Rainier Vista is one of several affordable housing units in Southeast Seattle. However, the idea that the section of the city is a dumping ground for low-income housing is a myth. (Photo: Seattle Housing Authority)
By Carolee Colter and John V. Fox
Seattle Displacement Coalition
Over the years we’ve heard some neighborhood activists claim that Southeast Seattle has “become the dumping ground” for the city’s social services and low-income housing. They allege this has something to do with the greater incidence of poverty there than elsewhere in the city. Crime, they say, is the inevitable result. Stop giving us more than our share, they say.
We’ve also heard fears that because of these services and housing, Southeast Seattle has become a “magnet” attracting poor people from out of state to congregate in this community seeking all these great programs. Some of this sentiment fueled opposition to Casa Latina’s ill-fated plan to relocate to North Rainier, as well as resistance to the Downtown Emergency Service Center’s successful homeless housing project in Columbia City. And we fear it may fuel opposition to the new housing levy on the fall ballot.
As neighborhood activists ourselves, we certainly understand such concerns. But the facts show that Southeast Seattle has not been a recipient of an “unfair share” of low income housing nor would it be accurate to call such development a social burden
We requested, and were able to secure, a small sum in the 2007 city budget for a study on the need for low-income housing in Seattle. Among other things, that study looked at the distribution of subsidized units around town. These are so-called “hard units,” actually constructed to serve as low-income housing, as opposed to “soft units” in the form of vouchers that tenants take wherever they can find an affordable rental.
Of the 20,000 subsidized hard units in the city, 50% are located in the "Center City," i.e. downtown, Capitol Hill and Pike-Pine. Only 16% of the total are located in Southeast Seattle. This is hardly a disproportionate amount. Also note that only about 11% of all housing in Southeast Seattle is subsidized compared to 26% in the Center City.
On the other hand, it would be accurate to say there is an over-concentration of Section 8 vouchered low-income households living in otherwise unsubsidized privately owned rentals in Southeast Seattle. But this problem is unrelated to the production of subsidized housing built in Southeast Seattle, and unrelated to the levy since few levy dollars will go to subsidize tenants’ rents.
The over-concentration of households with Section 8 vouchers in Southeast Seattle is due principally to two related factors. First, eligible households have a very hard time finding a unit north of the Ship Canal because rents there on average are much higher while vacancy rates on the few affordable rentals are lower. Consequently, they take their vouchers to West Seattle and Southeast Seattle in greater numbers.
Secondly, Seattle Housing Authority, the distributor of Section 8 vouchers, sets the payment standard too low. This is the threshold above which tenants with vouchers are forced to pay the difference between 30% of their income and the rent on the unit. The only place with a significant supply of rental units priced at or below the payment standard is Southeast Seattle.
Despite the concentration of vouchered low-income households and the relatively small (and declining) number of subsidized “hard” units in Southeast Seattle, these programs simply allow longtime low-income residents, including families, the elderly and people of color who already live there, to remain in their own neighborhood. Moreover, these programs only replace a portion of the affordable units being lost to demolition, conversion, speculative sale, increased rents--i.e. the forces of gentrification.
This resulting over-concentration of low-income households with vouchers in the Southeast Seattle is not addressed by opposing the housing levy. Instead it will be solved by going directly to SHA and holding them responsible for how they run the Section 8 voucher program, and by demanding that our city government do more to expand opportunities in the north end and to hold SHA accountable.
And we strenuously disagree with those who subscribe to the "magnet" theory--that the disenfranchised are flocking here from other parts of the country to take advantage of our generosity. Every survey (and there have been many over the years) shows that the vast majority of the poor are "us" - people born and raised in our own city/county and secondarily from our own state. Only a fraction come from out-of-state. But even if they did, why stigmatize the victims of recession and a failed economy?
In fact, without the housing levy to generate more homes for the poorest of the poor, there’s likely to be more homelessness right in our neighborhoods, including Southeast Seattle. More folks camping out in greenbelts and sitting on sidewalks in front of neighborhood shops and businesses.
Until we generate the critical mass to give neighborhoods more power over development, and secure city-wide land use and housing laws that more responsibly manage growth to prevent runaway gentrification and displacement, and until we require corporate developers to foot the bill to replace the existing housing they remove rather than taxpayers—until we achieve all that, the housing levy is one of the only tools we’ve got to reduce homelessness and ensure equal opportunity for housing in all neighborhoods.
(reprinted from current issue of Capitol Hill Times and other Pacific Publishing Neighborhood Newspapers)
Pacific Publishing's neighborhood newspapers may be accessed here: http://southseattlebeacon.com /
This column and any of our past columns may be accessed on the Seattle Displacement Coalition's website: http://www.zipcon.net/~jvf4119/
