‘We have to do something different’: Former Seattle council president says city should learn from Vancouver, BC on housing

Vancouver, B.C., has unlocked 10 acres for affordable housing, but how did they do it? The Canadian government returned the land in the middle of the city to the Squamish, whose ancestors lived there. The Squamish are now building a dense residential neighborhood that will include 6,000 homes in 11 towers, according to The New York Times.

Former Seattle City Council president Sara Nelson told “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio that Seattle needs to look at the barriers inhibiting the city from building more housing.

“Seeing another city, another project go up so fast and meet so many different needs was really inspiring,” she said. “So, policy makers always have to ask themselves, is this rule helping or hurting now?”

Seattle is the only city in the state with its own building code

Nelson said Seattle’s housing rules fall into several categories: building codes, zoning, and the taxes and fees being imposed on construction. She added that Seattle is the only city in the state that has its own building code.

“As a former policy maker, I’m still very much interested in the long-term impacts of the laws that we pass, the regulations, and sometimes regulations that might have seemed to make sense at one point no longer do, and we’re suffering the negative consequences,” she said.

Nelson pointed out that in Vancouver, B.C., the new housing is being built on Native land, so it wasn’t subject to the same rules as the rest of the city. She added that Seattle needs to reevaluate its approach if the current policies aren’t working.

“There have been suggestions to establish opportunity zones for economic development, or experimental zoning in different parts of the city, and I say, go for it, because if what we’re doing isn’t working, then we have to do something different,” Nelson said.

Seattle failed to center addiction, Nelson says

As for making headway on homelessness, Nelson said that during her term, Seattle leaders failed to put addiction at the center of the city’s legislative agenda.

“When I took office in 2022, we were spending, I think the figure was $208 million on affordable housing, which was the budget for affordable housing. How much money was there for treatment, addiction treatment? Zero,” she explained.

KIRO host Ursula Reutin acknowledged there’s only so much ground they could cover, but said the conversation gets people thinking about why housing has to be so complicated in Seattle.

“Remove the barriers to attaining our goals — the ones that are easy,” Nelson responded. “Don’t point at interest rates, look inside and ask what can we fix here?”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.