Conventional wisdom tells us that the more units of housing we build, the more affordable they should be, but here in Seattle, as in many cities across the country, exactly the opposite is true.
Runaway growth has correlated directly with higher rents and an increase in the number of existing low cost units that are demolished to make way for new, more expensive development. Growth also has been accompanied by an alarming number of units lost to condominium conversion.
Up-zoning property for greater density only increases the pressure to tear down existing housing. Older duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and single-family rentals are particularly susceptible. As for condo conversions, an April Seattle Times article explained how 9,200 apartments have been converted to condos since 2000, county-wide.
Last year saw the biggest change with about 4,000 units converted. This resulted in a net loss of rental units because it exceeded the number of apartments built county-wide, wrote the Time's Virginia Rhodes.
In the city we see the same trend. Just this past year, between June of 2005 and May of 2006, Seattle lost over 2,000 housing units to condo conversions and 681 to demolition, of which the great majority had been home to low-income renters.
Taken lightly
These dramatic housing losses were described by Department of Planning and Development's Director Diane Sugimura in a report released recently to city councilmember Tom Rasmussen's housing committee. When Rasmussen expressed concern, Sugimura merely shrugged it off as if it were a perfectly acceptable and natural outgrowth of market forces. She offered no solutions, merely pointing to the fact that state law restricts Seattle's right to impose further restrictions on the process of condominium conversion.
Under state law, tenants evicted due to conversion are given only $500 in relocation funds and a 90-day notice. They get first right to buy their units, but most have no access to resources to help them do so.
Owners must meet some nominal code requirements (which apparently they routinely ignore) when they ready the units for sale. Tenants, even those who've lived years in a building, simply get the boot. As for housing demolitions, tenants receive up to $2,000 in relocation assistance but no first right to buy their units.
Twenty years ago in Seattle, we had a demolition control law that required developers to replace units they demolished and at comparable price. It often deterred developers from even proceeding with demolition. The ordinance lasted for nearly a decade, until courts ruled that it violated state law. Despite promises from previous city councils and mayors to replace these controls with something legally defensible, no action was ever taken.
Allowing these losses to continue negates the region's best efforts at stemming the tide of homelessness. The 10-Year Plan's leaders recently touted the funding of 1,300 new subsidized units of housing countywide. But a handful of private developers and speculators remove 2-3 times that number of low-cost units each year for condominium conversion or demolition, and that doesn't count still more low cost rentals lost each year to abandonment and plain old rent increases. The current plan to end homeless is nothing but a cruel hoax so long as it ignores housing losses due to the forces of redevelopment.
A deeper look
Currently under the direction of councilmember Tom Rasmussen, the city council is putting together a study of housing losses in four of Seattle's neighborhoods - the Central Area/Southeast Seattle, Capitol Hill, Downtown, and the University District. In addition to compiling units lost to demolition and conversion in recent years, they'll identify units we are losing in these areas and city-wide due to speculative sale. In Seattle's hot market, dozens of older, low-cost apartments are being sold to speculators. A few superficial repairs are made to the buildings and then rents are jacked up $200-$300 dollars. Hundreds of additional low-income renters in our city are being displaced now due to this trend as well.
In the fall, the results of the council's study will be reviewed and a task force of citizens will be making recommendations for council action. At least there is movement of some kind after years of ignoring this critical issue.
But do we really need to wait for a study in light of these staggering housing losses and the human consequences of so many getting evicted from their homes? If these losses were the result of a natural disaster, some kind of state of emergency long ago would have been declared.
Just stop
The city should immediately implement a moratorium on condominium conversions. If a city ordinance can't be crafted to get around barriers in state law, the mayor and city council should go to Olympia in the next session and get state provisions changed. The moratorium should remain in place until the city gets back whatever discretion it needs and adopts strict limits on the total number of units that can be converted each year and guarantees adequate relocation to displaced tenants.
The city also should implement an immediate moratorium on housing demolitions, at least in cases where apartments of 10 or more units are slated for removal. It should remain in place until promises from past elected leaders are fulfilled - until a law is passed that either prevents housing demolitions or at least ensures 100 percent replacement of low-cost units that are lost. The city can address this problem without having to wait for legislative changes down in Olympia. It just takes political guts and a willingness to act!
In the long run, we need to reassess our city's commitment to unbridled growth and density at all costs. The drive to up-zone neighborhoods without first attempting to mitigate or even understand the impact of increased density on our existing housing stock is the single most significant cause of homelessness and growing inequality in our city. From here on out, before we act, let's measure first how a proposed change in land use or housing policy affects the distribution of wealth in our city.
Carolee Colter and John V. Fox work for the Seattle Displacement Coalition. They may be reached via editor@sdistrictjournal.com.[[In-content Ad]]
