$50 million for 165 units seems a little…spendy? And that’s all you get. Just 165 units. That’s $300,000 per unit.
Durkan said the $50 million cost will be shared by the city, which will contribute $25 million, and the Washington State Department of Commerce which will provide $25 million in matching funds.
So that’s a little better, with Seattle taxpayers only on the hook for half. But even $150K per unit seems like a lot. What’s the long term plan for these properties? They are being turned over to LIHI but I’d like to see some thinking around not having a need for LIHI, for an end to low-income and low-income housing. Nothing against LIHI (I live next to an LIHI development now) but I have problems with any kind of segregation, by race or income.
But in the short term, why doesn’t the mayor or city council go after all the unimproved parcels downtown, all the surface parking lots? Why buy existing buildings when the city could get a mixed-use building — social housing, market-rate housing, retail and restaurants — on all of those parking lots? Instead of taxing them for their present purpose as the “highest and best use,” they should be taxed as productive land, as if they were already developed to house people and provide jobs and business opportunities.
If developers are willing to pay annual ground rents up to $1,000,000/acre, why are we accepting that car storage is a better use of that land? Put an appropriate tax on those parcels, assessed as productive land ve speculative investment, and if they don’t pay, seize it under eminent domain. We have a housing crisis alongside vacant/unused land in the valuable part of the city. That should be considered incompetence on the part of the mayor and council but property wealth trumps human need, property rights over human rights. Seattle is more libertarian than progressive but that could change.