Dear Mayor Woodards and Councilmembers:
Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America (TDSA) is in support of Ordinance 28648, amending the Multi-Family Housing Tax Exemption (MFTEs).
We are in support of the City staff’s recommended changes, particularly:
Adding an affordability requirement to the 8-year MFTE property tax exemption, where currently there is no such requirement. The affordability requirement would be that 20% of units built be rented at no more than 100% of the Pierce County Area Median Income (about $70,000/yr income).
Changing the 12-year MFTE affordability limit to 70% of Pierce County AMI from the current limit of 80% of AMI.
Ensuring that all projects using the MFTE adhere to Local Employment and Apprenticeship Training Program, and Equity in Contracting Guidelines, which is important for putting local residents to work to benefit from these projects.
Measures such as these are necessary steps toward fighting the current housing affordability crisis that we face in our region and city. With that said, the proposed changes in ORD 28648 are a “low-hanging fruit” solution, as Councilmember Ibsen noted during last Tuesday’s council meeting.
Unlike the time when MFTEs were first implemented, Tacoma is now a hot housing market, which is placing extreme upward pressure on the affordability of housing. If our goal is affordable housing as demonstrated through the City’s commitment to an Affordable Housing Action Strategy (AHAS), is the use of public funds to subsidize the private developers the most effective means to produce truly affordable housing? Developers have overwhelmingly chosen the more profitable 8-year incentive for market-rate housing, which does not currently have an affordability requirement. Absent the changes introduced through ORD 28648, the 8-year MFTE would continue to function predominantly as a give-away to luxury developers. While we support the proposed changes in ORD 28648, we also need deeper structural changes to achieve permanently affordable housing for all.
We have to prioritize affordability to fight displacement and work to solve homelessness to keep citizens in their homes.
Moving forward, we call the City of Tacoma to:
Create More Working Class Housing.
Mayor Woodards often states that we need housing access at every level. These code changes will eventually open more options for middle-income tenants, but what about housing options for fixed-income renters and minimum-wage workers? The People’s Policy Project (3P) report, “Social Housing in the United States” (pp 33 - 39; http://bit.ly/ppp-social-housing) illustrates a self-financing rental model that can serve a variety of low- to middle-income households. The “Local Initiatives” section on page 30 of this report also offers a number of considerations that the City could explore in funding equitable social housing developments. In the near term, local initiatives would likely need to forego federal aid, at least until the Faircloth Amendment, which restricts federal funds for increasing public housing stock, is repealed.
Pass Just Cause tenant protections.
Immediately pass tenant protections to keep more people in their homes, as recommended by the City’s Affordable Housing Action Strategy. An ordinance for Just Cause protections will prevent arbitrary terminations of tenancy. The City of Burien just did it. Why can’t Tacoma?
Support the statewide fight to lift the constitutional ban on Rent Control.
Rent Control is one of the most effective ways to keep people in their homes. The City of Tacoma should lobby in the next legislative session to repeal the ban.
