Slow clap: Seattle’s affordable housing project has good and bad news

So we’ve got some good news and some bad news about Seattle’s latest effort at affordable housing.

First the good news, there was a groundbreaking ceremony on Capitol Hill to commemorate the building of affordable housing that will sit directly on top of the new light rail station. When it’s said and done, 428 new apartments are going in. Seattle politicians billed it a win for affordable housing. On its face, it seems like a wonderful and smart idea. Affordable housing literally sitting on top of a brand new public transportation hub. What’s not to like? Imagine the waiting line for these apartments.

I guess I should get the bad news out of the way now. When you read the fine print, only 40 percent of the units will rent at below market rate in exchange for a tax break to the developer. That equates to about 171 apartments. The affordability break will expire in 12 years and the developer can then revert those units back to market rate prices. There’s also a lot of fine print on exactly what “affordable” means and who would qualify and who wouldn’t quality. I won’t bore you with all the details.

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I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Hey, it’s better than nothing. This is a step in the right direction.”

I disagree, and let me tell you why. While Mayor Jenny Durkan was busy with her oversized ribbon cutting scissors and back slapping, the other part of this equation was glossed over. These units will not be ready until sometime close to 2021.

On top of that, Seattle does what it always does. It creates a Byzantine maze of strange incentives and tax breaks that ultimately slow a project like this down. All the while, maximizing permits and fees and inspections. Seattle loves to create a Rube Goldberg of overly complex mechanism to get anything done. Keep in mind we’ve been in a declared state of emergency for homelessness for over two years. It’s classic Seattle — too little too late disguised as a celebration party.

If there really is a housing emergency, why not just build affordable housing? Why filter it through all these layers and rules? Why rely on third parties to promise to do the work? Why give the third parties everything back in a dozen years? Won’t there still be a desperate need for affordable housing in the 2030s? While I’ll give you a subdued golf clap for the effort, does anyone actually believe that 171 below market units three years from now is going to make a dent?

There’s an math axiom I like, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The two points in this scenario are people who need affordable housing and buildings that offer said housing.

Just build the housing. Why all the disparate points in between?

You can hear “What are we talking about here?” everyday at 4:45 p.m. on 97.3 FM.

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