(The Center Square)—More than 10,000 applicants are vying for 15 rent-reduced apartments under a new Seattle affordable housing program funded by a city tax on workers who make more than $1 million a year.
Amazon, Microsoft and other companies fought the tax, but voters approved it in a 2025 referendum.
The program was expected to create only several hundred apartments a year, as the so-called social housing developer constructed new buildings.
But the first allotment of apartments is even smaller because the social housing developer decided to buy an existing luxury apartment building and won’t require tenants to leave.
“We believe we currently have 15 vacancies to fill,” said Lilly Ann Fowler, a spokesperson for the social housing developer, in an email. ”Applicants will be notified this week.”
Fowler said the first 15 apartments will be reserved for people earning 30% of the area’s median income, which is around $34,500 for a single person.
Critics say buying existing apartment buildings won’t create new affordable housing for the poor on a larger scale.
“With only a small number of new units becoming available, it will do little to address the needs of hundreds of people seeking affordable housing,” said Shannon Affholter, the Co-Chair at the Runstad Department of Real Estate at the University of Washington.
The Social Housing Developer announced last month that it purchased a 150-unit building by the Pike Place Market for around $60 million.
The building, the Elera at the Market, features some luxury units that rent for more than $3,000 a month.
Seattle Social Housing Developer interim CEO Tiffani McCoy told the independent authorities board in April that buying the then-unnamed building would help the housing organization provide housing sooner, as new construction would take several years.
Under the Social Housing model, which originated in Vienna, Austria, tenants of all income levels live in the same building, with the idea that richer tenants subsidize poorer tenants.
But even richer tenants will be getting a break under the Social Housing Developments plan.
It announced last month, when it purchased the Elara at the Market, that all rents will be frozen for two years and that hidden fees around utility charges will also be eliminated.
Affholter said the plan is helping the wrong people.
“Freezing rents for all existing tenants may also provide benefits to some households that do not face significant financial hardship, while doing little to expand access to those who are struggling most,” he said.
The authority received a tax payment of more than $115 million this year. The city started collecting the tax at the beginning of this year for the tax year 2025.
Any employer in the city that pays an employee more than $1 million a year must pay the city of Seattle five percent of the amount above that threshold under the social housing tax.
“It’s very exciting, but just remember, it takes a long time for new construction to come online, so we’re hoping by the end of 2028, early 2029, but at least we are going to be starting pre-development this year on some sites,” McCoy said in April.
