Councilmember Mosqueda has prioritized fair access to affordable housing in her first term. This includes efforts to ensure affirmatively fair housing principles are applied. Sustainable affordable housing is vital to meaningfully address homelessness, and building healthy communities. With transit-oriented development, Councilmember Mosqueda sees the opportunity to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, while increases access to opportunity. She is committed to more community-based development – much like Plaza Roberto Maestes – bringing community space, plazas and parks, health care facilities, and affordable child care to where people are, helping build thriving, healthy communities. Specific priorities for 2018-2019 include:
- Reforming disposition policies, including implementing SHB 2382, to prioritize housing production, or preservation for future production, to meet affordable housing needs on publicly owned surplus and under-utilized non-park land in Seattle (decreasing the cost of affordable housing production by 10-15%).
- Increasing production capacity within 10 minutes of high-capacity transit corridors, and implementing Mandatory Housing Affordability throughout Seattle, meeting the housing needs of all income levels, with an emphasis on community-oriented development in high-displacement risk neighborhoods, right-of-return policies, and other opportunities to build equity within historically neglected communities.
- Supporting expansion of access to production and conversion of Accessory Dwelling Units, along with programmatic investments to ensure deep affordability, giving households an option to participate directly in affordable housing needs, and creating more housing options in even more parts of our city.
- Implement Low-Density Family Zoning, allowing more housing types in areas where only detached-single-family housing is allowed, such as duplexes, triplexes, row houses, and stacked flats, creating new homeownership and land-trust opportunities in every neighborhood in Seattle.
- Continue to support efforts to increase investments to scale to produce and preserve affordable housing for 0-30% Area Median Income (AMI) households, as well as mixed-income communities through targeted investments for 30-60% AMI households, strengthening of the Multi-Family Tax Exemption, and implementation of a Preservation Tax Exemption, to ensure 60-80% AMI households have options in our city.
Upcoming Legislation
- FAS Disposition Policy Updates – prioritizing any surplus properties for production of affordable housing, at the lowest-cost legally allowed, with secondary consideration for park and green space need. For properties that cannot be developed now, require retention of surplus properties pending resources available to develop affordable housing, or, in gap areas, parks and green spaces. In the event the property does not fall into any such category, or where it makes most sense to dispose of at fair market value, set aside a minimum amount of revenue received to fund production and preservation of affordable housing. Implement a two-year review cycle of disposition policies.
- SCL Disposition Policy Updates – Implementing SHB 2382, directing Seattle City Light to dispose of surplus properties, as defined by statute, at the lowest price possible, down to original cost, when used for purposes of production of affordable housing. For properties that cannot be developed now, transfer of properties to Office of Housing for future development as affordable housing.
Past Successes
- CB 119198; Placing a moratorium on utilization of online platforms for the purposes of rent bidding, allowing the city an opportunity to study potential impacts and future regulatory framework based on intersection with Fair Housing Laws in Seattle.
- CB 119236; Allowing Office of Housing to procure properties that are ideal for production of affordable housing to hold pending resource availability to develop. This legislation authorizes OH to execute a Purchase and Sale Agreement; any final purchases require council approval pursuant to the Charter.