Office of Housing reports racial equity progress, highlights workforce stabilization gains

The Office of Housing on Jan. 8 briefed the Seattle City Council Housing and Human Services Committee on its 2024 Race and Social Justice Initiative work, presenting data on housing disparities, investments in community-led developments and early results from a permanent supportive housing workforce stabilization program.

Deputy Director Andrea Kieta and analyst Nathan Antonio described how structural racism shows up in homelessness and housing cost burden and enumerated policy changes, investments and pilot programs intended to reduce disparities and stabilize operations for providers of affordable housing.

Why it matters: OH cited King County point-in-time data showing racial disparities among people experiencing homelessness (the department reported that 19% of people counted identified as Black or African American while that group is about 6% of the county population; Native American representation in the count was 7% vs. roughly 1% of the county population). OH also presented data showing lower homeownership rates and higher housing cost burden for many communities of color in Seattle; staff argued targeted investments and policy changes are needed to address those gaps.

Key investments and community-led projects: OH said it committed about $210 million over seven years to create more than 2,000 affordable rental homes across the city, and highlighted projects led or partnered with community organizations including El Centro de la Raza, AfricaTown Community Land Trust, Seattle Chinatown International District PDA, First AME Housing Association, the Filipino Community of Seattle, Ethiopian Community of Seattle and Chief Seattle Club (noting Chief Seattle Club projects All and Sacred Medicine House, which provide culturally informed supportive housing).

Homeownership and program changes: OH described a partnership with Habitat for Humanity and African Community Housing Development (ACHD) to develop 65 permanently affordable for-sale homes at Rainier Valley Affordable Housing Initiative (RVAI) sites with a $6.7 million OH investment. The department also described changes to its housing funding policies: expanded language to prioritize organizations led by people of color, strengthened fair housing priorities, a geographic distribution emphasis, increased flexibility in homeownership assistance (including an exception to the first-time homebuyer requirement for owners of resale-restricted homes) and raising the income ceiling for home repair grants to 80% AMI.

Resident services and data improvements: OH acknowledged a need to improve reporting and tracking in the resident services program so the city and providers can better understand who benefits from services. The department said it conducted a racial equity toolkit (RET) and plans ongoing collaboration with providers to strengthen data collection and performance reporting over the life of the program.

Workforce stabilization results: OH cited early results from its permanent supportive housing (PSH) workforce stabilization investments. OH staff said the PSH workforce among supported organizations is majority people of color (about 60%) and predominantly female. The department reported an observed average hourly wage increase of roughly $4.60 (about 17%) across supported staff in 2023; it also reported a drop in average openings rates among supported organizations from about 23% to 12% during 2023 while those organizations were simultaneously adding positions.

Committee requests and follow up: Council members asked for the presentation materials and additional data disaggregated by race and age (including student homelessness trends and household-level age breakdowns). OH committed to providing the slides and follow-up data and to return with deeper analysis on program impacts and implementation.

Ending: OH described the workforce stabilization findings as promising early signals and said staff will continue to monitor trends and work with provider partners to refine programs and reporting.