Bed Time
A five-to-four majority is brewing against a bad agreement between the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) and the city of Seattle.
The bad agreement--a blueprint for SHA's proposal to turn the low-income housing project at Rainier Vista into a mixed-use community-- would abandon SHA's longtime commitment to replacing 100 percent of Rainier Vista's 481 units with units affordable to current residents.
Among the loopholes that could allow SHA to skimp on its original commitment are things like SHA's plan to replace 71 of the units off-site, by tapping money already earmarked for low-income development. In other words, SHA would be usurping resources that would have created new low-income housing in Seattle in order to simply replace losses at Rainier Vista. According to Seattle Displacement Coalition director John Fox, counting the 71 off-site units as replacement units is like "robbing Peter to pay Paul."
Fortunately, City Council Member Nick Licata is working on an amendment to fix this blatant loophole, while Council Member Richard Conlin is cooking up a tandem amendment that would mandate 100 percent replacement.
In spite of their efforts, there's another, more intolerable (and sneakier) loophole that could undo both Licata and Conlin's push for full replacement. It's buried in the agreement's "Attachment Four," and allows SHA to replace existing housing with units that won't translate into as many beds. For example, Rainier Vista currently has 282 two-bedroom units and 123 three-bedroom units. The revamp proposes building just 121 two-bedroom units and 99 three-bedroom units--constituting a loss of 185 beds. (Over all, the new plan could end up providing over 10 percent fewer beds.)
To understand the importance of larger units, you only have to compare the average wait for a two-bedroom public housing unit to the wait for a one-bedroom public housing unit: It's a half-year longer. (The wait for a three-bedroom is eight months longer.) And while there are certainly more requests for one-bedroom units than for two- or three-bedrooms, it's common sense that there are more faces behind each request for the larger units.
"The need is for family-sized units," says Council Member Heidi Wills, who flagged the loophole and is working up an amendment to add at least 36 two-bedroom units. "My concern is that SHA is going to focus on building one-bedrooms, which is less expensive for them, while the clear need is for two and more beds."
Faced with growing council dissent on the SHA agreement, Peter Steinbrueck, chair of the council's housing committee, postponed this week's meeting on Rainier Vista. This gives members like Wills time to gather up the five votes necessary to change the deal.
