Nickels seeks tax boost for affordable housing in Seattle

Mayor Greg Nickels wants to ask Seattleites to nearly double the city's affordable-housing levy in a November vote.

The current seven-year $86 million property-tax levy for housing expires this year. Nickels today proposed a $145 million, seven-year renewal of the levy.

The City Council has final say on what will go to voters.

Even in the midst of a recession, Nickels said he expects voters to again support affordable housing. He pointed to their willingness to tax themselves for housing in 2002 when they approved the levy during a regional economic slump.

"I think people recognize that in hard times there's even more need. That's what we saw in 2002 in what was actually a worse economy locally," Nickels said Tuesday.

Nickels' proposal would cost Seattle taxpayers about 17 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. The mayor estimates that the average home would pay about $79 a year for the housing levy, up $30 a year from the 2002 levy.

Nickels says the levy money would help build or preserve more than 2,000 apartments, allow first-time buyers to purchase 180 homes, and provide rent assistance to 550 households a year.

It would also allow housing developers to leverage almost $270 million in noncity funds from the federal government and private investors.

The mayor would allot the tax money to five areas:

• $104 million to construct or rehab apartment buildings, creating or preserving 1,670 rental units.

• $9.1 million in loans to assist first-time homebuyers in purchasing 180 homes.

• $7.9 million in subsidies to help operate and maintain about 220 apartments for the most needy, such as the disabled and elderly.

• $6.5 million for a new program, a fund to buy land or buildings that might later be developed for town houses or condos.

• $4.2 million in rent assistance for households at risk of homelessness because of job loss, illness, divorce or death.

The remaining $14 million would go to administer the programs.

The 2002 levy has produced or preserved 2,011 apartments; helped homebuyers purchase 211 houses or condos; and provided rent assistance to 4,144 households, according to the city's Office of Housing.

Nickels noted that none of homebuyers aided by the city has faced foreclosure.

The leading critic of the 2002 levy was then-Councilmember Judy Nicastro, who was elected three years before as an advocate for renters. Nicastro cast the lone council vote against the 2002 levy, arguing that too much of the levy was aimed at middle-class homebuyers instead of the city's neediest renters.

But that argument didn't appear persuasive. The 2002 levy was approved by 54 percent of the voters.

Nickels predicted that City Councilmembers would trim this new proposal. They shaved $9 million from his 2002 proposal before sending it to voters. "I think the Council will put its mark on this. I'd guess with this economy they'd look to reduce this."

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com