Mayor Ed Murray continued the conversation around his housing affordability and livability agenda (HALA) at a packed Seattle City Hall meeting in January. Amidst the shouting from opponents of the plan, a beacon of hope took the mic: single-mom, single-family homeowner, and Ballard neighborhood resident Sara Maxana.
Maxana shared a story about why she’s okay with her block being upzoned for multifamily housing under the HALA recommendations. While describing that her house has increased in value nearly 20 percent in just 15 months, she said:
“Its value has skyrocketed because we have a housing shortage in this city that is driving up the value of all existing homes. And while that’s benefiting me as a homeowner, it’s hurting others. It’s pushing up rents across the city and pricing people out of ownership. And I don’t see why one class of people, homeowners, should be getting a windfall from the same phenomenon that is causing other people in Seattle to struggle.”
Maxana’s message is a strong one that Seattle residents should hear: home values are rising, not due to sweat equity but rather to the housing crisis and at a cost of other people struggling to find a place to live.
Read: Why one person's affordable housing emergency is another person's cha-ching.
Sarajane Siegfriedt
Yes, home values are being pushed up by “lack of inventory,” as the Redfin CEO said at an event on Seattle’s Affordability and Livability last week. It’s hard to see how that pushes up prices for renters, when affordable is defined as $1,000/mo. for a single person earning $18/hr. Most low-income renters will never be homeowners. Most affordable housing was built 40+ years ago. The callenge is for the city to create a Preservation Loan Fund to match the upzoning HALA recommends.
Dan Bertolet
The markets are connected. When less people can afford to buy a house, that means more people rent, which means rents go up.
The simple fact is that Seattle’s housing shortage—which is driving up both prices and rents—is benefiting homeowners through appreciation, and hurting renters through higher rents.
Agreed that a preservation loan fund is a good idea. Do you know of any good examples of this being done in other cities?
Sarajane Siegfriedt
Sara Maxana should have been identified as Principle Planner at Puget Sound Regional Council, her actual title, rather than as a “Ballard resident.”
Another Planner
Yes, and she’s still willing to stand behind her industry’s best practices and her professional opinion in her own neighborhood. How is her opinion as a Ballard resident invalidated by her job? Are you claiming she doesn’t really live there? (And yes, I am a planner as well, though I do not work anywhere in King County)
Sara Maxana
Sarajane, Please let me make clear that I was in no way representing my day job as a planner at the Puget Sound Regional Council at this evening event. I was invited to speak as a Ballard community member who is passionate about these issues and supportive of the HALA recommendations. I was honored to be there in that capacity.
In addition, the PSRC does not take positions on specific housing programs and proposals of the 86 local jurisdictions that comprise its membership–and certainly there is no PSRC position on HALA. However, I am grateful that my employer allows me to advocate–on my own time–my personal positions on planning issues relevant to me, my family, and my community.
Karen Parolek
What an eloquent appeal! Thank you, Sara. We agree completely! What you’re talking about is what we call Missing Middle Housing. I hope this web site can be a resource to help you all out in Seattle.