Housing Now! And Tomorrow Too!

Last week, the Seattle Human Services Coalition put a modest proposal before the Seattle City Council. We should take $12.5 million of Seattle’s $70 million projected budget surplus this year and make an investment in long-term housing affordability.

The white-hot Seattle condo market, rising land values, and double-digit rates of increase in rental prices have led to unprecedented losses in Seattle’s affordable housing stock, and the trend continues.

Forbes Magazine just named Seattle as one of the few places in the nation where housing is likely to remain a strong investment. That’s good news for homeowners, but for the rest of us, it just means housing costs are likely to keep rising.

If you want to see the future, look to San Francisco, where a one-bedroom apartment now goes for around $1,500, and rents are up another 8.3% over just the last year.

A Seattle Housing Acquisition Fund would provide loans to non-profit developers who need the flexibility to move fast on available opportunities. By helping the good guys compete for properties with those who often have superior resources, Seattle can make a long term-difference in the outlook for affordability. The best part is that the fund renews itself. As projects succeed, the money is repaid and becomes available for others.

This is an idea that has worked well in numerous cities, including Washington, DC, which established a $15 million fund in 2005, and New York, which parleyed $8 million in city investment into a $230 million fund supported by nine private foundations.

Opportunities to make a real difference in Seattle’s housing market do not arise all that often. This is a bold investment in the future that needs action by the City Council now, when the resources and the political will are aligned. It’s the right idea at the right time. Hearing dates and City Council contact information can be found here.

Quintana's Just Not That Smart, Is He?

I was down at the City Council budget hearing tonight to testify (my testimony starts at 2:13:00 on the Seattle Channel video) in favor of the Seattle Human Service Coalition's visionary proposal to put $12.5 million of this year's $70 million budget surplus toward a housing site acquisition loan fund. Just when things were getting dull, Joe Quintana, the lobbyist for the Seattle Business Coalition got up to speak for his clients.

For those who aren't in the know, the Seattle Business Coalition, says the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce website, is

A broad consortium of business organizations that are committed to a healthy economic climate like the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Neighborhood Chambers Alliance representing 39 neighborhood chambers, the Downtown Seattle Association, the Building Owners and Managers Association, the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, the Associated General Contractors, the Greater Seattle Business Association, the Seattle Hotel Association, and more. It will provide a firm voice on policy issues most important to businesses operating in the city of Seattle.

The rule at City hearings is that you get two minutes, but if you're with a group, you get more time.

Quintana let the Council know he was speaking for the coalition and would be taking the extra time, at which point Jean Godden asked that the other members of his group come forward.

Seconds ticked by. No one moved. Apparently, everyone figured Joe could handle it on his own and had gone out for drinks instead. There was an embarrassed silence.

Godden graciously threw him a lifeline. "How about if they raise their hands? We'll accept raised hands," she beamed. Standing in the back, I'm scanning the room with everyone else, not quite believing what I'm seeing. Not a hand in sight.

Just when I thought Quintana was going to suffer a delicious minor humiliation in front of God and everyone, some woman in front raised her hand and went into a long explanation of how she was going to testify but would yield to qualify Joe's "group."

Thus seconded, Quintana recited his list of Business Coalition talking points: developers will go to Bellevue if you ask them to contribute to the community, more cops are needed downtown, businesses are getting shafted by the city, etc. He offered some common sense guidelines for possible cuts, made some councilors smile with a dig at the city's "200 information officers," and finished by mumbling something about non-support of the Mayor's dumb-ass proposal to spend $9 million on a 311 call system so that no one will ever have to use a phone book again.

I was thrilled to see that we have common ground. I hope it's the beginning of something beautiful.

Joe's been getting around lately. Forward Seattle, the Political Action Committee of the Downtown Business Coalition, is named in an ethics complaint to the state Public Disclosure Commission that charges collusion between them and City Council Candidate Venus Velazquez. The PAC made a decision to support Velazquez, who has branded herself as the successor to the Peter Steinbrueck friend of the poor mantle, by sinking their resources into her campaign.

This is odd in the extreme, because Steinbrueck is precisely the last person on the council these guys would support. Aimee Curl at The Seattle Weekly quotes Velazquez: "If they want to play in this race, sure. I'm seeking support in all communities."

Maybe Quintana's a brilliant strategist, and this is like the Log Cabin Republicans throwing a high profile endorsement to a liberal southern Democrat. Fortunately, we were able to secretly record a late night strategy meeting at the Wild Ginger, and have the evidence that clears Venus:

Joe Quintana: OK. Here's how we're gonna run this play. We take all the money we got, and we sink it into one candidate.

Jan Drago: It sounds risky. If I were you, I'd spread the money around.

Quintana: When I want your opinion Jan, I'll ask for it. Velazquez is the lynchpin. We take that bitch down, the council is ours. The downtown interests pour money into her campaign, the left deserts her, Harrell wins. Easy-peasy!

Pat Murakami: (emitting a high pitched giggle) and then I'll file an ethics complaint against her! Quintana, you're a fucking genius!

Kate Joncas: Then it's settled. Dessert anyone?

And that's how it happened. Really.