income. In
that time, it created 244 units of “affordable” housing. Since 2004,
when the council narrowed the program to serve people making 60 percent
of median income, it created 763 units. That’s nearly three times as
much housing, at lower prices, in a shorter time.
Although it’s true that, as Council Member Richard McIver noted
Monday, the tax exemption program only provides a “modest subsidy,”
it’s also true that the program was working just fine before. In
expanding the tax exemption, the council “fixed” something that wasn’t
broken—and may have put affordable housing out of reach for
hundreds of moderate-income Seattle residents. 