This is an excerpt of an article posted on the Office of Housing blog.
In One Seattle, every person deserves to have a safe and affordable place to call home – this is critical to our efforts to create a safe, welcoming, and thriving Seattle of the future. Now more than ever, we must advance bold action to address the housing affordability and homelessness crises by helping people move indoors with access to services and preventing homelessness in the first place.
We’ve seen the need to invest in and build affordable housing options faster and more efficiently. Affordable housing is a priority for the City of Seattle because we understand housing is the foundation for individual and community health, safety, and economic stability. Solving the housing affordability issues in our city requires a multi-pronged effort, a diverse array of solutions that match the scale of the challenge in front of us.
This new proposed legislation developed by the Office of Housing, with coordination and support from the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspection (SDCI), is an important step to making permitting of low-income housing as predictable and efficient as possible. It is referred to as an “omnibus” bill, meaning it clarifies regulations to be consistent with the City Council’s original intent, provides consistency and predictability for permit applicants, repeals obsolete terms and provisions no longer relevant to permit review, corrects inadvertent clerical errors and incorrect cross-references, and clarifies existing Code language. In addition, certain amendments will help streamline permitting by ensuring the design review exemption and flexibility in the application of certain development standards applies to all rather than just a share of publicly funded housing for low-income individuals and families.
Read more about this legislation on the Office of Housing’s blog.