In the present housing crisis, thousands of people are on the streets and thousands more are struggling to afford housing. The reasons for this are not hard to understand. Seattle has been adding jobs at a much faster rate than we’ve been adding housing. Competition for existing housing and the high cost of new construction has caused prices to skyrocket.

The measures that the city has enacted thus far have been an important start, but just a start. Only by dramatically expanding the supply of housing can we meet current and future demand. For low-income people, expanding the supply of affordable units is the only way we can avoid further displacement and financial hardship.

How do we build 10,000 homes?  Housing Now Seattle has spent the last two years consulting with experts in the field. Here’s what we recommend:

• Prioritize housing in the budget. Councilmember Kshama Sawant has proposed using money previously intended for the North Precinct replacement project to build 1,000 homes instead. This is a good start but we have to keep pushing. What other money can be dedicated to housing?

• Utilize City-owned land

  • The City owns surplus and underutilized properties which could be put to good use.

• Lease land from non-profit institutions committed to social justice

  • Many such institutions have underutilized land such as surface parking lots.

• Let renters decide on unit size

  • The battle over what is an acceptable and adequate unit size for apartments has generated much heat but very little light. It’s time that we put together a low-income renters commission and listen to it. When it comes to the tradeoffs between costs and unit size, low-income people are the ones best suited to make these decisions.

• Bring back low-displacement housing

  • The HALA committee recommendation to allow more housing in single-family zoned areas would have created hundreds of units with minimal to zero displacement. It got withdrawn under pressure from single-family homeowners. It’s time to bring this idea back and expand on it.

• Fund Land Trusts

  • When Sound Transit made use of land acquired above the Capitol Hill Station, it didn’t just have developers bid money, they also bid affordability. We can learn from this process and expand on it.

We the undersigned hereby urge our elected representatives to move forward with these proposals with all possible speed. We understand these things won’t happen instantly, but we need to start now!