Seattle Voters Approve Social Housing Referendum

In a recent Seattle ballot referendum, voters approved a measure to create a corporate tax to fund the city’s housing authority with 63 percent of the vote, reports Roshan Abraham in a Next City/Shelterforce article.

This in spite of an opposition effort funded by some of the city’s biggest corporations — a strategy that likely backfired. According to Tiffani McCoy of housing nonprofit House Our Neighbors, “We capitalized on the fact that Amazon and Microsoft were dumping in $100,000, and we made clear to voters that these corporations don’t want you to have social housing.”

The housing authority was approved by voters in 2023, but the February referendum created a crucial funding source. “The first question on the ballot asked if voters approved of funding the new authority using payroll taxes. Next, voters had to choose whether they wanted a new 5% payroll tax on individual compensation above $1,000,000, paid by companies, or to use an existing payroll tax that mostly funds affordable housing.”

Abraham explains how the housing authority will work to provide housing stability for low-income and fixed-income residents. “The authority will issue its own debt in the form of bonds and create a revolving loan fund, lending itself money for construction and acquisition that would be paid back through rents, with higher rents subsidizing lower rents.”

According to Abraham, “The win suggests a way forward for organizers on the local level to take the housing crisis into their own hands.”