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Last Updated on February 15, 2023, 3:58 pm.
by Kaileah Baldwin, Puget Sound Sage
Seattle needs more, and more varied, solutions to address our ever-growing housing and homelessness crisis — and I-135 gives us another tool in the toolbox. Our current solutions are insufficient and we’re seeing it across our city. The number of unhoused people in Seattle continues to be on the rise since homelessness was declared a state of emergency in 2015, and shows signs of getting worse in the economic aftermath of COVID-19. In 2021, 47% of Seattle renters paid 30% or more of their income toward housing, the point at which many housing advocates consider a household to be rent-burdened. In 2022, King County saw 13,000 people unhoused in a single night. I-135 presents a new solution to address Seattle’s crises of displacement and homelessness.
Continue reading OPINION | Seattle Deserves a New Kind of Housingby Otis Golden
As a paraeducator at “the crown jewel of the South End,” Rainier Beach High School, I know one of the biggest barriers to closing the achievement gap that educators face today is — affordable housing.
Continue reading OPINION | I-135 Isn’t Just About Housing, It’s About Our Students Tooby Ronnie Estoque
On Jan. 29, the 43rd District Democrats and Tech 4 Housing hosted a concert at Neumos that featured performances from various local artists such as Hollis, Tomo Nakayama, and Black Stax. The event was organized to galvanize support for the social housing-centered Initiative 135 (I-135), which will be decided by voters via ballot on Feb. 14 in a special election. The Yes on I-135 campaign is led by a Real Change political committee called House Our Neighbors.
Continue reading Social Housing Concert at Neumos Rallies for I-135 Supportby Gennette Cordova
We all want less homelessness.
Some people believe that housing should be a basic human right. Others prefer that poverty in their city be out of their line of vision. Counter to narratives centered around addiction and mental illness often spun by The Seattle Times’ editorial board, the newspaper recently acknowledged that the cause of our city’s rampant homelessness is a lack of affordable housing. Rather than debating the morality of reasons rooted in compassion, the shamefulness of reasons based on aesthetics, or the virtue of rationale landing somewhere in between, we can build solutions based on the understanding that tackling homelessness will require us to do something about Seattle’s skyrocketing housing costs.
Continue reading OPINION | Everyone Wants Less Homelessness. Social Housing Offers a Viable Solution.by Erica C. Barnett
Later this year, Seattle voters could take a first step toward building a new kind of permanently affordable, mixed-income public housing known as “social housing.” The House Our Neighbors! Coalition — a project of the housing advocacy organization Real Change — is collecting signatures for Initiative 135 (I-135), which would create a new public development authority (PDA) to build and operate new housing; funding for the PDA would come later, through future State or local legislation.
Continue reading Just What Is Social Housing?
