SEATTLE—March 26, 2003—About a dozen people, including Seattle Senior Housing Program residents, City of Seattle officials, real estate experts and low-income housing developers and activists have been meeting regularly since early February to help Seattle Housing Authority design a new rent policy for SSHP.
Today, about 86 percent of SSHP's 993 apartments are housing people with incomes below 30 percent of the area median income ($16,350 for a one-person household). SSHP tenants are charged 30 percent of their monthly income for rent.
This amount is often considerably lower than the cost to SHA of operating and maintaining the apartment. In most other low-income housing programs, subsidy is available to cover this gap. SSHP has no dedicated sources of outside subsidy, so it must meet all its expenses from rent revenues.
According to SHA Deputy Director and Committee Chair Al Levine, "We hope to identify solutions that will solve SSHP’s long-term revenue needs in a way that also serves a large proportion of extremely low-income seniors. We would like to see at least 75 percent of the units continue to serve this group of tenants."
Members of the Rent Structure Advisory Committee include SSHP residents and representatives from the City’s Office of Housing and Human Services Division, the Seattle Displacement Coalition, the Northwest Justice Project and the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle and King County. Two SHA Commissioners—Marie Cook and Al Winston, Jr.—also serve.
The Committee is evaluating a variety of options, including a tiered rent structure that would price apartments within various affordability ranges. For example, an apartment with rent of $250 would be reserved for people earning less than 20 percent of median income. A different apartment would be rented for $350 and would be reserved for applicants with incomes up to 30 percent of median income.
Other issues that the Committee is considering include: the use of Housing Choice Vouchers in SSHP, the performance and marketability of SSHP buildings and units, and adjustments in management and maintenance that will reduce operating costs and allow rents to be kept low.
The Committee is expected to issue its recommendation by the end of April. In May, SHA will hold a series of public meetings in SSHP buildings around Seattle to inform SSHP residents and others about the recommendation and solicit their comments.
The Board of Commissioners is scheduled to adopt a new rent policy in June along with SHA's Fiscal Year 2004 budget. The new policy would go into effect by October 1, 2003. Meanwhile, the minimum rent for new residents remains at $210.