CITY OF SEATTLE
ORDINANCE __________________
COUNCIL BILL __________________
title
AN ORDINANCE relating to appropriations for the Executive Department; amending Ordinance 126490, which adopted the 2022 Budget; changing appropriations and creating new positions in the Office of Housing; all by a 3/4 vote of the City Council.
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WHEREAS, the Mayor and City Council are committed to ensuring everyone in Seattle has access to safe, stable, and affordable homes; and
WHEREAS, affordable housing helps to address The City of Seattle’s long history of displacement and segregation caused by government-supported colonialism, racial covenants, and redlining leading to the restriction of where Black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) may live and purchase homes and disparities in access to affordable homes, as well as education, living-wage employment, healthy environment, and transportation; and
WHEREAS, 22,850 renters earning less than 30 percent of Area Median Income and 6,535 renters earning between 30 percent and 50 percent of Area Median Income are severely cost-burdened, paying more than 50 percent of their income for rent in Seattle. An additional 17,000 renters earning up to 50 percent of Area Median Income in Seattle are moderately cost-burdened, paying 30 to 50 percent of their income for rent; and
WHEREAS, there is an estimated shortage of 26,620 rental units affordable and available to renter households at or below 30 percent of Area Median Income and the King County Regional Affordable Housing Task Force found that 156,000 affordable homes were needed immediately, and another 88,000 homes by 2040, to ensure that no low-income households were cost-burdened in the region; and
WHEREAS, in King County 40,800 people experienced homelessness at some point in 2019 and 45,300 people experienced homelessness at some point in 2020 and were living in unsafe conditions outside and in shelters in our region, and affordable housing and permanent supportive housing provide an end to homelessness; and
WHEREAS, to respond for the critical need for affordable homes, City investments in affordable housing development, preservation, and acquisition managed by the Office of Housing have quadrupled from the 2014 to the 2022 Budget, creating higher transactional volume, new policy and programmatic initiatives, and increased requests for data and information; and
WHEREAS, $100 million dollars of the Office of Housing’s total $208 million 2022 Adopted Budget is supported by Jumpstart Payroll Expense Tax Fund revenue and this is an on-going source of funds; and
WHEREAS, the increased investment in affordable homes results in additional pre-development work to identify opportunities to build and acquire affordable homes and create a pipeline of projects, increased real estate transactions to build, preserve, and acquire new affordable multifamily homes, and permanently affordable homeownership and monitoring of construction activity; and
WHEREAS, permanently affordable homeownership is essential to ensure low-income and BIPOC community members have opportunities to own homes, build wealth, and prevent displacement; and
WHEREAS, provision of technical support and capacity building is necessary to ensure development by and ownership of multifamily affordable homes for-rent and permanently affordable for-sale homes by BIPOC-led and community-based organizations; and
WHEREAS, compliance monitoring and asset management is critical to ensure rent and income restrictions and health and safety standards are met for over 15,500 affordable homes directly funded with City resources and over 6,500 homes created through incentive programs; and
WHEREAS, The City of Seattle has a goal to become a carbon-neutral city by 2050 to address the climate crisis and the greatest and most harmful impacts of climate change are falling disproportionately on lower-income communities and communities of color globally; however, these communities have contributed the least to the cumulative global emissions that are causing climate change and are least equipped to adapt to the impacts; and
WHEREAS, focus on the critical need to create affordable housing and higher investment levels results in increased requests for information, public disclosure, analysis, and data from elected officials, peer agencies, media, and community members, and staff capacity is necessary to develop data systems, provide publicly available information and visualizations, and timely responses to requests; and
WHEREAS, in 2009 The City of Seattle established the Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) through Resolution 31164, affirming the City’s race and social justice work and directing City departments to use available tools to assist in the elimination of racial and social disparities across key indicators of success, including health, education, criminal justice, the environment, employment, and the economy, and to promote equity within the City workplace and in the delivery of City services; and
WHEREAS, RSJI and staff time to perform RSJI-related training, toolkit development and monitoring, and Change Team participation was explicitly included in each Office of Housing job description; and
WHEREAS, increased funding, staffing, and policy and programming development leads to an increased need for administrative support to perform basic office management functions; and
WHEREAS, increased development of affordable homes increases the need for wage monitoring to ensure an equitable residential construction workforce and to monitor utilization of apprenticeships, women- and minority-owned businesses (WMBEs), and priority hire in affordable housing development; and
WHEREAS, increased funding results in additional real estate transactions and documents requiring legal review and advice; and
WHEREAS, since 1981 Seattle voters have approved one bond and five property tax levies to create affordable housing, and the Seattle Housing Levy is a nationally recognized local financing tool and the cornerstone of affordable housing creation for the Office of Housing; and
WHEREAS, the 2016 Seattle Housing Levy is on track to meet or exceed goals; and
WHEREAS, the Seattle Housing Levy is up for voter consideration in 2023 and dedicated staffing capacity and resources are necessary to convene stakeholders, community members, and technical advisors to inform programming and provide subject matter expertise, produce reports and materials to communicate, with equitable language access, achievement of goals and continued need, draft legislation, and provide modeling for affordable housing production goals under various funding scenarios; and
WHEREAS, the Office of Housing needs additional staff to support the City’s efforts to acquire, build, preserve, and maintain affordable housing; and
WHEREAS, the Jumpstart Payroll Expense Tax Fund provides administrative dollars that will be used to cover the on-going staff and related administrative costs; NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY OF SEATTLE AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. The following new positions are created in the Office of Housing:
|
Department |
Position Title |
Position Status |
Number |
|
Office of Housing |
Admin Staff Analyst |
Full-time |
1 |
|
Office of Housing |
Community Development Specialist |
Full-time |
2 |
|
Office of Housing |
Grants and Contracts Specialist, Sr |
Full-time |
1 |
|
Office of Housing |
Management Systems Analyst |
Full-time |
1 |
|
Office of Housing |
Management Systems Analyst, Sr |
Full-time |
1 |
|
Office of Housing |
Manager 1 |
Full-time |
1 |
|
Office of Housing |
Planning & Development Specialist |
Full-time |
2 |
|
Office of Housing |
Planning & Development Specialist, Sr |
Full-time |
1 |
|
Office of Housing |
Public Relations Specialist |
Full-time |
1 |
|
Office of Housing |
Strategic Advisor 1 |
Full-time |
1 |
|
Office of Housing |
Strategic Advisor 1 |
Part-time |
1 |
The Director of the Office of Housing is authorized to fill these positions subject to Seattle Municipal Code Title 4, the City’s Personnel Rules, Civil Service rules, and applicable employment laws.
Section 2. The appropriations for the following items in the 2022 Adopted Budget are modified as follows:
|
Item |
Department |
Fund |
Budget Summary Level |
Amount |
|
2.1 |
Executive (Office of Housing) |
Payroll Expense Tax (14500) |
Multifamily Housing (14500-BO-HU-3000) |
($732,667) |
|
|
|
Payroll Expense Tax (14500) |
Leadership and Administration (14500-BO-HU-1000) |
$671,273 |
|
|
|
Payroll Expense Tax (14500) |
Homeownership & Sustainability (14500-BO-HU-2000) |
$61,394 |
|
Total |
$0 |
Section 3. In order to pay for necessary costs and expenses incurred or to be incurred in 2022, but for which insufficient appropriations were made due to causes that could not reasonably have been foreseen at the time of the making of the 2022 Budget, appropriations for the following items in the 2022 Budget are increased from the funds shown, as follows:
|
Item |
Department |
Fund |
Budget Summary Level |
Amount |
|
3.1 |
Executive (Office of Housing) |
Office of Housing Fund (16600) |
Leadership & Administration (16600-BO-HU-1000) |
$392,000 |
|
Total |
$392,000 |
Section 4. This ordinance shall take effect and be in force 30 days after its approval by the Mayor, but if not approved and returned by the Mayor within ten days after presentation, it shall take effect as provided by Seattle Municipal Code Section 1.04.020.
Passed by a 3/4 vote of all the members of the City Council the ________ day of _________________________, 2022, and signed by me in open session in authentication of its passage this _____ day of _________________________, 2022.
____________________________________
President ____________ of the City Council
Approved / returned unsigned / vetoed this _____ day of _________________, 2022.
____________________________________
Bruce A. Harrell, Mayor
Filed by me this ________ day of _________________________, 2022.
____________________________________
Monica Martinez Simmons, City Clerk
(Seal)