A Seattle family can’t build affordable housing on their property without first paying the city $77,000. The family has decided to sue. It has been two years since the project was placed on hold due to the $77,000. That’s the amount the family would have to pay to the city to break ground.
The fee was created by a local rule to establish and fund affordable housing. The lifelong Seattle family argues it is instead blocking them from building affordable housing for their own family. Anita Adams, 49, filed a lawsuit against the city over a local rule that was designed to create and fund affordable housing.
The cost to the Adams family for the project has ballooned from about $600,000 to at least $750,000. That doesn’t count for inflation which makes the project’s total cost at around $900,000. The lawsuit states that “because the MHA permit conditions create untenable risks to her financial circumstances, Ms. Adams has been and is unable to move forward with constructing a house for her family.”
It’s an expensive but necessary project where the Seattle homeowner wants to build a second, four-unit structure on her property so she can give her adult children, father-in-law, and potentially other family members a place to live in the city’s historically Black Central District.
The family said they can afford the project with financing, which they expect would total around 2,200 square feet. In Seattle, new developments in certain areas have to include affordable housing units or the developer has to pay the city an amount of money based on the floor area of their project. These funds go towards funding low-income housing preservation and production elsewhere — as a condition of receiving a building permit.
Adams can either add two extra affordable units to her project and rent them at below-market rates to income-restricted tenants for 75 years, or pay the $77k fee. Last year, nearly 300 projects was issued building permits. The money charged goes towards affordable housing contributions through Seattle’s mandatory housing affordability program. They made $75.5 million in payments and 95 affordable units.
In 2021, the city states that it funded low-income housing projects with nearly $57 million in mandatory housing affordability payment proceeds to support 990 affordable rental apartments and 17 condominiums for low-income, first-time homebuyers.
