Talks to reduce Seattle’s Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) fee have fallen through after proposals to cut the fee by 80% to encourage new construction were rejected by low-income housing developers who feared reduced revenue.
Since 2010, the MHA has brought in roughly $350 million and funded about 5,000 affordable homes. The MHA was put in place during Seattle’s tech boom to address housing affordability by requiring developers to either dedicate a portion of their units to affordable housing or pay a per-square-foot fee.
Jake Skorheim and Spike O’Neill, co-hosts of “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio, noted that the tech boom is now over and that developers wish to adjust to the market rather than work through outdated requirements. Further stating that cutting out excessive fees would make building cheaper, thus adding more housing, and eventually lowering the cost of everything around it…