Housing

612 Stories

Seattle's housing levy is back on the ballot

We have an election coming up in just a few weeks and Seattle’s housing levy is up for renewal. The measure promises to get 3100 new affordable homes built. Housing finance lawyer Faith Pettis is here to talk about what the levy will pay for and how the program has performed over the years.
Patricia Murphy

Jennie Cecil Moore
Bellevue leaders ‘not proud’ of delays to open parking lot for people living in vehicles

After months of delays, the city of Bellevue is still waiting to open its first parking lot for people living in cars and RVs. City leaders say no viable human services organization has applied to run the site.
Casey Martin
National

Los Angeles is using AI to predict who might become homeless and help before they do

L.A. is housing more people than ever, but an even greater number keep falling into homelessness. This first-of-its-kind prevention program calculates who seems most at risk for landing on the street.
Jennifer Ludden
King County needs 300k new homes

King County needs to build more housing. A lot more housing. The latest estimate from the state is 1.3 million new places to live by 2044. Seattle Times Real Estate reporter Heidi Groover says that number is going to require some serious problem solving, especially when it comes to affordable housing.
Patricia Murphy

Clare McGrane
Law & Courts

Washington Supreme Court says pandemic eviction ban was legal. Landlords beg to differ

In a 5-4 decision Thursday, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled that Gov. Jay Inslee did not exceed his emergency powers in his decision to extend the ban on evictions for 18 months during the Covid-19 pandemic. The court said the eviction moratorium helped keep 790,000 Washingtonians housed during the pandemic. Landlords say the high court decision has a devastating impact on their bottom line.
John O'Brien
She overdosed and no one noticed. Grim realities as Seattle rushes to expand homeless housing

Seattle nonprofits are ramping up the supply of affordable housing, meant to usher people out of homelessness. In their promotional videos, the new apartment buildings seem like beacons of progress. But staff and residents describe life inside some of these buildings as chaotic and dangerous. They want housing providers to take more steps to address threats to safety and wellbeing.
Amy Radil
Government

Burien passes public camping ban despite outcry from homeless advocates

After months of debate and multiple, contentious meetings, the Burien City Council on Monday night voted to ban people from sleeping in public places like parks. The new ordinance has raised controversy as there are no homeless shelters in the city for unhoused people to go to.
Casey Martin
28% of families in Washington state can't afford basic needs, UW study finds

About 10 percent of households in Washington state meet the federal poverty threshold, but when researchers drilled into the data on what it actually takes to survive in the state, they found the number of families struggling to make ends meet is much larger.
Monica Nickelsburg
King County's hotel shelters help address one crisis while potentially hiding another

Seattle and King County have been experimenting with using hotel rooms to house people rather than directing them to crowded homeless shelters. But some service providers fear the hotel rooms could be hiding another crisis: drug overdoses.
Kevin Kniestedt

Katie Campbell
Government

No, pickleball is not displacing unhoused people: Seattle RV lot provider

A 20 court pickleball facility is not pushing out a planned RV safe lot for unhoused people. In fact, getting displaced is the provider’s business model.
Joshua McNichols

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