February 16, 2025

Seattle Votes to Fund Social Housing

 In These Times - Housing activists declared victory on Tuesday after unofficial election night totals showed nearly 58% of voters backed a new tax on big business that would bring in an estimated $53 million annually for the city’s new social housing development agency to build mixed-income, publicly owned housing.

Business and real estate interests, led by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, had sought to derail the measure. Buoyed by a pair of $100,000 donations each from Microsoft and Amazon last month, a political committee called People for Responsible Social Housing” spent more than half a million dollars opposing the new tax through a media and mail blitz featuring Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. 


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