Frequently asked questions

This initiative will create an excess compensation payroll tax to fund the Seattle Social Housing Developer created by I-135 which was passed by voters by a 14 point margin on February 14, 2023.

The employer. Any business who employs individuals in the City of Seattle above $1 million in total compensation.

We estimate that roughly $52 million would be generated annually.

We estimate that at least 2000 social housing units will be created in the first 10 years through new construction and acquisition.

This estimate is based solely on estimated revenue generated by the social housing payroll tax. This estimate does not include funds from other potential sources, such as green housing grants through the Build Back Better or Inflation Reduction Act. This estimate also doesn’t include any bonding the SSHD could do, which the SSHD could drastically increase the stock of social housing rapidly.

This initiative funds the Seattle voter approved I-135 from February 2023.

I-135 did not include a funding mechanism due to legal reasons: first, Public Development Authorities do not have taxing authority. Second, we didn’t want to violate the single subject rule for Washington State initiatives.

Social housing is an internationally proven model. We also have examples of social housing buildings from Montgomery County, Maryland. We don’t need to waste time or resources on studying a model that continues to prove successful. We need social housing now.

The Seattle Social Housing Developer does not have access to the housing levy or to Jumpstart. The SSHD also isn’t eligible to apply for RFPs from the Office of Housing as it serves broader incomes than the Office of Housing allows.

One of the best ways to revitalize downtown is to have people living there. This is the singular neighborhood with the largest housing density allowances by far in all of Seattle. We should be building, and creating, social housing downtown to kick start revitalization.

If we are honest with ourselves and the public, we do not have a plan to address our affordable housing needs at scale. No level of government has a plan and the private sector cannot fill this need. While this may be a concerning admission to some, we see this as an opportunity. Once we acknowledge that we cannot meet our affordability needs at scale, we can look outside (and inside) our borders to how other countries are housing their citizens.

Because social housing doesn’t only focus on the lowest incomes, residents with higher incomes are able to subsidize those at the lower end of the income spectrum. This form of housing needs fewer ongoing subsidies since the total costs of the building, and operations and maintenance are covered by rents from a wider range of incomes.