SEATTLE — In one of her last acts as Seattle’s mayor, Jenny Durkan announced a nearly $100 million investment in affordable housing. The specific number is $95,660,000 and will go to both construct new apartment buildings and rehabilitate others, for a total of over 1,000 new apartment homes.
“How do we assure there is affordable housing in every part of our city,” asked Durkan at a morning presentation at the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in the Central District. New Hope is partnering with the city in one of the projects which will create 87 new apartment units.
Under the city’s guidelines, a single person earning $24,300 a year could rent a studio apartment for as little as $607 dollars a month. That $24,000 figure is 30% of what’s known as the Area Median Income.
Much of the money comes from the Seattle Housing Levy passed in 2017. That, along with housing affordability fees charged on new construction, along with federal money, totals $2.5 billion spent on affordable housing in recent years, according to the city.