News Mayor’s Office Selects Solid Ground to Distribute Frozen Tenant Fund
posted by on February 27 at 8:30 AM
The City is in the final stages of securing a deal with non-profit Solid Ground—which recently assisted the city with a program to help homeowners saddled with sub-prime mortgages—to distribute part of a City Council fund for displaced tenants, which was frozen by the Mayor Greg Nickels’ Office earlier this year.
In January, the City’s Department of Human Services (DHS) was faced with a half-million dollar shortfall, due to a loss in federal funding. Because the federal money was used to pay for homeless shelters and food bank programs, Nickels instructed DHS to hold off on distributing a $350,000 Council fund—which was added to DHS’s budget, but earmarked to assist tenants displaced by condo conversion—until their budget problem was solved. Nickels neglected to mention the fund freeze to the Council. Two weeks ago, Councilmember Tim Burgess asked the Mayor’s Office to cough up $50,000 of the fund. Nickels said he would release half of that.
While tenants have been left out in the cold by the City—and the state legislature has been slow to act—some of the funds should be available soon. According to DHS spokeswoman Sara Levin, the City is hoping to finalize a contract with Solid Ground and begin community outreach later this week. Levin says the City will provide Solid Ground with a list of 15 buildings—with 166 units—which have filed for conversion since September, and Solid Ground will work to contact tenants and determine who’s eligible for relocation assistance.
Displaced tenants who make 51-80% of Seattle’s median income—which is about $41,000—will be eligible to receive $500 in City relocation funds. Those who make 31-50% are eligible for $1,000, and those who make 30% or less of median income are eligible to receive $1,500 from the City. It’s unclear whether building owners will also have to pay low-income tenants an additional $500, as required by current conversion regulations.
While housing activists don’t believe the $25,000 will adequately cover all of the displaced tenants, Levin believes it will be enough. “We’ve looked at the preliminary [displacement] numbers,” she says. “Not everyone is going to be eligible. We’re making a guess that [this is] the right amount of money.” Guesswork aside, Levin says the City is ultimately relying on the legislature to take statewide action to assist displaced tenants.
While Levin remains optimistic, Solid Ground’s spokesman Mike Buchman admits If a number of the displaced tenants make less than 30% of median income—about $13,000 a year—the money DHS is releasing may not be enough. “There’s only money for about 20 households,” he says. “If all the households are 30% and below, that’s not going to be enough.”
Would be nice if there were more rental units being built in Seattle. But I know, it is better to build $500K condos instead. Rental units are not feasable because they are actually affordable. And we do not want affordability in Settle.
Anybody have insight on something tangible that can be done for lower and middle income housing? I am sick of the mayor, but I am also sick of my own instinct to whine about lower and middle income housing. What's it gonna take? I mean there is totally an environmental component to having most of the folks in the region commuting more than an hour to get to work... I hear Real Change is doing cool things with their organizing project. Does anyone else have ideas that don't involve only leaning on politicians?
@2, Prayer Lt.! The Klingons (developers) don't take prisoners.
Wouldn't 40 to 100 story inexpensive residential rental apartment building zoning near major transit hubs be:
a. cheaper?
b. smarter?
c. easier?
This isn't rocket science people.
@ 4. If it's not rocket science, in line with the city's global warming agenda, good for the lower and middle income citizens that we all claim to care about or be... then why ain't it happening... I don't want to complain, but what can *really* be done? There has to be something, right?
Oddly by now someone has started to riducule people who are not all thrilled with half million dollar condos going up all over Seattle. They usually degrade us renters by saying we should plunge ourselves into life crushing debt etc. and if we don't we are failures.
Wonder what happened to that crowd? Oh wait...foreclosure!
@4,
Well, since you keep spouting economic impossibilities (40-story buildings are not and never will be cheap without substantial direct government construction AND rent subsidies), it actually apparently IS rocket science.
The average low-income rental resident in a major city uses between 1/10th and 1/20th the energy and resources of the average suburbanite.
Zoning is free.
Until the Mayor groks that the only solution is mixed-income (no, not like Lake Union, that's a mixed ultra-rich/rich/upper-middle-class development) inexpensive residential apartment buildings near transit hubs, we'll never achieve our global warming emissions cutback goals.
Of course, we're still waiting for you to show us an example of one of these cheap towers you want. But you can't, because you're so full of gas you can't touch the ground.
Here, I'll help you: the Robert Taylor Homes are almost exactly what you want. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taylor_Homes
Ah, Fnarf, you have lots of Google knowledge, experience with wikis, and very little practical experience of the world.
So, tell me, what's the height limit near the Denny Triangle?
...
Wrong.
Wow, Will is telling me I have "little practical knowledge of the world". That's the funniest thing I've heard all week.
PKB, asshole.
Oh, and Will: Robert Taylor Homes were famous long before either Google or wikis existed. Your ideas are mouldering and infested with maggots at the bottom of the dustheap of history.
(hold his hands over his ears while Fnarf whines about how he can't get a helipad for his new ADA-accessible three story house in downtown Seattle)
Really?
You don't say?
Uh huh ...
I see.
Very interesting
(flips thru brochure of top restaurants we must go to if we are cool so we can go broke instead of actually eating good food)
Very interesting, Fnarf.
Well, gotta go .. bye!
Are you leaving? Really? Waiter, champagne please. No, the good stuff.
Maybe you can pick up some reading comprehension skills wherever it is you're going.
Ahhh... Chicago's successful and innovative public housing. That should work just as well almost anywhere.
Occupancy levels of course greatly impact the value of rental units, but flooding the market with outlandish 100 story, below market rate towers might not have the impact that math implies. People still have to WANT to live there, even renters. Seattle will never reach the critical mass that some Asian cities have which draw people into to megastructures like that.
I love the density and public transportation hubs I have access to, and use daily, but anything more than 2 common walls can be just bad living.
100 story rental structures, humm, why does the Cabrini Green come to mind? The Robert Taylor Homes are so old hat.
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