Bob’s Political Opinions

Affordable Housing

A major problem in Seattle and surrounding communities is lack of affordable housing.

Over the past few years, housing prices in the Seattle area have been increasing at one of the fastest rates in the United States. More and more homeowners are unable to pay their mortgage payments and taxes, and are forced to sell or go into foreclosure. Fewer and fewer people can buy a house because the prices of homes keep going up. More and more renters are no longer able to pay their increasing rents and are forced to move, often out of the Seattle area, or find themselves homeless.

We desperately need more lower-rent apartments and houses that lower income people can afford to live in.

I think one possibility to fund low-income housing would be a tax on rents — a small tax based upon the rents collected by landlords, and this revenue would go to the Seattle Housing Authority to help pay for affordable housing. One advantage of a rental tax would be that the higher the rent, the more tax money collected.

Also, if a graduated income tax can be developed by the State of Washington, a portion of this tax could go for affordable housing.

©2018 Robert M. Fleming Jr.

This page was last updated on 16 June 2018.

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