We Endorse Prop 1A for Seattle! Here’s Why:

It’s no secret that the housing problem facing the city of Seattle has already reached emergency levels, and we absolutely cannot delay action any longer. Data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 and 2019 American Community Surveys shows that Seattle rent prices have increased nearly 92% since 2010.  Gone are the days of thinking we can continue with the status quo and hope to achieve a different outcome.

The action we take for tackling this crisis requires significant courage, political backbone, and a vision for bold change, and Proposition 1A, on Seattle’s special election ballot as of February 2025, lays out a blueprint for success!

Seattle voters certainly appear poised to meet the challenge, not only by having identified affordable housing as one of the top two priority issues during the campaign season of the 2023 City Council race, but they also passed Initiative 135 (Social Housing Developer Authority Measure) by a 14-point margin that same year. Initiative 137 (which became Prop. 1A) received more than 38,000 signatures from Seattle voters, assuring its spot on the current ballot and further proving that this initiative enjoys a groundswell of popular support across a wide spectrum of folks who live, work, and vote in our Emerald City.

Draft of potential social housing in Northgate, by Neiman Taber

Courtesy of House Our Neighbors

Here are some important facts to help you decide how to fill out your ballot:

Prop 1A, put forward by House Our Neighbors, would add a new tax on the extremely wealthy (not the poor or the middle class) to fund its mixed-income housing model. If you’re wondering what is meant by “extremely wealthy,” the definition is clearly enumerated in the language of Prop 1-A: The minimal 5% business tax would only be applied to companies which compensate individual employees above $1 million and would generate roughly $53 million per year through the taxing of the wealthiest businesses who operate in Seattle.

Sharon H. Lee, executive director of the Low Income Housing Institute, says this revenue would “directly fund the construction and acquisition of affordable social housing in Seattle, creating more than 2,000 affordable units in the first 10 years.” Lee added that “these apartments will be affordable for our low- and moderate-income neighbors as well as middle-income workers struggling to afford market-rate housing in Seattle — like teachers, nurses, and bus drivers.”

The tax would be paid not by the employee, but by the employer.

Prop 1A’s Seattle Social Housing Developer seeks to provide housing across a mix of income ranges, including middle-income, family-sized housing up to 120% of area median income. The mixed-income communities created by the SSHD would result in rent payments from higher-income residents supporting lower-income tenants paying a reduced rent.

According to the Seattle Social Housing Developer’s charter, rents will not be more than 30% of renters’ household income. This serves to protect renters in SSHD buildings from the staggering rent hikes Seattleites have been subjected to over the last 25 years. The SSHD charter also ensures that union labor will be used for construction of these units, and all SSHD properties will be built to the highest environmental standards to meet our city’s climate change goals and reduce our carbon footprint.

Over 100 labor organizations, small businesses, community leaders, and elected officials alike have publicly endorsed funding for social housing and Prop 1A, affirming the initiative’s mainstream appeal.

Illustration on how to vote in favor of Prop 1A

Courtesy of House Our Neighbors

On the other hand, opponents of 1A, led by the centrist/conservative majority of our current Seattle City Council, are unfortunately seeking to protect our wealthiest corporations from this nominal tax, and have put forward a deeply problematic alternative—Prop. 1B, which is also on the ballot—to confuse and potentially mislead voters. Voters could have had a much simpler yes-or-no vote on Prop 1A, but the initiative’s opponents are presenting a two-part vote process on the ballot, where voters will be asked whether they want to fund social housing at all (an attempt to sow doubt in the viability of Prop 1A), and if yes, they will then have to choose between one of the two options.

There is no apparent evidence of community buy-in, grassroots support, or voter mandate for the alternative option Prop 1B, nor is there a Prop 1B website where voters can go to find clear information about it. Prop 1B was simply put forward by the City Council as a status quo alternative, which allows them to continue to divert money from the JumpStart payroll tax account to use for non-housing expenses like closing budget shortfalls or for spending on other projects. Not even the entire City Council supports 1B, as evidenced by the fact that Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, who won her election by double digit margins last fall, has endorsed Prop 1A.

Additionally, the City Council majority’s 1B option explicitly blocks the mixed-income model that the voter-approved social housing developer was formed to implement, revealing a clear attempt to kneecap the effort.

Could it be that the opponents of Prop. 1A are themselves the very interests that this Initiative seeks to tax, and the only reason they don’t support it is because of a resistance towards paying their fair share to help get Seattle out of this devastating housing crisis? If so, this only adds further urgency to the need for Prop. 1A, the very best option to pull us out of the ditch into which status quo policies have thus far driven us. It’s now up to voters to clear the path we take towards mitigating the housing crisis! 

This is an extremely important election, and voting is one of the best ways to demand the action we must take to address this crisis head-on.

Ballots must be filled out and returned by Tuesday, February 11, 2025, at 8:00pm.

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***Editor’s Note: With pro-human and pro-climate change mitigation stances for a progressive and accepting society addressing the needs of a growing city and housing crisis, The Evergreen Echo—a young and progressive cooperative—has voted via majority to officially endorse Prop 1A.

Full Disclosure: Rachel Glass is the First Vice Chair of the 34th Legislative District Democrats in addition to her role as Ops Manager of The Echo.