Boom Renters being routed?
The Seattle Displacement Coalition fired off a press release today, timed to this Seattle Times story about how the downtown condo boom might be coming in small part at the expense of rentals, especially low-income rentals.
I have to dash off for an interview, which by coincidence, deals with one case of rentals converting to condos. But let’s start the debate now. Press release after the jump.
Over 2000 rental units lost to condominium conversion and 681 units demolished in Seattle last year - displacement of low income households reaching record levels!While some councilmembers have raised concerns, our mayor and key department heads seemed to think it's perfectly alright to lose 2 percent of our low income stock every year the vast majority of lost units are larger rentals for low income families - seniors also hit especially hard!
Two weeks ago, the City's Department of Planning (DPD) quietly released to Councilmember Tom Rasmussen numbers showing a staggering loss of low income units last year due to condominium conversion and demolition. In all, over 2000 housing units have been lost from June '05 thru May '06 to conversion while another 681 units were lost to demolition. The great majority of these units are low income rental units. In the case of condo conversions, historically, this phenomenon has disproportionately displaced seniors citizens. With respect to demolitions, the units that are lost for office buildings, condos and other uses tend to be larger older duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and single-family low cost rentals serving families with kids. Given that the majority of families in Seattle with kids are renters who depend on a stock of these larger affordable units - any such loss in such high numbers hurts our school system and hampers our ability to deliver good education to the kids of these uprooted homes.
These dramatic housing losses were described by DPD's Director Diane Sigamura in a report released two weeks ago to Tom Rasmussen's Housing Committee but presented as if it was no big deal, as if this level of rental housing loss happens all the time in Seattle. When Councilmember Rasmussen expressed concern about the loss, Ms. Sigamura merely shrugged it off as if it was perfectly acceptable - just a natural outgrowth of market forces. She also offered no solutions to the problem and merely pointed to the fact that state law restricts our city's right to impose further restrictions on the process of condominum conversion beyond the current minimal requirements. (Note that when it happened at these levels over 25 years ago, then Mayor Royer slapped an immediate moratorium on developers filing for conversion).
Today under state law, tenants evicted due to conversion are given only $500 in relocation and a 90-day notice. They get first right to buy their unit but most our poor and are given 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 but tenants - even those who've lived years in a building - simply get the boot. With respect to housing demolitions, tenants today receive up to $2000 in relocation assistance but no first right to buy their units. (Twenty years ago in Seattle we had a demolition control law that also required developers to replace units they demolished and at comparable price. It was a significant deterrent for nearly a decade in Seattle to demolition and guarantee replacement units provided at developer expense not taxpayer expense. The courts later ruled that the ordinance violated state law and despite promises from previous City Councils and previous Mayors to replace that law with something similar and legally defensible, our current council and Mayor have taken no action). Hundreds of low income families are uprooted each year due to the Council's and Mayor's failure to live up to these past promises. Now even more families are losing their homes to demolition each year because the city has failed to act.
Historically in this city, the rate of demolitions and condo conversions has always increased during periods of high growth. When we add more new residential construction it correlates directly with more low income units lost to these trends. Simply letting the market do its thing, upzoning and adding density to areas of the City to accommodate more development as our Mayor and council have been prone to do, giving developers multi-family tax exemptions, rolling out the red carpet for developers - these strategies simply ain't working if the goal is more affordability. In fact, it's having precisely the opposite effect.
Despite record levels of new residential construction and the mantra of "density density density" - county-wide, we've seen an actual net loss in the rental housing supply!
Here's a quote from a April Seattle Times article by Virginia Rhode's explaining why rents are rising county-wide despite all the new construction (she's drawing from Dupres and Scott's analysis and April report):
Scott says several factors are fueling the change. Foremost is the improving economy. The addition of 50,000 jobs to the area last year, and potentially as many again this year, give a big boost to apartment demand. Second is the condominium-conversion trend. Some 9,200 apartments in the region have become condos since 2000, according to Scott's calculations. Last year saw the biggest change — about 4,000 units converted — and resulted in a net loss of rental units because it exceeded the number of apartments built. Conversions are "certainly affecting the supply of apartments, and so from that standpoint it's putting pressure on rents," observed Scott Hanson, president of SeaMark Properties, an apartment and condominium developer.
Allowing these losses makes a mockery of efforts occurring city and county-wide to stem the tide of homelessness.
These housing losses translate directly into more homelessness in our city and county. For every one hundred units of low income housing built in our city or county, we lose 3-4 times that amount each year due to forces of demolition, condo converstion, speculative sale, and increased rents. Allowing these losses makes a mockery of efforts occurring city and county-wide to stem the tide of homelessness. The current plan to end homeless for example is nothing but a cruel hoax so long as this committee and all the electeds and other big shots serving on it, continue to ignore housing losses due to these forces of redevelopment. As long as they continue to do absolutely nothing, propose absolutely nothing to address these losses.It's time to act now! Regarding:
1. Condo Conversions: The City should immediately implement a moratorium on the conversion of apartments to condominiums. If state law bars the City from imposing such a moratorium immediately, then plans should be immediately announced by our Mayor and City Council to go down to Olympia in the next session and get this state law changed. The city should be given back its discretion to bar condo conversions in the short term until a new city law is adopted which strictly limits total number of units that can be converted each year and guarantees replacement units and adequate relocation to tenants who are displaced. At a minimum lets see some real concern and urgency expressed by our leaders and a willingness to make this a number one city priority down in Olympia next session.2. Housing Demolitions: It's time to fulfill promises from past elected leaders of this city and come up with a effective local tool to either prevent housing demolitions from occurring at all or at least ensuring 100 percent replacement of units that are lost and at comparable price. There are numerous ways the City can address this problem and immediately. They don't have to wait for legislative changes down in Olympia. It just take political guts and a willingness to act!
3. The long run: We need to reassess our city's commitment to unbridled growth and density at all costs. The drive to upzone neighborhoods without first attempting to mitigate or even understand the impact of increased density on our existing housing stock is a tragedy and the single most significant cause of homelessness and growing inequality in our City. From here on out, lets measure first and before we act how a change in land use, housing policy, or all other city policies affects the distribution of wealth and resources in our city.
Why didn't you start the discussion years ago? This has been going on for years and years.