Can anything be done to slow Seattle’s skyrocketing rents?

Calling Seattle’s soaring rents an “emergency” driving countless numbers of people from their homes, a coalition of activists has issued an ambitious report outlining a wide-ranging list of suggestions they hope will pressure the mayor and City Council to take action on affordable housing.

But many of the ideas will be a tough sell, facing fierce opposition from developers and business groups. And several of the key proposals such as rent control violate state law.

The report, titled “Solutions to Seattle’s Housing Emergency,” was authored by a diverse group representing everyone from the Low Income Housing Institute to seniors to college students.

Related: Seattle’s rent hikes unsustainable; up 32 percent since ’09

Among the ideas are a proposal calling on the city to issue $500 million in bonds to pay for new low-income housing, changes to zoning regulations to allow more affordable housing, tenant protections and limits on rents in Seattle.

Retiring city councilmember Nick Licata is backing the group’s recommendations along with fellow councilmember Kshama Sawant. Both say they expect to propose some new measure including rent limits later this year.

“Rents have increased about 60 percent and yet income has increased less than 25 percent,” Licata said, calling the soaring rents a crisis leading to increasing homelessness. “And as a result, from the work I’ve done working with homeless people, I can say that a number of them never thought they’d be living in the streets.”

Sharon Lee with the Low Income Housing Institute argues the city has more than enough money to support many of the proposals including investing in new affordable developments floating bonds.

“We’re housing fish at the Aquarium. We’re housing animals at the zoo. We even have a nice horse barn for the police horses,” she said at a news conference Monday. “So we are already spending massive amounts of general fund money.”

Mayor Ed Murray has assembled a task force on affordable housing that is supposed to issue recommendations by May 30. The 28 member panel — featuring representatives ranging from developers and real estate groups to tenants rights advocates — has moved slowly, issuing nothing more than a “problem statement” detailing the challenges faced by the city.

“Seattle seeks to be a diverse, prosperous and equitable community where individuals and families can build good lives in vibrant neighborhoods. Rising housing costs threaten to make that aspiration unattainable,” the statement said.

The committee’s recommendations are not likely to include several of the most contentious proposals, including a so-called “linkage fee” imposed on developers to go towards affordable housing.

One of the few areas where most agree is the notion of leveraging properties owned by the city, schools, churches or other institutions to build more affordable housing.

Sarajane Siefgriedt, with the Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action, also called for “air-rights”, or the development of affordable housing above public buildings such as new light rail terminals.

“We’re going to build all these stations along I-5, the light rail stations, there could be air rights over all of them. There could be housing going up. There could be housing over, lord knows, libraries. Whatever you could envision,” Siefgriedt said.