By james art 
The Social Housing Developer in Seattle (SSHD) was created by the Vote Initiative in February 2023, which voters approved 57% to 43%. SSHD is a public development body charged with the acquisition and development of housing projects. At that time, the campaign behind the social housing measure said it could return to a second -measure voters to create a new source of funding.
While social housing could provide some housing for those in the lowest end of the income spectrum, it will be housed mainly people who make between 50% to 120% of the average income of the Seattle area (AMI), or respectively from the 52 700 to $ 126,480 for a person.
Higher rentals paid by higher-income tenants are intended to help subsidize lower rents paid by lower income residents and pay for current maintenance and operations.
In contrast, non -profit homes for accessible homes in Seattle, such as Bellwether homes and community dwellings, mainly build subsidized homes for people who earn 30% to 60% AMI, with some homes for a little higher And a lower income. The Housing Authority in Seattle and the King County Housing, traditional public residential organizations in the region, are almost extremely people who earn 0-30% AMI.
Social dwellings in Seattle claim that with the constant costs of living of the city, medium -income workers such as teachers, librarians and workers in services also diverge from the city from the private home market.
Proponents also say the fact that the construction decisions will be made partially by management councils and that the new social housing will be built according to environmental passive standards for houses.
The model has been known successful in Vienna, where more than 60% of the population lives in the form of social housing, and residents enjoy long -term stability, which is often not experienced by US tenants.
Social homes are also caught outside the socialist Austrian enclaves. In Montgomery County, Maryland, the Government Agency for Housing Operates projects that combine units on the market with limited income homes. Atlanta and Massachusetts use similar models. King County is developing its initiative for housing workforce, which would use bonds to pay for the development of mixed -income public housing.
Now, two years after the approval of the Social Housing Charter in Seattle, the defenders return to voters to request capital funding that will pay for the acquisition of existing buildings to be turned into social housing, construction of new buildings and staff, Who deals with the newly hatched SSHD.
As with the SSHD creation campaign, the defenders collected signatures to receive the props 1A on the newsletter. Some of the city councilors objected to the scale of the tax measure and the allowance of 100% to 120% of AMI residents and voted in September to send prop 1b to the newsletter to compete with prop 1A.
Voters will have a two -step newsletter process in February. First, they will decide whether any social housing measure must be adopted by law. If they vote yes, they will choose between Prop 1A and Prop 1b.
Prop 1a
If accepted, the excess tax tax created by Prop 1A will generate about $ 50 million a year for the social housing developer, which would help build about 2000 housing over 10 years.
“The voters have already become clear that they want more tools to cope with the housing accessibility crisis,” says Tiffany McCoy, pointing to 14 percent victory in 2023, which created SSHD. McCoy is the co -executive director of House our neighbors, the advocacy organization behind the Prop 1a and the measure for 2023. House our neighbors is a separate entity from SSHD, a government body that cannot be interfered with electoral matters.