Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Chris Persons.
I'm the CEO of Capitol Hill Housing.
Welcome to 12th Avenue Arts and for the mayor signing of the historic MHA legislation adopted unanimously by council on Monday.
As Mayor Durkan said then, Seattle has taken a big step toward more affordable housing choices and a more affordable, welcoming city for all.
Before I go on, I do want to recognize Councilmember O'Brien.
Is he behind us right now?
Councilmember Mosqueda, who are with us also today.
As the developers and owners of 12th Avenue Arts, we at Capitol Hill Housing are proud of this project and the transformative impact it has had on the broader community.
The reason 12th Avenue Arts was selected as the location for this event is that the housing component of the project was funded in part by city incentive zoning funds, the precursor to MHA.
What is important to note is that what was built here is far more than 88 units of affordable housing.
We built community.
The mission of Capitol Hill Housing is not simply to build housing.
Our core purpose is to build vibrant and engaged communities.
Housing is not the end in itself.
It's a means to an end.
Vibrant, racially equitable, inclusive communities where individuals and families of all cultures, orientation, and national origin can thrive.
That is the ultimate goal.
As a community development and anti-displacement organization, we are very pleased and encouraged that under Mayor Durkan's leadership, policies like MHA and the recently enacted anti-displacement order, policies which build housing, build community, and fight displacement are moving forward.
And we are honored to be a part of this historic event today.
Mayor Durkan.
So thank you for that very warm welcome, Chris, and for your generosity in hosting us here.
Capitol Hill Housing has been such at the center of making Seattle a more affordable, more equitable place, and it's really great to be partners with you, so thank you for everything you're doing.
And 12th Avenue Arts is really such a prime example of what we can do together if we do build not just housing, but as he said, community, bringing people together, looking at mixed use and affordable housing, thinking the forward of what is it we need for artist space and affordable commercial space.
When I ran for mayor, making sure that we got MHA done was one of my most important goals, and I was very honored to work with council and to see this day through, so congratulations to all of you.
We are taking a big step forward.
Over the last two years, I have heard from so many people, whether it is low income, middle income, or the like, our firefighters, our nurses, our teachers, our small business owners, Seattle is becoming unaffordable.
People cannot afford to live here, and they are finding it hard to find a place to live.
Our workers are commuting longer and longer distances to get to their jobs.
We must stop this.
We have to take bold steps to reverse this trend so that Seattle, as it experiences this great growth in jobs, also is a place that makes sure that those jobs the neighborhoods and communities across this city are open to everyone, and that we make sure we do what we need to do to create a city that is welcoming, increases diversity, pays attention to racial diversity, focused and is centered on community.
And this is a big step forward for doing that.
If we want to be an equitable city, that city of the future and opportunity, we have to make sure that all people are not just welcome here, but can live here.
And this is why creating more affordable Seattle has really been at the focus of my work as mayor.
We're using every tool in the toolbox, and today we are getting a critical tool.
Over the past two years, we've done together, the city council and I, my office of housing is here, I want to acknowledge all the amazing work that they've been doing.
We have announced over $710 million.
on affordable housing projects just in the last two years.
Because of that, we are going to have more than 3,600 new affordable homes coming online for our low-income community members.
In January, I launched an affordable middle-income housing council to focus on how do we also bring more tools to the table to get more housing for middle-income people.
Last month, I signed an executive order on affordability and anti-displacement.
Because as Seattle has grown, we've seen a few things happen.
Number one, housing is rare and far too expensive.
Two, we have seen our communities of colors pushed out of our city, displaced more quickly than others.
And we've also seen that those people who work in Seattle can't afford to live in Seattle.
We need to change this, and this is really what's going to make progress for us today.
Together, using the mandatory housing affordability tool, we will make sure that we are building Seattle smart, that we get more density that not only advances our climate goals so that people can walk to where they work, bike to their work, or be close to transit, it also is going to make sure that as we build, we take advantage of that building to generate both projects in buildings so all people can live there, or funding so we can continue to have projects.
We know we have to build into the future.
And while this is not going to solve all of our problems, not having this tool would be a significant setback for the city of Seattle.
So I am looking forward to signing this bill.
I'm thrilled to do it.
And I will say that while I'm very fortunate to be able to sign this, I have to acknowledge the hard work of so many people for years that made this possible before I became mayor.
We in Seattle love our process.
And this took a lot of time and a lot of process.
I want to thank the so many community members who turned out at open houses across the city over the period of years.
I also want to thank the 28 committee members who were on the HALA committee.
the many, many focus groups that we did through the City of Seattle, and the many people who took time out from their lives to gather in their communities to talk about what they wanted our city to look like in the future.
We had thousands of people across this city participate in this process.
And we heard all kinds of opinions and we heard it in the council chambers today from people who were expressing concerns that it was too much too fast to other people saying it's a city I can't live in unless we change it.
So I am sharing today's moment with several of the key individuals who helped get us here.
I want to let you hear from Rob Johnson who I am sad to say announced that he'll be leaving the council because his leadership, not just on housing and affordability, but on transit and how we build a community that is just and equitable, has been really, I think, one of those things in the city of Seattle needed, and he was the leader who stepped up at the right time.
He put his heart and soul in this.
When I talk about the hundreds of focus groups and meetings, I think you were probably in all of them.
and kept good humor and optimism throughout it.
So for a moment now, I'd like to turn it over to Rob Johnson, who has some things to say about this process.
That's why I asked for so many pens.
There's a whole bag up here just of pens for me.
Because we had, you know, probably about a dozen people at City Hall who've been working on this nonstop for the last four years.
But, you know, I'm so grateful to be here today.
As I was walking down here from the light rail station, I happened to walk past a car that had a bumper sticker on it that said, today is the day.
And, guys, today is the day.
It's been four long years since mandatory housing affordability was first proposed when the ballots dropped in the August primary election of 2015. And during that time, my days have been filled with discussing about how we can build more affordable housing all throughout the city.
Our cities continue to grow, our housing crisis has continued to persist, and that has to do with the growth in the city.
Over the last decade, we've grown from 608,000 people to more than 730,000 people, a more than 20% increase.
And we know that we're not done.
The city's going to continue to grow over the next 25 years.
We expect to add about another 33% of our population in the region, and the lion's share of that is going to continue to be focused on the city of Seattle.
Monday, my council colleagues acknowledged that effectively planning for that growth means we need to find more space to welcome more neighbors here in the city of Seattle.
We have to harness that growth to create more opportunities for people bearing the burden of that change.
And MHA is a vision that I think will help us really realize the creation of more housing-rich neighborhoods throughout the city.
We know the policy can work.
In the six neighborhoods where we've adopted MHA already, we've received $13 million worth of funding for affordable housing for those folks who desperately need it.
With it now being implemented in another 27 neighborhoods, we are halfway towards our goal of creating 6,000 units of affordable housing over the next 10 years.
So I'm just so grateful to probably the 6,000 or so people who deserve a pen for today's bill signing.
A big thank you to Mayor Burgess who submitted the legislation to us in November of 2017. And a big thank you to Mayor Durkin for all of her work over the last two years to help us get this bill to the point that we're at today.
A big thank you to all of my friends who are here and many more who couldn't be here who helped get this thing across the finish line.
And I'm so proud that today is the day.
Thanks.
So we also, I think one of the really important things that we've learned over the last four years is we, to take the bold steps we need to take in this city, it can't be government doing it.
We have to have a community base and we have to have partnerships.
And so today I am really pleased to also share this moment with Faith Pettis.
She's been a longtime champion of affordable housing and was the co-chair of the HALA committee.
And Marta Kunstra, who is also on behalf of the city of Seattle, worked with her.
So they have some words to say.
I think they were also in those gyms and community rooms and conference rooms and have been working together to see, how do we bring ourselves together to get to the shared goal and vision we have of a city that actually can house the people who work here, want to live here, and their families ongoing?
And how do we get growth to pay for growth?
So the microphone is yours.
So five or so years ago, I agreed to co-chair the HALA.
I knew there was a housing crisis going on, and it was clear to me that our usual interventions were not sufficient.
We needed something that was a real response that addressed the magnitude of the challenge, and that would require something different.
And I went into that process believing that it required everybody in Seattle participating, not just government.
It wasn't just a non-profit problem.
It needed business.
It needed labor.
It needed institutions.
It needed taxpayers.
It needed property owners.
It needed the government.
But it needed all of us to participate in the solution to actually craft something that would be effective to move the needle.
I am so thrilled that we have MHA today.
To me, it does two fundamentally important things.
First, it takes the growth that is already happening around this city and harnesses it.
People use that word, and I was looking for another word that expressed how I felt about it.
It yokes it.
It attaches it to affordability.
That growth is already happening, but now it has to happen with affordability.
Whether a developer takes advantage of increased height or density, they have to pay or perform.
And they have to provide affordable homes to our housing stock in the city.
That's huge.
So important.
The second thing that I'm even more excited about is that we're actually cracking open that door to our neighborhoods to allow more people to live in our wonderful neighborhoods in Seattle.
I grew up in one.
More people should have that opportunity.
There's a wonderful study, there's lots of studies out there that talk about where a child grows up impacts their future in life.
And now we're allowing more kids in our city that same opportunity.
It's a down payment on a province of opportunity for children in our city.
I so appreciate the hard work and the staying power of city council and our mayor to bring this to fruition and I'm excited as I hope all of you are.
Thank you very much.
Good morning.
This is truly a remarkable day in the history of Seattle, and especially with respect to the work of the Housing Development Consortium, which has poured innumerable resources into getting this tool in place in Seattle over many, many years.
Change is hard.
We fear it and we fight it.
But today, we are also living in unprecedented times.
Right now, we need 156,000 affordable homes in King County.
It's a lot of work that needs to be done.
Every city is going to need to do its part.
And now, Seattle will show the rest of the cities in King County we are stepping up.
Whether we like it or not, the gravitational pull of the market is always going to make it increasingly imperative that we find tools like this to create and produce more homes that are affordable for households, whose income, unfortunately, is insufficient, even though they are the backbone of our city.
MHA, the twists, the turns of designing a program that will not discourage development, will not foster displacement, is legally palatable And most of all, produce 6300 homes in the next ten years has really been no small feat.
All of the snares were always lurking.
There's been much written about and conjectured even about the grand bargain over the last five years.
And while MHA is really a byproduct, The real impact in my mind is a demonstration of what can happen in a city when no one gets to declare they were the winner.
Acrimony was replaced with risk and with trust.
And it was not trust for agreement or trust for acceptance.
It was trust for accomplishment.
There's so many people I want to thank, but I want to also acknowledge the members of HDC who provided so many years of financial support, the staff, the board, and I also want to acknowledge the steering committee and the members of a group called Seattle for Everyone, who faithfully met since 2016 every other Friday morning at 8 a.m.
until today.
Thank you all for what you have accomplished, and this is truly a big day.
Thank you.
And it's not possible to acknowledge everybody who contributed to this in the long term.
Pause for a moment and think of that.
Four and a half years, a consortium of nonprofits, housing advocates, business, community, labor, and government coming together and sticking together.
And even with that, took this period of time to get it done.
And I think what it is important to remind us that we can do it.
when we put our mind to it, when we agree to go in those rooms week after week after week and talk to each other and listen to each other.
But we also know that this is not the end.
It is a beginning.
We have got to continue, even after this, to be working on housing affordability to make sure that this city is one where people can afford to live.
We have a tax exemption for multi-family tax exemption program that's key to us building affordable housing that is expiring.
We need to renew it.
We have to keep investing in our housing levy, and we have to work with our state, regional, and federal partners so they step up to start to address this.
We have bills pending in Olympia right now that will give us critical needed tools to address this crisis that is a crisis not just in Seattle, but across our region, and if you look across America and Virginia cities.
So together, we have to continue working.
If we do it, we'll have great days like today.
Today is the day.
And now, should we sign it today or another day?
I guess we'll do it today.
We have a president who's going to speak.
Oh, good.
I didn't know that.
Perfect.
Hi.
Jenny.
I'm Albert.
Albert, how are you?
Good.
You forgot about me.
No, I didn't forget.
I didn't write your name.
I apologize.
You're most important.
Can I just quickly...
And you can sign too.
So just real briefly, it was certainly an honor to be asked to introduce Mayor Durkin this morning, but it's equally an honor to be able to introduce one of our residents, Albert Zacharenko, and 75% of his family were original residents of 12th Avenue Arts, moving here in 2014, and having faced high rents and displacement in the community.
So I'm happy to introduce Albert to say a few words.
Albert, thank you.
Well, I was asked to talk because I'm a good example how it works.
First of all, a few words about my family.
I'm Russian, I was born in the Soviet Union, came to the United States in 1991, came to Seattle in 1999, and living on Capitol Hill since 2006. My wife is Korean.
She came later.
She's a fashion designer.
She's trying to create her own brand and making kids clothes.
I'm a medical interpreter.
Also, I'm a soccer referee.
So we are freelancers.
We're people who would not be living here without this organization.
And it's very important to understand that we are creating this atmosphere here.
We have a lot of artists in this building, a lot of musicians, a lot of writers.
And all of these people would not be living in this area.
And the very reason this area is so interesting and so attractive, these people.
So it's very important to understand that without us, we would not have Capitol Hill.
And without Capitol Hill Housing, we would not have Capitol Hill, too.
So, and a good example of prices.
I move in in a small studio in 2006. It cost $600.
Then we, I married, got a child.
We move into one bedroom, not far from here.
We started with $1,300 in 2012, and in two years it became $1,800.
So we started to think about moving out and got very lucky because at that time this building was finished.
And I didn't know about this program, but my sister was working for a non-profit, and that's how I find out about this.
We moved in, and my second daughter was born here.
It was the first child to be born in this building.
I think what's happening today is creating more opportunities for people like us, and also making Seattle a better place to live.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
And now, should I sign it?
Yes, please.
All right.
After many years and much hard work, the first part of it is now law.
And because no law is simple, it's actually in three parts.
Now more work begins.
Any questions for, and it may be directed to others up here as well.
Mayor, are you concerned that this legislation would discourage growth or development by having developers go to the suburbs where they don't have regulations or mandatory laws providing money to affordable housing?
Now, I think the beauty of this is developers were at the table and talked about what they thought they needed to make projects go forward and be successful.
So it was carefully crafted among all people.
The other thing, as we know, is right now we've got limited real estate in Seattle.
And Seattle is still one of the fastest growing cities anywhere in the country.
People want to build here.
They want to move here.
And I think this is harnessing, as Faith said, That natural growth we're going to have and make sure that that growth works for more people more fairly.
All right, congratulations.