Housing - Colleen Echohawk

Candidate housing link

  • Will work with the City Council to repeal exclusionary zoning laws and allow for duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes in every neighborhood.
  • Remove unnecessary parking mandates
  • Supports the recommendations of Seattle’s Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda Committee (HALA), particularly the mandate that new projects must meet a specified affordability threshold, or be forced to contribute to the Seattle Office of Housing Fund.
  • Will add an amendment to the Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) where if one of these residents has lived in the Chinatown-International District or Central District for over 10 years and wants to develop on their own property, they will be exempted from MHA fees if still living on the property after a specified time frame.
  • Will work with the congressional delegation to advocate for increases to the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.
  • Will explore ways to grow the percentage of property taxes that go towards affordable housing by potentially reallocating other levy and general fund spending.
  • Wants to create a city-supported program that allows for owners to transfer property to a registered nonprofit, while remaining involved in the planning and determination of the property.
  • Expedite housing development
    • Support Office of Housing in matching landowners who are willing to partner or donate their land to the nonprofits best suited to lead the development
    • Streamline the Request for Proposal (RFP) for funding
    • Expedite permit approval processes
    • Hire dedicated permit approvers in the Seattle Department of Construction
    • Coordinate inspections, hearings, and board meetings
    • Support virtual approvals when appropriate
    • Create building code flexibility by reducing extraneous requirements
    • Launch online payments and electronic referral forms and signatures
    • Real estate tax exemptions
    • Reduced development fees (Permit, City Light, Water Utility, etc.)
    • Partner with Seattle City Light, Seattle Department of Transportation, Parks Seattle Public Utilities etc.
    • Establish case processing units to provide housing developers with a single point of contact throughout the inspection, permit, and review stages
  • A formula should be created that allows private owners to sell property at below market value to nonprofits if there is an opportunity to repurchase the property after a specified period of time.
  • Available property may also be acquired by a City-sponsored land bank that can hold property for development of affordable housing until an appropriate non-profit is able to develop the housing.
  • Will find ways to utilize long-term land leases where a family owns the underlying property while a community non-profit owns and builds the affordable housing and associated non-residential spaces for the term of the lease.
  • Tenant rights
    • Activate rent abatement immediately after the property owner has not made the required repairs as stipulated by the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections
    • Ensure that tenants are protected from landlord retaliation
    • Will set up interventions if property owners have repeat violations of City ordinances
    • Allow tenants to terminate a lease before the expiration date written in the lease if approved by the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections and/or recommended by the Seattle Renters’ Commission
    • Not require tenants to renew leases until at least four months have passed since the tenant occupied if the original lease is for a period of at least ten months
    • Require landlords to change locks after a specified timeframe
    • Provide support to tenants having trouble receiving back their security deposits
    • Require rent that is paid for the final month to be prorated at the average daily rate for that month so that the tenant only pays for the actual number of days that occupancy is allowed
    • State that the written lease must specify which unit the tenant will occupy
    • Maintain that all leases include a force majeure clause, which allow for delay or suspension of payment in the act of an emergency or unspecified natural event
    • Tenants have guaranteed right to counsel in legal proceedings
  • Something similar to the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act in San Francisco which gives qualified non-profit organizations the right of first offer, and/or the right of first refusal to purchase certain properties offered for sale in the City.
  • Community organizations could come together and create land trusts.
  • For developable parcels of land on city-owned parking lots and industrial areas, as well as land in which a development plan exists (but is for sale at below market price due to the financial conditions of the developer), the City will sell or transfer the property for affordable housing development.
  • Will extend the Eviction Moratorium until our communities actually start healing from COVID-19.