The Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda Era Concludes in Seattle

Alan Durning writes from Seattle, as two final, signature recommendations of the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) have been signed into affect, bringing work on the landmark initiative to an end.

As noted in a brief history recounted by Durning, HALA made a splash in 2015 as a 28-member committee "tasked with devising a comprehensive response to the city’s soaring rents and home prices":

I served on the committee, so I can attest that it was a 10-month, 28-direction hair pull. It reproduced in miniature most of North America’s urban housing debates and political dynamics. And then, to the surprise of many people, including us participants, it yielded a consensus plan.

Years before Minneapolis and Oregon dreamed of the idea, the HALA committee even considered the radical idea of ending single-family zoning in Seattle.

Now, four years later, the city is progressing on 54 of the HALA committee's recommendations, with full implementation reported on 21 of the recommendations. The end of the HALA era provides Durning with a reason to draw lessons from the experience.

The final score for HALA, according to Durning requires three hands to tell. On one hand, HALA racked up a lot of wins, large and small, including legal wins to clear the way for upzoning. On another hand, many of those wins were compromised or flawed, according to Durning, and less than the sum of their parts. And on the final hand, HALA galvanized a new generation of activists.

A lot more details of this evaluation are included in the source article. For more history, see Planetizen's archive of Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda (HALA) coverage.