Seattle Voters Support Affordable Housing

December 23, 2009 Grantee News Preserving Affordable Rental Housing Housing

More than 60 percent of Seattle voters approved, for the second time, a levy that will fund the construction or preservation of apartment buildings that serve low- to moderate-income seniors and disabled people, formerly-homeless individuals, and low-wage working families. This new levy will enable the Seattle Office of Housing, a MacArthur grantee, to help make strategic purchases of buildings or land. The effect will be to secure the long-term affordability of properties that, in better economic times, might have become market-rate apartments or condos. Over the next seven years, the levy is expected to raise $145 million dollars and produce or preserve nearly 2,000 affordable homes.