Henry Cisneros Offers Housing Strategies For Seattle

"Seattle is a very special city that has garnered 'the best' status numerous times. But, like cities all across the country, it has a housing crisis. Fewer than 50 percent of Seattle's workers live in the city, leading to many other urban problems. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is right in calling the lack of affordable housing in Seattle and elsewhere a 'silent epidemic.'

"With respect to making sites available, revising zoning policies changes the capacity of the land by increasing allowable densities and reducing minimum lot size. In the Williamsburg section of New York City, 10,000 homes were built; 3,500 were affordable through this strategy.

We are in a new time, with new imperatives, and it is worth looking at zoning with a fresh eye."