Can Thurston County learn from Seattle’s social housing? 

What can Thurston County learn from Seattle’s efforts to make housing more affordable? 

That question brought a packed room of community members to Harbor House in Olympia on Oct. 8, where Thurston Housing Land Trust (THLT) hosted Lilly Ana Fowler from the Seattle Social Housing Developer (SSHD).

We had a lively conversation about new approaches to housing affordability and what might translate to Thurston County from Seattle. 

Seattle’s social housing program is relatively new, but the ideas behind it aren’t. Social housing refers to a variety of types of housing models where the homes are removed from the speculative real estate market and owned by governments, nonprofits, renters and/or homeowners, etc.

Cities around the world, such as Vienna, Austria, have long used different forms of social housing to keep homes under community control and permanently affordable. 

Seattle is now putting its own version into practice, and there are lessons worth bringing home. 

A new way to fund affordable housing 

In 2023, Seattle voters passed I-135, which created SSHD to acquire, develop, and maintain permanently affordable rental housing.

Two years later, voters approved a dedicated tax on businesses paying individual employees more than $1 million annually.

Because of Seattle’s wealth, SSHD’s tax brought in far more revenue this year than expected. That new revenue stream is what makes Seattle’s approach particularly interesting. 

Finding the money to build or acquire affordable housing is challenging enough. Maintaining those homes and keeping them affordable over decades requires ongoing resources that many housing organizations struggle to secure. 

Seattle’s model combines dedicated public funding with a mixed-income approach, where higher-income residents help support lower rents for their neighbors.

SSHD is trying to accommodate renters across the income spectrum from less than 30 percent and up to 120 percent of area median income (AMI).

Importantly, residents of different income brackets all have equally high-quality homes and building amenities. In other words, higher-income residents pay more than a lower-income resident for the same apartment.

According to Lilly Ana of SSHD, residents value living in mixed income buildings and supporting this social housing model. 

SSHD’s  first apartment building is near Pike Place Market and it just purchased a second building at the end of October. SSHF intends to keep expanding, including by starting new construction projects soon.

Lilly Ana made clear that SSHD on its own cannot solve Seattle’s housing issues. But it can make an important difference by providing hundreds or thousands of housing units to low-to-moderate income Seattleites. 

It’s an ambitious experiment, and one that recognizes that long-term affordability requires long-term financial solutions. 

What could work here? 

Thurston County doesn’t have Seattle’s tax base, and SSHD’s exact approach may not be practical here. But the bigger lesson isn’t about replicating Seattle’s model. It’s about being willing to create new tools to address old challenges. 

That’s particularly relevant to affordable homeownership. 

Our organization, THLT, uses a different form of social housing. Families purchase their homes while the land trust retains ownership of the land. By removing the cost of the land from the sale, in addition to other measures we take, THLT and other community land trusts help preserve affordability for future buyers. 

But creating those opportunities takes land, funding and partnerships. One of THLT’s biggest challenges is finding and acquiring buildable sites where affordable homes can become a reality. 

Seattle’s experience raises questions worth exploring locally.

Could new partnerships with public agencies or private landowners make more land available?

Could creative financing help organizations acquire properties before they’re priced out of reach?

What other ideas could we borrow from communities around the country or the world? 

We may not have Seattle’s resources, but we can learn from its willingness to think differently. 

That’s why THLT hosts community conversations like this one. By bringing together residents, housing professionals, and local leaders, we can look beyond our own borders for ideas that might work here.

The goal isn’t simply to learn about innovative housing models. It’s to find practical ways to create more opportunities for our neighbors to own a home. 

Do you know of land that could support affordable homeownership?

Are you interested in partnering to create new housing opportunities?

Thurston Housing Land Trust welcomes those conversations. 

You can also support THLT during Give Local South Puget Sound, Nov. 9–20. Donations help this small, growing organization expand its work and pursue new opportunities for affordable homeownership. 

To reach Give Local, click here.

To learn more, join THLT’s annual meeting on Dec. 5 from 10 a.m. to noon, at United Churches, 110 11th Ave. SE, Olympia 

Follow us on social media and join our mailing list. We welcome your ideas for our 2027 Incubator community conversations. 

 Krosbie Carter and Max Lambert are members of Thurston Housing Land Trust Board of Trustees.