Two years after Seattle voters created the nation’s first social housing developer through a citizen initiative (I-135), the movement is reaching crucial milestones as it prepares for its first major acquisition early next year.
Social housing is a form of permanently affordable, publicly owned housing that is available to people of all incomes. Successful models of social housing can be seen around the world, from Vienna to Singapore.
In Seattle, social housing is being supported by two coordinated but independent organizations: House Our Neighbors, which operates as both a 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on advocacy and education, and the Seattle Social Housing Developer (SSHD), a Public Development Authority (PDA) focused on acquiring and developing properties.
House Our Neighbors has been leading the charge for social housing across the region. Most recently, it spearheaded the successful Initiative 137, which passed in February with 63% of the vote. This payroll tax on employers with high earners is expected to generate $50 to $65 million annually for the Social Housing Developer—exceeding initial projections.
On September 18th, supporters gathered at the Centilia Cultural Center in Beacon Hill to celebrate the launch of House Our Neighbors’ new Social Housing Activator Membership Program—a community-driven fundraising initiative designed to support the organization’s ongoing advocacy and education efforts.
At the launch, co-Executive Director Tiffani McCoy highlighted the policy challenges ahead.
“Social housing is still not allowed all over the city,” she said. “The City still has exclusionary land use policies. We need to make sure the city is open to anti-displacement strategies that work and will be pushing a bill at the state legislature this upcoming year.”
This anti-displacement focus resonates strongly in neighborhoods like the Chinatown-International District (CID), where rising costs and development pressures have threatened longtime residents and cultural institutions.
“Social housing will be very important to future growth of the CID, to bring more land into permanent public ownership and to make more units that working class people in the CID can afford—both strategies we need to stop displacement,” said Chrissy Shimizu, Executive Director for Puget Sound Sage.
Since Initiative 137’s passage, the Seattle Social Housing Developer has been building its organizational capacity while awaiting its first revenue stream. Roberto Jimenez, who has served as SSHD’s CEO and sole employee for just over a year, expects the organization to receive its first payment in early 2026.
“We are still waiting on the revenue from I-137 from the City of Seattle. That revenue is scheduled to start flowing in Q1 of 2026,” Jimenez explained. “All the work [we have done so far] has been around governance and systems, and we have a strategic plan that was adopted unanimously by the Board in May.”
The funding mechanism has faced some implementation delays as the city established new collection systems and software infrastructure. City officials are currently filtering through company data to determine which businesses actually operate within Seattle’s boundaries, with final revenue projections expected in mid-October.
The Mayor’s office characterized the situation differently.
“There have been no delays,” says Callie Craighead, Press Secretary for Mayor Harrell. “The initial tranche of funds generated by the increase to the Payroll Expense Tax is not due until January 2026, hence the City providing the PDA with a $2 million loan to ensure they did not have to lay off staff or make other difficult financial decisions in the interim period.”
According to the initiative, which was incorporated into the Seattle Municipal Code after passage, “The tax imposed by this Chapter shall take effect as of January 1, 2025, and shall be due and payable in quarterly installments in accordance with Section 5.55.040.”
Regardless, SSHD is actively pursuing its first property acquisitions. The organization has set a strategic goal to have a project under contract by the end of this year and close on a property in the first or second quarter of 2026. SSHD is currently analyzing two promising opportunities.
The organization has strengthened its leadership structure by welcoming new board members alongside committed founding members—what Jimenez describes as “a healthy mix” of experience and fresh perspectives. The 13-member board currently has two vacancies from the Seattle Renters’ Commission, but as Board Chair Tom Barnard noted, “the numerical quantity hasn’t stopped us from moving ahead.”
Barnard has seen both the property development and legislative advocacy as part of SSHD’s growing influence.
“Even if we don’t have a single building yet, we’re having an intellectual impact beyond our current size,” he reflected. “There’s growing interest in social housing regions-wide. We’ve got candidates in both Renton and Tukwila who are openly promoting it and the King County Council has also shown support.”
Jimenez acknowledged public expectations for faster progress but emphasized the importance of building a solid foundation.
“A lot of people are expecting it to move faster, but we have to build an organization and we have to have the revenue,” he said. “It’s essentially a startup. Moving too fast presents more risk. The timeline has been the right timeline that has allowed us to get the systems in place and do the strategic and financial planning.”
As Seattle’s social housing developer prepares to transition into acquisition, the city approaches a pivotal moment in its housing experiment. With the first properties potentially under contract within three months and revenue flowing by early 2026, the movement that began with grassroots organizing is preparing to prove whether citizen-initiated social housing can work at scale.
“I feel like we’re really getting to a good place,” Jimenez reflected. “Things have been moving the right way.”
Evelyn is a writer and community organizer based on Coast Salish lands. Evelyn has 8 years of experience in government and currently works for King County. In their free time, Evelyn can be found singing karaoke and watching anime.
