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January 20, 2009

In 50 words: What is affordability and how can Seattle achieve it?

Join the discussion
Words like affordable, sustainable and livable are thrown around regularly in conversations about how Seattle should grow. But we want to know what these words actually mean, and how the city can achieve them.

This week, we asked people from the community to weigh in with 50-word pieces on affordabiity. Upcoming editorials on this page will offer definitions for sustainability and livability.

Bloggers at the DJC blog SeattleScape will also take on the debate. We hope you will join in. Here's how you can participate:

• Email our AE editor, Shawna Gamache, at shawnag@djc.com with your thoughts.

• Join the discussion at SeattleScape at www.djc.com/blogs/SeattleScape.

It should be possible for working people to afford housing and still have enough money for the basics like groceries and gas and child care. Seattle voters can continue to support the Housing Levy. Community non-profits use this funding to build and preserve apartments and first time homes so that families can afford not just housing but also the opportunity for a better life.

Anna Markee

Outreach director

Housing Development Consortium

of Seattle-King County




The best measure of affordability is income divided by the cost of living. This at least includes the cost of housing, energy, commute, purchasing food for healthy meals and child care. Modifying zoning laws to encourage small footprint, dense housing units near transit will decrease housing, transportation, and energy costs.

Matt Gangemi

Mechanical engineer

WSP Flack + Kurtz




Housing affordability is when we find a home we can afford that meets the “good life” criteria of nearby parks, safe walking, close-by grocery shopping and a reasonable commute to work. The two key things we need to ensure it are fantastic schools and good jobs. Caring Seattleites handle the rest.

Sally Clark

Seattle City Council member




Affordability means a household can pay for housing — the costliest household budget item, starting at 30 percent of income and rising as incomes rise — and other necessities.  Affordability is achieved through increasing wages, housing programs (e.g., Housing Levy), and market-based programs (incentive zoning, tax exemptions for affordable housing and streamlined permitting).

Adrienne Quinn

Director of Seattle Office of Housing




When Vulcan wanted to tear down a South Lake Union apartment building in 2002, it stripped the fixtures and then had the city declare it uninhabitable. I'd trade a wheelbarrow load of developer-friendly tax incentives to close that loophole. The paramount method of ensuring affordability is writing better laws.

Adam Hyla

Editor

Real Change




Any discussion of affordability in Seattle should address reasonable rents and home prices for the lower, middle-income worker. Incentives should be provided to brave developers willing to produce workforce housing — smaller, well-designed units close to transit at rents or prices that are “affordable” to essential workers, civil servants, young professionals, and service workers.

Grace Kim

Architect and co-founder

Schemata Workshop




With all the talk about affordability, the development and architectural community still stubbornly refuse to embrace factory technology to help with the cost issue. Tacoma Housing Authority has come to the party, as has Unico Properties. There are solutions and folks need to get out of the way and let them happen.

Randy Duggan

Regional sales manager

Guerdon Enterprises

(modular home builder in Boise)




Affordable housing means housing costs that leave funds for food, transportation, clothes and other essentials of life. PLUS affordability should mean funds remaining, or available after paying the mortgage or rent, to enjoy life such as books, movies, entertainment and the ability to buy someone a card or gift from time to time to let them know you care.

Tom Rasmussen

Seattle City Council




Inseparably linked to social justice are making necessities — such as food, housing, transportation, and medical care — affordable and accessible to low-income workers and the indigent. Our city's challenge is to develop creative programs that can provide these populations with these basic needs and the foundation for a transformative, self-reliant culture.

Thomas Im

InterIm Community

Development Association




Affordability results when worker earnings in a region (labor market) match the costs of housing (housing market). In high growth economies, like Seattle, these two markets can dramatically misalign, especially for low-wage workers. Public policy and investment is needed to lower housing costs for those with the fewest choices and promote higher earnings for those making the least.

Jermaine Smiley

Washington and Northern Idaho District Council of Laborers

and

Howard Greenwich

Research director

Puget Sound Sage


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